EMBASSY KNEW OF ASSASSINATION

Documents Reveal Details of Casimiro's Murder

Embassy Called Him a "Die-Hard,"

Special to The Narco News Bulletin

Publisher's Note: Last December 6th, we arrived in Bolivia within hours of
the assassination of coca growers union leader Casimiro Huanca. As we went
to his town of Chimore in the Chapare region of the Amazon to investigate
the crime, interview eyewitnesses and take photographic evidence, Bolivian
government officials were lying to the press and the international
community about what had occurred.

Our White Paper on the Assassination of Casimiro Huanca (Narco News,
December 19, 2001) demonstrated, with evidence, that Casimiro was unarmed
when he was shot in cold blood, in front of witnesses, by military
"anti-drug" troops as he was leading a peaceful protest.

Four months later, his uniformed assassins have not been arrested nor
prosecuted.

But this week, Narco News obtained a U.S. government document - a cable
sent from the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia to U.S. officials in Washington,
Miami and four Embassies in South America - authored last December. The
memo reveals that U.S. officials knew all along that the Bolivian
government was lying, but the U.S. Embassy remained silent about what it knew.

A memo sent by the United States Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, to Secretary
of State Colin Powell and other officials in Washington last December
reveals that U.S. officials knew that the December 6, 2001 assassination of
coca growers' union leader Casimiro Huanca had been committed by Bolivian
government security forces.

The document, obtained by Narco News, further shows that U.S. officials
knew that members of the Bolivian military had been dishonest about the
events that led to Huanca's assassination.

"The military members admitted firing but stated categorically that they
fired into the ground as they are instructed to do. One admitted firing
into the air as a means of attempting to control the crowd," wrote an
Embassy official who signed the communique only with the cryptic name of
"Duddy."

The official noted, "The wound received by Huanca appeared to be from a
large caliber weapon, producing a large entry and exit." In other words,
the shot had to have been fired at close range, in contradiction of the
claims of the uniformed assassins.

However, even as U.S. officials knew the real facts, they remained silent
as Bolivian officials lied to the press and public last December about what
had transpired in the town of Chimore on December 6th.

The official document confirms the key finding of the Narco News White
Paper on the Assassination of Casimiro Huanca (Narco News, December 19,
2001): that the military "anti-drug" forces killed Huanca.

Narco News had arrived in the region within hours of the assassination and
conducted an extensive investigation, including eyewitness testimony and
photographic evidence.

The existence of this official cable also suggests that the U.S. Embassy in
Bolivia, headed by Ambassador Manuel Rocha, may have violated its duties
under the Leahy Amendment of U.S. law to inform Congress of abuses by
military and police forces in anti-narcotics activities in Bolivia.

The official cable's language also reveals that U.S. officials saw the
atrocity only through a political lens and without regard to the human
rights policies established by Congress, or the human cost of Casimiro's
murder.

"This is a particularly regrettable incident at this time," wrote the
official known as Duddy. "The key question," wrote the Embassy official,
was not that Huanca, an unarmed union leader whose assassination left a
widow and three children, had been shot in cold blood by military soldiers.
According to the official of the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, rather, "the key
question" was the potential for political consequences of the assassination
in the Chapare region of the Bolivian Amazon, and whether the atrocity
would cause the coca growers' movement - referred to in the memo as
"cocaleros" - led by Congressman Evo Morales to, as a result, "regain some
of the momentum they have lost."

"Casimiro Huanca," wrote the U.S. Embassy official, "was considered a
die-hard cocalero in Evo Morales camp."

"The Chapare had been, since November 21," wrote the Embassy official,
"relatively quiet and Morales forces had been unable to regain any
initiative. Now, a strong Morales supporter has been killed, apparently by
the military. Whether the cocaleros will take advantage of this incident
and regain some of the momentum they have lost is the key question."

The document, dated 2001, does not have a specific date, but by definition
would have had to have been sent between December 6 and 31 of last year.
The document number is: 2001LAPAZO4988. It was sent to the U.S. Secretary
of State, the National Security Council, the U.S. Embassies in Colombia,
Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
headquarters in Washington and other U.S. agencies, including the State
Department's Air Wing at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.

Lies and More Lies

Although the Embassy cable disclosed doubts about the Bolivian military
claims of having fired from a distance, it repeated disinformation that, at
the time, the Bolivian government had been promoting.

The full document is now available online:

http://63.104.237.168/Huanca/index.htm

Although the Narco News White Paper on the Assassination of Casimiro Huanca
established, with testimony from eyewitnesses and local officials,
including the mayor of Chimore, that farmers had staged a peaceful protest
on the side of the road, the Embassy cable repeated unsubstantiated claims
by Bolivian officials that the farmers had been blocking the road.

"On December 6, at approximately 15:45, two campesinos were shot during a
skirmish with counternarcotics security forces that were trying to remove a
blockade of bananas and pineapples from the main road in Chimore," wrote
the Embassy official. "A group of campesinos belonging to the Chimore
Federation attempted to block the main road in Chimore (the
Cochabamba/Santa Cruz Highway) using hundreds of stalks of bananas and
thousands of loose pineapples as material for a blockade."

The violence occurred, officials claimed at the time, because of the
alleged blockade. "Personnel of the Chapare Expeditionary Force (FEC),
having been pre-warned, attempted to clear the road as it was being
blocked. As the crowd grew larger and started to threaten the security
forces, the police who were supporting the operation used tear gas in an
effort to disperse the crowd. The crowd became one large mass as the
campesinos continued to advance on the FEC causing both campesinos and
security forces to receive the full effect of the gas."

But Chimore Mayor Epifanio Cruz, among other witnesses, told Narco News
last December that there was never any blockade of the road on that day:

"The military says that the farmers were in the road, blocking the road.
That is not true," insisted the mayor. "The farmers were along the side of
the road, handing bananas and fruits to passing motorists, as a protest of
the 'alternative development' programs that have left them with rotting
fruits and no market to sell them. It was a peaceful demonstration, not a
blockade."

"The companeros invited the soldiers to eat the pineapple, and some did.
Then came the commander giving orders. The soldiers took all the
pineapples, all the bananas away -- moments before they had been receiving
them as gifts -- and the soldiers became very aggressive. They grabbed our
brothers like they were animals, pushing and pulling them. They kicked
them. I saw one farmer get kicked in the back of the neck. The farmers fled
into and behind the union headquarters."

Mayor Cruz also told Narco News that he was standing near the soldiers as
the farmers were chased away from the road and behind the union
headquarters. At no time did the farmers "advance" on the military troops.
In fact, they were fleeing from the tear gas and beatings that the soldiers
were administering.

The version sent last December by the Embassy official was pure fiction. It
said, "At one point, apparently feeling threatened, some military members
fired into the crowd resulting in injuries to two campesinos. Fructuoso
Herbas was wounded slightly above his right ankle. Casimiro Huanca, the
main cocalero leader for the Chimore Federation received a gunshot wound in
the groin on the left side that exited his left thigh apparently severing
an artery. Huanca died a short time later at the Chimore hospital. (Note:
Casimiro Huanca was considered a die-hard cocalero in Evo Morales camp. End
note.)"

However, as eyewitnesses told Narco News last December, no shots were fired
into any crowd. Both Casimiro and Fructuoso (interviewed in the hospital by
Narco News) were shot at point blank range. The soldiers who had chased
Casimiro and Fructuoso shot them individually, one at a time, at point
blank range.

But even as the U.S. Embassy cable repeated the disinformation of the
Bolivian government, it admitted a key fact: That the "anti-drug" soldiers
had assassinated Casimiro Huanca and that the nature of Huanca's fatal
wound precluded the official story that soldiers had mistakenly fired into
a crowd.

Instead of correcting the record to the press and public, the U.S. Embassy
of Viceroy Manuel Rocha chose to remain silent, and allowed the lie to spread.

Casimiro Huanca was 55 years of age. A memorial plaque now placed at the
roadside where he was assassinated says, "Casimiro Huanca Choque, Executive
of the Chimore Federation, Hero, Coca Grower, Fallen in the Defense of
National Sovereignty, December 6, 2001."