Bolivia has deployed police and military forces preventively around the country, concentrating on strategic routes, access points to major cities and locations described as sensitive for freedom of movement, supply lines and protection of critical infrastructure, Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano told Fox News Digital.
“I believe this is one of the first real tests of whether Shield of the Americas can move from declarations to concrete results,” Justiniano said in the interview, while stressing he was not claiming the government has proven evidence of a specific coup attempt underway.
Justiniano said the preventive deployments do not aim to suppress peaceful demonstrations and that police retain primary responsibility for public order. He declined to provide exact locations, troop numbers or unit movements, saying the scale of deployments will change according to the level of risk.
On Sept. 17, Bolivia’s Assembly approved a 90-day extension of the country’s state of emergency, citing persistent risks of renewed road blockades that earlier this year lasted more than 50 days and caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine, the article said.
The situation is being discussed amid Bolivia’s participation in Shield of the Americas, an initiative launched at a March summit in Florida to deepen regional economic and security cooperation. Justiniano spoke days after leaders participating in the initiative met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 22.
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital the United States “values its close partnership with Bolivia, a Shield of the Americas participant, to advance economic growth and solve the security challenges posed by corruption and transnational crime.” The State Department also said visa restrictions announced Sept. 28 targeted Bolivian nationals it says are undermining the country’s security and governance progress.
The Trump administration revoked visas for 27 officials, former officials and relatives across Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, according to the Associated Press. Justiniano said Bolivia has formally requested the information underlying U.S. actions, and singled out the case of Prosecutor General Roger Mariaca as particularly serious because the U.S. made specific public allegations involving corruption and facilitation of drug trafficking; Mariaca has rejected those allegations, the article said.
Justiniano told Fox News Digital Bolivia wants to deepen cooperation with the United States on information sharing, financial intelligence, counter-narcotics, organized crime, border security, extraditions, training and institutional strengthening. He declined to say whether the U.S. was supplying operational intelligence or other direct assistance in response to the current threat.
Justiniano characterized the deployments as preventive measures justified by “very serious precedents and warning signs” but cautioned against portraying the government as under siege. The development underscores the question, posed in the Fox News Digital reporting, of how Shield of the Americas will operate when member governments say transnational criminal networks intersect with domestic political unrest.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
