Word: bolivian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When a U.S. Air Force C-5A transport plane landed in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz to launch the latest battle in America's war on drugs, the far-off town of Trinidad, 250 miles to the northwest, paid little heed. But the next day Trinidad Mayor Pedro Alvarez was summoned to the local Bolivian air force base for some unsettling news. The gringos are coming, he was informed; the base would need another well. Since that day, the tranquil cattle-farming community of Trinidad (pop. 40,000), capital of Bolivia's northeastern Beni region, has not been...
...presence of U.S. soldiers would be awkward for any South American country. The Bolivian government, already beleaguered by political opponents, was stung by local press reports that condemned the support from Washington. Overwhelmed by journalists' requests to go on a real raid, the government initially resisted because it feared that TV camera crews would zoom in on American G.I.s carrying machine guns...
...trip to a captured drug laboratory known as El Zorro. When reporters assembled at the air base last Tuesday, sputtering engine noises drowned out officials' attempts at a dignified briefing. Then DEA's DC-3 got stuck in mud up to its propellers while attempting to take off. Twenty Bolivian MPs finally had to push it out of the mire...
Reporters from all 53 news organizations had signed up for the tour, so they had to divide into two groups. The first section flew north in a battered Israelimade Arava. At El Zorro, a Bolivian official proudly pointed to sacks that appeared to contain white flour and knowingly murmured, "Cocaine." Actually, it was flour. Later the reporters piled into their plane -- then piled out when the fully loaded craft was unable to take off from the makeshift 300-foot runway. After being shuttled to a more suitable airstrip, they lifted off and returned to Trinidad. At that point, antsy members...
Unfortunately, the Bolivian Fokker aircraft that had escorted the Blackhawks on the raid had got stuck on the target site's swampy runway. The Fokker finally arrived at 7 p.m., almost seven hours late. By then the journalists' patience had run thin, and they voted to return to La Paz without touring the newly seized site...