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UMOPAR


The Unidad Móvil Policial para Áreas Rurales (UMOPAR) (Mobile Police Unit for Rural Areas), a subsidiary of the Special Antinarcotics Force (Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Narcotráfico—FELCN) of the Bolivian National Police (Cuerpo de Policía Nacional) was created in 1987 and is a Bolivian anti-narcotics and counterinsurgency force which was founded by, and is funded, advised, equipped, and trained by the United States government as part of its "War on Drugs".

There have been complaints that UMOPAR, which is effectively controlled by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and military, was the most powerfully armed and best trained military force in Bolivia. In 1984, UMOPAR troops kidnapped the President of Bolivia, Siles Zuazo, and staged an unsuccessful coup attempt against the Bolivian government.

Although UMOPAR is technically headed by Defensa Social, a branch of the Bolivian Interior Ministry, they are in practice controlled by DEA and U.S. military officials based at the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, who plan their operations, provide intelligence, and lead the drug raids, using UMOPAR mainly as a "strike force" for U.S. operations.

UMOPAR forces receive extensive training from DEA and U.S. military personnel, including the U.S. Army Special Forces, both in facilities in Bolivia (such as the Garras International Antinarcotics Training School), and at U.S. military bases such as Fort Benning, or the School of the Americas in Panama.


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