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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Bolivian Ex-Minister of
Defense Plotted a Second Coup Using U.S. Mercenaries</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">
<div class="gmail-PostByline-names"><a
class="gmail-PostByline-link" rel="author"
href="https://theintercept.com/staff/laurence-blair/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>Laurence Blair</span></a>,
<a class="gmail-PostByline-link" rel="author"
href="https://theintercept.com/staff/ryangrim/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span>Ryan Grim</span></a><span
class="gmail-PostByline-date"><span> - June 17 2021</span></span>
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gmail-reader-show-element">
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<p><u>A top official</u> in the outgoing Bolivian
government plotted to deploy hundreds of
mercenaries from the United States to overturn the
results of the South American country’s October
2020 election, according to documents and audio
recordings of telephone calls obtained by The
Intercept.</p>
<p>The aim of the mercenary recruitment was to
forcibly block Luis Arce from taking up the
presidency for Movimiento al Socialismo, or MAS,
the party of former Bolivian President Evo
Morales. The plot continued even though Arce, a
protégé of Morales, trounced a crowded field,
winning 55 percent of first-round votes and
eliminating the need for a runoff election.</p>
<p>In one of the leaked recordings, a person
identified as the Bolivian minister of defense
said he was “working to avoid the annihilation of
my country.” The armed forces and the people
needed to “rise up,” he added, “and block an Arce
administration. … The next 72 hours are crucial.”</p>
<p>Disagreements between ministers and divisions
within the armed forces, strained under the weight
of Arce’s convincing victory on October 18, 2020,
appear to have undermined the plan. It was never
executed, and several top officials of the
outgoing government have either fled Bolivia <a
href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-minister-government-bolivia-owner-florida-based-company-and-three-others-charged"
moz-do-not-send="true">or been arrested</a> on
separate charges linked to corruption and their
alleged role in the 2019 coup.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>For over a year prior, Bolivia had been plunged
into a rolling crisis. In October 2019, when
Morales was on the ballot for a controversial
fourth term, the opposition <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/world/americas/bolivia-election-evo-morales.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">accused</a> him of
rigging the election, and the Organization of
American States, or OAS, quickly echoed the
charge. Amid widespread protests, a police mutiny,
and pressure from the army, Morales was forced to
step down and flee the country. Jeanine Áñez, a
little-known evangelical senator, was hastily
sworn in as caretaker president, promising to hold
new elections within weeks.</p>
<p>Instead, she reoriented the government away from
Morales’s leftist approach and toward Donald
Trump’s White House, adopted a <a
href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/bolivia-interim-president-bible-palace-elections"
moz-do-not-send="true">strident Christian tone</a>
in contrast to Morales’s championing of Indigenous
Andean culture, and issued a decree preemptively
shielding soldiers from prosecution. The armed
forces soon afterward <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/20/bolivia-el-alto-violence-death-protest"
moz-do-not-send="true">carried out</a> multiple
<a
href="https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2019/321.asp"
moz-do-not-send="true">massacres</a> while
suppressing opposition to the new interim
government.</p>
<p>Prosecutors and gangs persecuted MAS supporters
in the courts and the streets. After 14 years of
growth under Morales, thousands were <a
href="https://www.inesad.edu.bo/2021/03/22/cepal-pobreza-subio-64-puntos-y-afecta-al-375-de-la-poblacion/"
moz-do-not-send="true">dragged</a> back into
poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic — which Áñez
repeatedly cited as a reason to postpone a rerun
of the vote. Amid mass demonstrations demanding
new elections, Áñez finally allowed the balloting
last fall. She also ran for president herself,
only to drop out of the race after polls placed
her a distant fourth.</p>
<p>Arce’s eventual victory last fall, in a closely
scrutinized election, was a stunning rejection of
the right-wing shift overseen by Áñez. The
long-serving economy minister under Morales, Arce
also <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/20/bolivias-luis-arce-says-no-role-for-morales-in-new-govt"
moz-do-not-send="true">distanced</a> himself
from his former boss. “We have recovered
democracy,” Arce <a
href="https://www.pagina12.com.ar/300167-luis-arce-hemos-recuperado-la-democracia"
moz-do-not-send="true">told</a> supporters,
vowing to work to stabilize and unify the country.</p>
<p>The Bolivian right wing, however, was not ready
to relinquish power. The call with Áñez’s defense
minister, in which the speakers suggest several
other top officials are likely to be on
board, sketches a coup plot even more flagrant
than the one in October 2019.</p>
<p>Several of the plotters discussed flying hundreds
of foreign mercenaries into Bolivia from a U.S.
military base outside Miami. These would join
forces with elite Bolivian military units,
renegade police squadrons, and vigilante mobs in a
desperate bid to keep the country’s largest
political movement from returning to power.</p>
<p>The phone calls, along with leaked emails
discussing a mass deployment of hired guns to
coincide with the elections, reveal how Bolivia
could have seen fresh bloodshed late last year.</p>
<p>Two U.S. military sources confirmed that the
Special Operations commands that they work for had
gotten wind of the Bolivia coup plot. But nothing
ever came of it, they told The Intercept. One
special ops source added, “No one really took them
seriously as far as I know.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><img
src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2021/06/GettyImages-1227710811-edit2.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=682"
alt="LA PAZ, BOLIVIA - JULY 20: Minister of
Defense and Health Luis Fernando López (R) looks
on without a face mask during the promotion
ceremony for high ranking officers of Bolivian
Armed Forces at Gran Cuartel de Miraflores on
July 20, 2020 in La Paz, Bolivia. (Photo by
Gaston Brito/Getty Images)" style="margin-right:
0px;" moz-do-not-send="true" width="451"
height="301"></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">Former
Minister of Defense Luis Fernando López, right,
during the promotion ceremony for high ranking
officers of Bolivian Armed Forces at Gran
Cuartel de Miraflores on July 20, 2020, in La
Paz.</font></p>
<font size="1">
</font>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Gaston Brito/Getty Images</font></p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>“The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces”</h3>
<p>The longest of the recordings is a 15-minute
phone call with a person The Intercept has
identified as Luis Fernando López, a former
paratrooper and businessman appointed defense
minister by Áñez in November 2019. López, who is
referred to in the call as “Mr. Minister,” can be
identified through references to his work as
minister with the armed forces, and by comparing
the voice of the relevant speaker and claims he
makes in the recording to his publicly available
speeches.</p>
<p>The other main participant appears to be Joe
Pereira, a former civilian administrator with the
U.S. Army who was based in Bolivia at the time.
Pereira, who has previously boasted of links to
U.S. special forces and been held in a Bolivian
jail awaiting trial on fraud charges, is
identifiable by references to the use of a company
that he has directed, as well as the leaked text
of emails that describe him as organizing a
mission involving mercenaries in Bolivia. Two of
the people included in the emails confirmed to The
Intercept that the emails are authentic and that
Pereira was the lead organizer. An ex-employee of
Pereira’s who listened to the audio said that he
had no doubt that the voice on the recordings was
his former boss. Members of Pereira’s church said
the same.</p>
<p>In a separate recording, Pereira identifies his
translator as “Cyber Rambo,” while in a later
phone call he is referred to directly as “Luis.”
“Cyber Rambo” is a nickname given to Luis Suárez,
a Bolivian American former U.S. Army sergeant <a
href="https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2020/01/31/how-an-army-vet-became-the-cyber-rambo-in-an-alleged-bolivian-coup/"
moz-do-not-send="true">known</a> for creating an
algorithm that boosted anti-Morales tweets during
the 2019 political crisis. Reached for comment by
The Intercept, Suárez denied having been in
contact with López and Pereira or having any
involvement in the coup plot. He said that after
he was contacted by The Intercept in June, he
found a previously unread and unanswered message
from Pereira. Suárez speculated that Pereira could
have been trying to fool López into believing he
was involved. López did not respond to questions
sent via his lawyer, who said his client did not
want to speak to the press and was seeking asylum
abroad. Pereira could not be reached for comment
via telephone and did not respond to questions
emailed in October or May.</p>
<p>References to Arce’s election win indicate the
call took place after October 18, and it appears
to have been made before November 5, when López
fled Bolivia for neighboring Brazil — three days
before Arce’s inauguration.</p>
<p>The recording begins mid-conversation, with the
man identified as López saying, “armaments and
other military equipment are obviously highly
important to reinforce what we are doing.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>“Following the phone call I’m having with you,
I’m going to do the same to coordinate with the
police authorities.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>“The military high command is already in
preliminary talks,” he continues. “The struggle,
the rallying cry, is that they [MAS] want to
replace the Bolivian armed forces and the police
with militias, Cubans, and Venezuelans. That is
the key point. They [the police and armed forces]
are going to allow Bolivia to rise up again and
block an Arce administration. That’s the reality.”</p>
<p>López further suggests that the commander of the
armed forces is “already” mulling over a
preemptive coup d’état and will be the one who
“initiates the military operation.”</p>
<p>“I want to emphasize the following. The commander
of the armed forces is working on all of this,”
López says. The top general appointed by Áñez was
Sergio Orellana. Believed to <a
href="https://eldeber.com.bo/pais/el-excomandante-de-las-ffaa-salio-del-pais-rumbo-a-colombia_223634"
moz-do-not-send="true">have fled</a> Bolivia for
Colombia in November, he could not be reached for
comment.</p>
<p>“We’ve been working on this all week,” López
emphasizes. “I can guarantee you that right now we
have a united armed forces — not 100 percent,
because there are obviously blues,” he stipulates,
in apparent reference to the official color of the
MAS. Some military officers are likely to back
“the winning horse [Arce] because he won the
election,” he admits, but insists that they are
“very few.”</p>
<p>“I guarantee you that 95, 98 percent are super
patriotic and don’t want to disappear,” he
concludes. “I’ve been working for 11 months to
ensure that the armed forces have dignity, have
morale, are tried and tested, and think of the
fatherland above all. I guarantee you that this
won’t fail.”</p>
<p>A day before Arce’s inauguration, Morales — at
that point still in exile in Buenos Aires — <a
href="https://www.la-razon.com/lr-article/morales-denuncia-que-el-comandante-de-las-ffaa-trato-de-encaminar-una-junta-militar-para-tomar-el-poder/"
moz-do-not-send="true">claimed</a> that Orellana
had been trying to persuade senior officers to
establish a “military junta,” using the rationale
that Arce planned to replace the armed forces with
militias. Morales suggested that a pro-MAS general
had overruled Orellana — and that although orders
had been given to mobilize elite troops, these had
quickly been canceled. At the time, international
media largely ignored Morales’s claim.</p>
<p>“I heard rumors to the effect, but nothing
concrete, nothing about [troop] movements,” said
Tomás Peña y Lillo, a retired general and army
chief of operations until 2010, when asked about
the plot by The Intercept. “I imagine that it was
nothing more than a wish.”</p>
<p>Yet Bolivian military figures remain genuinely
concerned that MAS harbors designs of sidelining
the army by arming its own supporters, Peña y
Lillo argued. “This is the intention of the [Arce]
government,” he added. “They would obviously like
to do that, they might try. But the constitution
doesn’t allow it. And the army will abide by the
constitution.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><img
src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2021/06/GettyImages-1181474525-edit.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=746"
alt="Bolivia's President Evo Morales and the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Williams
Kaliman, attend the commemoration of the 140th
anniversary of the Battle of Calama -in which
Chile took control of Antofagasta region, at
that time part of Bolivia- in La Paz, on March
23, 2019. - Bolivian President Evo Morales
resigned on November 10, 2019, caving in
following three weeks of sometimes-violent
protests over his disputed re-election after the
army and police withdrew their backing. With no
sign of violent protests abating, the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Williams
Kaliman, asked Morales "to resign his
presidential mandate to allow for pacification
and the maintaining of stability, for the good
of our Bolivia." (Photo by AIZAR RALDES /
AFP) (Photo by AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty
Images)" style="margin-right: 0px;"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="451" height="329"></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">Former
Bolivian President Evo Morales and the former
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Williams
Kaliman, attend the commemoration of the 140th
anniversary of the Battle of Calama in La Paz on
March 23, 2019.</font></p>
<font size="1">
</font>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Aizar Raldes/AFP via Getty Images</font></p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>“Armed Militias of the People”</h3>
<p>During his 14 years in power, a cordial
relationship between Morales — himself a conscript
as a young man — and Bolivia’s armed forces, much
of whose senior command was trained by the United
States, <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/veteran-presidents-rift-with-bolivian-military-helped-drive-his-early-exit-11575541801"
moz-do-not-send="true">deteriorated</a> into an
open rift.</p>
<p>His praise for Ernesto “Che” Guevara — who was
captured and killed in Bolivia with CIA support in
1967 — and the creation of an “anti-imperialist”
military academy angered many soldiers. Gripes
about pay were also shared by the police. Their <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election-ticktock-insight-idUSKBN1XO2PQ"
moz-do-not-send="true">refusal</a> to quell
protests in the wake of the contested 2019 vote
was pivotal in forcing Bolivia’s longest-serving
president into exile, first in Mexico, then in
neighboring Argentina.</p>
<p>But the suggestion that top generals were
deliberating about how to block the MAS from
returning to power under Arce a year later —
disregarding the 2020 election result and
contravening the constitution — indicates that
distrust of the country’s dominant popular
movement among some senior military figures has
strayed into paranoia.</p>
<p>In his call with Pereira, López stressed, “My
work right now is focused on avoiding the
annihilation of my country and the arrival of
Venezuelan and Cuban troops, and from Iran.” In a
speech given in October 2020 to mark the
anniversary of Guevara’s killing, López similarly
<a
href="https://www.nodal.am/2020/10/bolivia-luis-fernando-lopez-ministro-de-defensa-de-facto-cubanos-venezolanos-y-argentinos-que-vengan-a-subvertir-encontraran-la-muerte/"
moz-do-not-send="true">vowed </a>that foreign
invaders “of any nationality, Cubans, Venezuelans
or Argentines … will find death in our territory.”</p>
<p>The claim that Cuban, Venezuelan, and Iranian
operatives have successfully infiltrated
governments, left-wing parties, and protest
movements across Latin America has become a
frequent right-wing talking point across the
region in recent years, but — outside of <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-cuba-military-specialreport-idUSKCN1VC1BX"
moz-do-not-send="true">Venezuela</a> itself —
has little concrete evidence to back it up.</p>
<p>In January 2020, while in exile in Buenos Aires,
Morales told MAS supporters that if he returned to
Bolivia, he would seek to <a
href="https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2020/01/16/alerta-evo-morales-se-retracta-de-sugerir-creacion-de-milicias-armadas-en-bolivia/"
moz-do-not-send="true">organize</a> “armed
militias of the people” along Venezuelan lines.
His rivals alleged that his comments betrayed
plans for a pro-MAS paramilitary force. Morales
subsequently claimed that he was referring to a
tradition of local self-defense patrols in Andean
communities.</p>
<p>Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivian political scientist
and professor at Florida International University,
suggested a simpler reason why the generals who
helped topple Morales might have wanted to keep
Arce out of power. “Was there unrest in the armed
forces? Were they worried? Yes,” Gamarra said.
“They were rightly concerned there was going to be
a major purge. The MAS was going to be furious.”</p>
<p>Pereira was also monitoring the former MAS
leader’s whereabouts. In another phone call, he
speaks amicably with an older man, Manuel, who
informs him that Morales has moved from a
temporary residence near an American school in the
La Lucila suburb of Buenos Aires.</p>
<p>“What a pain. What a pain our buddy Evo has …
gone from that place,” says Pereira.</p>
<p>“We’ll have to find out where he is,” replies
Manuel. “He’s got to be somewhere.”</p>
<h3>“I Can Get Up to 10,000 Men With No Problem”</h3>
<p><span>During the 15-minute call, Pereira says
that the request for weapons is “not a problem”
and asks how many Hercules C-130 aircraft the
defense minister has available. López’s
response: There are only three C-130s in all of
Bolivia, and he only has control of one, while
the national police have two. Pereira reassures
him, “Following the phone call I’m having with
you, I’m going to do the same to coordinate with
the police authorities. With high command.”</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p>“We have a lot of moving players, a lot of moving
parts.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>The aircraft, Pereira says, are needed “to pick
up personnel in Southern Command in Homestead Air
Force Base in Miami.”</p>
<p>“By the time the C-130s get inbound, I’ll have
them contracted, I’ll have them geared up, and …
all their weapons ready,” he adds.</p>
<p>The translator further spells out the
arrangement: The troops will be collected “in such
a way as if they were private contractors, under
no representation of the American state.”</p>
<p>“We are going to put all those people under shell
contracts for Bolivian companies operating already
in-country,” Pereira continues, with López
agreeing on each point.</p>
</div>
<blockquote><span></span>
<p>“I will have them fly in as undercover, like if
they were photographers, they were pastors, they
were medics, they were tourists.”</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<p>“I can get up to 10,000 men with no problem. I
don’t think we need 10,000,” he stipulates. “All
special forces. I can also bring about 350 what we
call LEPs, Law Enforcement Professionals, to guide
the police. … With me [in Bolivia] I have a staff
of personnel that can handle various different
jobs. … If there’s something else I need, I will
have them fly in as undercover, like if they were
photographers, they were pastors, they were
medics, they were tourists.”</p>
<p>David Shearman, one of the U.S.-based recruiters
Pereira had asked to organize those men, later
told The Intercept that the 10,000 number was
absurd. “You couldn’t get 10,000 people even if
Blackwater was back in business and going back to
Iraq,” Shearman told The Intercept in June.</p>
<p>Pereira, in the audio, suggests that this cohort
of mercenaries will be welcomed with open arms by
Bolivians — 3.2 million of whom had voted to
return the MAS to power just days previously. “We
have done a lot of infiltration. … They are not
going to go and try to persuade people to follow
the MAS. More people want liberty for your
country.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><img
src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2021/06/GettyImages-1232017632-edit.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=684"
alt="29 March 2021, Bolivia, La Paz: Supporters
attend the 26th anniversary of the founding of
the ruling party MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo -
Movement for Socialism). Evo Morales of the MAS
was forced to resign after allegations of fraud
against him in the October 2019 elections led to
a serious political crisis. Luis Arce won the
subsequent elections in October 2020 with over
55 percent of the vote. Photo: Radoslaw
Czajkowski/dpa (Photo by Radoslaw
Czajkowski/picture alliance via Getty Images)"
style="margin-right: 0px;"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="451" height="301"></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">Supporters
attend the 26th anniversary of the ruling
Movimiento al Socialismo party’s founding on
March 29, 2021, in La Paz.</font></p>
<font size="1">
</font>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Radoslaw Czajkowski/picture alliance via
Getty Images</font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p>Pereira adds that he will need to talk with
Arturo Murillo, then the interior minister and
responsible for the police, “so he is not making
mistakes, being scared.” In the weeks before the
2020 election, Murillo repeatedly warned in public
and private that the MAS was planning an armed
insurrection if it lost the vote. In October,
Murillo traveled to Washington, D.C., for meetings
with U.S. diplomats, the OAS, and the White House,
where he <a
href="https://eldeber.com.bo/politica/murillo-dice-que-el-mas-arma-a-jovenes-para-convulsionar-el-pais_202867"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a> that matters of
“national security” and “threats” to the elections
were discussed. At the time, Murillo <a
href="https://www.paginasiete.bo/nacional/2020/10/1/murillo-dice-que-el-mas-arma-jovenes-para-el-18-de-octubre-270008.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">told the press</a> that
“the United States can help with many things,”
later <a
href="https://www.paginasiete.bo/seguridad/2020/10/5/murillo-admite-compra-de-armas-para-defender-la-democracia-al-precio-que-sea-270448.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">confirming</a> that
Bolivia was buying weapons in order to “defend
democracy” at “any price.” In May 2020, he boasted
of having met with the CIA, claiming that Mauricio
Claver-Carone, the Trump administration’s point
person on Latin American affairs, had “opened many
doors for us.” Murillo did not respond to requests
for comment made by The Intercept in October.</p>
<p>But Pereira, in the call, maintains that there
should be no trace of U.S. involvement. “Whether
they see us as mercenaries or they see us as [a]
contract state or however they want to look at us,
I could care less as long as they cannot tie us
into direct Special Forces, Army, or Air Force
[involvement],” he says.</p>
<p>The translator asks the minister a question
directly “as a Bolivian.” How ready “are all of
you,” he asks, “to make this work? Are you ready
to carry out psychological operations, are you
ready to manipulate information in the same way as
the MAS?” The response is unequivocal: “One
hundred percent.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>“Mr. Minister, I’m going to ask you something as
a Bolivian.”</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>“I really have no clue about that,” Suárez told
The Intercept, stipulating that he was now a
software engineer based in Texas but not involved
in cybersecurity or government-related work.</p>
<p>“I had no intention to prevent Arce from taking
power,” Suárez said, “I think he won the election
fair and square and not like Evo Morales with
fraud.”</p>
<h3>“Come and Help Us”</h3>
<p>Another call entirely in Spanish, which Pereira
appears to have held after his conversation with
the minister, indicates that Pereira may have
exaggerated the level of military support for the
planned coup.</p>
<p>“Last night I was up until two in the morning,
almost 2:30, [with] intelligence reports,
counterintelligence … speaking of rumors,
maneuvers, and strategies,” Pereira complains to
the recipient, who is unidentified. “It’s very
worrying. … People are going from left to right,
right to left, as they please. … They’re afraid,”
he surmises, adding that bribes, self-interest,
and even social media are affecting soldiers’
loyalties.</p>
<p>“We’re looking for the weapons, I already have
all the information you asked me for. We already
know who we can count on,” Pereira’s interlocutor
reassures him, mentioning a police colonel who
“wants nothing to do with the MAS,” is “100
percent with us,” and “has lots of people who back
him.”</p>
<p>“They are tired of their bosses getting
everything while they expose themselves to the
bullets for nothing. There are strategic people in
each unit who are completely for us,” he explains.</p>
<p>Pereira singles out the need to secure the
backing of special forces based at the Condors
paratrooper academy and Bolivia’s elite Rangers
regiments.</p>
<p>“We need to look at everything we talked about
several months ago,” Pereira says on the call. “We
spoke about the action plan, [the] case of
demonstrating force, of taking strategic places. I
think that with what we have now, we’re in a much
better position, in that we won’t have to confront
Bolivian troops. We will have to show efficiency,
seriousness, manpower, and once they see it for
themselves, I think they will invite us inside and
say ‘Come and help us.’”<span><br>
</span></p>
<h3>“Things Are Moving Forward”</h3>
<p>Pereira’s promises to bring in planeloads of
guns-for-hire to aid the insurrection were likely
overblown. But evidence seen by The Intercept
suggests that plans to deploy hundreds of
mercenaries, including former U.S. service
members, to coincide with the election were well
advanced in the weeks leading up to October 18.</p>
<p>In the text of emails shared before the vote with
The Intercept by a retired security contractor —
who asked not to be named because he
feared retaliation — Pereira is named as one of
three organizers of the mission. The other two,
David Shearman and Joe Milligan, have extensive
experience in overseas counterinsurgency and
covert operations.</p>
<p>The first message, which is written by Milligan
and whose recipients are described as being on the
“LEP/Medic email chain,” indicates that at least
250 contractors, including Law Enforcement
Professionals and medics, have signed up for “the
Bolivia project.” It stipulates those who have
“put in for the Red Team” will be contacted
separately. In the call between López and Pereira,
the translator refers to Pereira with the codename
“Red.”</p>
<p>According to the email, the deployment was
delayed due to the July 23 postponement of
elections, from September 6 to October 18. “We are
still on track to get you in early enough to do
the train up and gear issue,” Milligan continues.</p>
<p>“This project is very sensitive right now,”
Milligan cautions. “I have only put it out on a
few Facebook sites that I know LEP’s and the
Medics are on and some police pages. So, let’s
keep this secure as possible. There is a lot of
moving parts to this and we don’t want to jam up
the other guys that are working on the ground to
make this happen.”</p>
<p>Recipients of the email are asked to call a
number registered to Milligan, a licensed gun
dealer in Dallas, Texas. A LinkedIn<a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/in/joe-milligan-5920ba27?challengeId=AQFLCgxvP10RfQAAAXS6kWWKD3N8ZGhaOB__9YH9f7TSI3H2UuIr7-DfgtlfzBIX5vMiR2EYOjzgWo2Qn55z921ZVLRU0PONng&submissionId=e9551504-cd63-3716-5fb8-d41ba43ec418"
moz-do-not-send="true"> page</a> describes
Milligan as a police and military trainer and head
of security for a Dallas scrap metals company.
Between 2006 and 2012, he worked on
counterinsurgency and bomb-disposal operations in
Afghanistan with private military firm MPRI, and
trained Iraqi police with Blackwater, notorious
for perpetrating a <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2020/12/23/blackwater-massacre-iraq-pardons/"
moz-do-not-send="true">massacre of civilians</a>
in Baghdad in 2007.</p>
<p>Reached by telephone on the given number before
the election, Milligan denied any knowledge of the
operation, saying first that he was a truck
driver, then that he worked at a scrap metals
firm. “It must be another Joe Milligan, there are
several on Facebook,” he added, before hanging up.
Reached again in June, he acknowledged that the
emails were authentic, and that Pereira,
organizing the effort, had reached out through a
mutual network. He maintained that he had no
specific knowledge of what Pereira was planning in
Bolivia.</p>
<p>“I really don’t put much stock in what people say
to me until I see a paycheck or airplane ticket.
I’ve worked overseas for years, so I don’t even
worry about what they think they’re going to do or
what they’re talking about until it actually
materializes with a paycheck,” he said.</p>
<p>Shearman, the other listed contact, describes
himself in an online biography as a former U.S.
Marine who has worked “around the world” on a
variety of “covert operations,” including
protecting U.S. officials in Iraq and South
America. In a second email, Shearman’s name,
email, phone number, and blog — named Viper One
Six after his military call sign in Afghanistan —
are appended in the form of a signature.</p>
<p>“Things are moving forward. We continue to seek
more interested professionals with tenured law
enforcement experience and who are interested in
this type of unique mission,” Shearman’s message
begins. He proceeds to ask interested recipients
to email a nondisclosure agreement to Pereira to
receive further instructions, and to “Think
low-profile … Jeans, casual pants, long and short
sleeve shirts capable of concealed carry.”</p>
<p>“If you have a pilot’s license, the company will
pay all fees regarding renewals, etc. for you
while you are down there. School up and Guerilla
Group – MSA, the main foe down there,” Shearman
adds, potentially scrambling the abbreviation for
MAS. “Our program is adding to an existing program
and our program is still being stood up.”</p>
<p>The emails hint that the project is politically
sensitive. “Updated timeline appears to be late
September into early October. The date revolves
around politics there. Groups will move staggered
and you will be advised of your movement group and
more information on travel will follow as you
proceed in the process,” Shearman writes. “You all
will be getting briefings when we travel, and you
will get a more enhanced view of the operation,
mission, and the concerns/sensitivity of it.”</p>
<p>Shearman concludes by promising that an “HQ
South” will handle all “company in-processing,
equipment issue, and range quals” — referring to
firearms certificates — and offer a “full
medical/dental facility.” It remains unclear
whether the group had the use of a new or
preexisting base in Bolivia or not.</p>
<p>Reached by telephone before the election,
Shearman said he was retired and denied being
involved in any project in Bolivia. Warning that
handling the leaked messages could be illegal, he
said: “If a person were to release sensitive
documents that may be a serious legal liability
for any individual involved.”</p>
<p>In June, Shearman acknowledged he had sent the
emails, and explained that Pereira had reached out
to him for help with recruitment and
administration for what he had understood to be a
legitimate police-training project.
“Unfortunately, if I had to do it over again, I
wouldn’t have helped them out, but those emails
seem to paint a picture of some fantastical thing,
and so I can see the intrigue from the outside
looking in,” he said, adding that the contents of
the emails had largely been provided by Pereira.
“A lot of that stuff was just repeated from Joe.”</p>
<p>Shearman also said he wasn’t paid for the work,
and he hasn’t heard from Pereira in months. He
said Pereira told him the project involved “work
with the Bolivian government to provide law
enforcement training — training of their law
enforcement agencies down there in regular police
tactics. … That’s the extent of what I know and
the extent of what the recruitment effort was.
Anything beyond that, I don’t have any clue
because I was not privy to any of that.”</p>
<h3>“SOCOM Will Never Fail Me”</h3>
<p>Pereira arrived in Bolivia roughly a decade ago.
Members of a Baptist church in the eastern city of
Santa Cruz, a hotbed of opposition to Morales,
said he was believed to be an ex-soldier and
pastor working in the oil industry. For a while,
he ran Bridge 2 Life Foundation, which claims to
bring pastors, doctors, and teachers to work
across Latin America and the Middle East. A 2014
advertisement for a motivational talk by Pereira
describes him as an “ex-Army Officer of the
Special Forces” and an “ex-marine,” though public
documentation refers to him as a civilian
contractor. According to an internal <a
href="https://static.dvidshub.net/media/pubs/pdf_8276.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">bulletin</a>, he had
previously worked as a reserve affairs
mobilization planner at the John F. Kennedy
Special Warfare Center and School in Fort Bragg,
North Carolina — an Army training center for
United States Special Operations Command, or SOCOM
— in 1999. Another publication <a
href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8YzPWlD-YIoC&pg=PA392&lpg=PA392&dq=joe+pereira+fort+bragg&source=bl&ots=KlL4B_LmlB&sig=ACfU3U2KT5vNR_Osz9D1wA-INCpSeyK68g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjkjPmR55nxAhUClFwKHZVBBWYQ6AEwD3oECBsQAw#v=onepage&q=joe%20pereira%20fort%20bragg&f=false"
moz-do-not-send="true">describes</a> him as a
civilian contractor in the same role in 2002.</p>
<p>A Facebook<a
href="https://www.facebook.com/joelili.pereira/photos"
moz-do-not-send="true"> page</a> for Pereira
lists him as “President Oil & Gas at China
National Group” from March 2017 onward.
Headquartered in Santa Cruz, the firm’s
now-inactive Facebook page describes it as
occupying a “platform” left by a previous company
working with Chinese investors.</p>
<p>In October 2020, China National Group’s offices
in central Santa Cruz were empty and up for rent.
An official registry showed the firm had
officially closed before the end of March 2019.
Yet the leaked emails from September 2019 suffix
Pereira’s email address with the letters “cng,”
and the contractors are asked to sign a
nondisclosure agreement labeled “CNG-NDA.”</p>
<p>A judicial<a
href="https://www.edictos.bo/edicto-para-jose-eduardo-pereira-urioste-y-rebeca-carola-lichtman-bustamante/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> summons</a> from
November 2016 outlines fraud charges against
Pereira and his wife. A court ruling from July
2019 <a
href="https://jurisprudenciaconstitucional.com/resolucion/39179-sentencia-constitucional-plurinacional-0239-2019-s3"
moz-do-not-send="true">indicates</a> Pereira was
in pretrial detention as of November 5, 2018, and
that a police colonel had threatened to transfer
him to a different cell block unless Pereira
returned him $80,000. It is not known whether the
case was pursued or Pereira was convicted or
acquitted.</p>
<p>The suggestion of deceptive business practices
tallies with his promises to López that he could
use “shell contracts” to bring foreign mercenaries
into Bolivia “undercover” in the guise of pastors,
doctors, and tourists.</p>
<p>Pereira’s first recorded Facebook “check-in” was
in Santa Cruz on November 16, 2019: six days after
Morales fled the country and Añez took power. In
February 2020, he posted screenshots of a WhatsApp
conversation <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=211182806721427&set=pcb.211182976721410&type=3&theater"
moz-do-not-send="true">to Facebook</a>, claiming
to be in charge of troops on a base in Bolivia,
and joking — in the context of a lost bet on the
Super Bowl — that “SOCOM will never fail me.”</p>
<p>Among Pereira’s 535 Facebook friends are dozens
of current and former U.S. military personnel and
private security contractors. Phone calls to a
number for the China National Group were
unanswered. Pereira did not respond to emailed
questions. His current location is unknown.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><img
src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2021/06/GettyImages-1186268627-edit.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=678"
alt="Bolivian Interim Minister of Government
Arturo Murillo (L) greets members of the GAT
anti-terrorist unit during its presentation in
La Paz, on December 3, 2019. - The interim
government of Bolivia on Tuesday activated the
GAT anti-terrorist unit with 60 police officers
to "dismantle" groups of foreigners
who "are threatening" the country's
peace, according to the Ministry of Government
(Interior) and the Police. (Photo by AIZAR
RALDES / AFP) (Photo by AIZAR RALDES/AFP via
Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 0px;"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="451" height="299"></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">Interior
minister of Bolivia’s interim government Arturo
Murillo, left, greets members of the GAT
anti-terrorist unit during its presentation in
La Paz on Dec. 3, 2019.</font></p>
<font size="1">
</font>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Aizar Raldes/AFP via Getty Images</font></p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>“Alive, Free, or as President of Bolivia”</h3>
<p>A further pair of recorded conversations reviewed
by The Intercept suggest that disagreements
between defense minister López and Murillo — as
interior minister, ultimately in control of the
police — may have derailed the coup. They appear
to have taken place soon before López fled the
country on November 5. The recordings suggest that
López was not only involved, but also that the
plotters had dangled the prospect of his becoming
president instead of Arce.</p>
<p>A woman who refers to herself as a relative of
López’s says in one call that he is under pressure
“not to unmask Murillo’s plan,” referring to the
interior minister. “It seems like he’s afraid, he
says even he doesn’t know what he’s going to do,”
she adds.</p>
<p>“So the issue is simple,” responds the speaker,
who is called by Suárez’s first name, Luis, the
same first name as the “Cyber Rambo” who Pereira
said was translating on the call between and
López. “It’s Murillo that’s putting an obstacle in
our way.” The woman responds, “Exactly, he says
that they’re threatening him.”</p>
<p>Far from the bravado of some days prior, the
former paratrooper appears to have gone to ground.
“Tell López’s mother,” the speaker continues,
“that probably his only option of getting out of
this alive, free, or as president of Bolivia is
for him to pick up our call. … Her son is already
in a lot of danger,” he adds, “I have to talk with
him, and he has to stop committing errors.”</p>
<p>In a subsequent recording, Pereira concludes:
“He’s shitting in his pants right now.”</p>
<p>In the event, the coup never materialized, and
the threat to Bolivian democracy appears to have
subsided. Arce was sworn in as president of
Bolivia on November 8, 2020, a day after most
mainstream media outlets called the U.S.
presidential election for Joe Biden. Morales <a
href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201111-bolivia-s-morales-ends-homecoming-tour-with-rally"
moz-do-not-send="true">returned</a> to Bolivia
soon afterward and has appeared at MAS party
rallies, but has not taken a formal government
post. Arce fired the military commanders Áñez
promoted, including Orellana, and <a
href="https://www.notimerica.com/politica/noticia-bolivia-arce-designa-nuevos-cargos-cupula-militar-cesar-vallejos-nombrado-nuevo-comandante-ffaa-20201230053256.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">replaced</a> them with
officers believed to be more loyal.</p>
<p>Murillo and López <a
href="https://www.la-razon.com/nacional/2020/11/18/interpol-bolivia-supo-de-un-ultimo-favor-a-lopez-y-murillo-para-su-fuga-del-pais/"
moz-do-not-send="true">fled</a> together across
the border with Brazil on November 5 with the help
of a Bolivian Air Force plane, shortly before
corruption allegations were leveled against them.
They are suspected of having received bribes after
a Florida-based private security company, Bravo
Tactical Solutions, <a
href="https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-bolivia-business-9d74b17a0eb8be693f8e38c9df2e56de"
moz-do-not-send="true">secured</a> a contract to
supply Bolivia’s security forces with tear gas at
vastly inflated prices.</p>
<p>Murillo, however, found no refuge outside the
country. On May 26 of this year, the FBI <a
href="https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-bolivia-business-9d74b17a0eb8be693f8e38c9df2e56de"
moz-do-not-send="true">announced</a> it had
arrested him on charges of conspiring to commit
money-laundering connected to the tear gas case.
The same day, Arce’s interior minister <a
href="https://www.lostiempos.com/actualidad/pais/20210526/gobierno-pide-extradicion-murillo-lopez-caso-gases-lacrimogenos"
moz-do-not-send="true">indicated</a> he would
also seek López’s extradition from Brazil in
connection with the case. López has denied
wrongdoing, tweeting last month that “the Bolivian
people know I worked tirelessly for the country,
in accordance with the constitution.”</p>
<p>Orellana, who fled to Colombia in November, has <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/amp/news/Bolivia-MAS-Senators-Demand-Report-on-Fleeing-of-Ex-Army-Chief-20210309-0018.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">arrest warrants</a> out
against him for his role in the ouster of Morales
and the subsequent killing of protesters by
troops. In March, Áñez herself was arrested for
her involvement in the 2019 coup. She insists her
caretaker presidency was constitutional.</p>
<p>But there are ongoing rumblings of <a
href="https://www.paginasiete.bo/seguridad/2021/4/12/malestar-militar-policial-se-amordaza-por-temor-ascensos-destinos-carcel-290483.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">disquiet</a> among the
military. Peña y Lillo, the retired general, said
that by jailing military officers “like common
criminals,” the Arce administration was seeking to
“terrify and take vengeance on the armed forces”
for their role in unseating Morales. He described
the 2019 coup as a constitutional intervention to
“defend society.”</p>
<h3>“There Would Have Been So Much Bloodletting”</h3>
<p>Abortive coups often appear slapdash in
hindsight, but such plots don’t need to be
perfectly executed to be successful. The U.S.
government notoriously overthrew democratically
elected leaders in Iran and Guatemala in the
1950s, both times in shoestring operations that
ended up victorious amid the resulting chaos. The
1954 Guatemala coup succeeded because the local
military correctly perceived the U.S. was behind
it.</p>
<p>But the plot Pereira was selling does not appear
to have had the backing of the U.S. government. It
more closely resembles the May 2020 efforts of
Silvercorp USA, a Florida-based private military
company that launched a botched coup attempt
against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Eight
participants were killed, and 17 were captured.
Among those now in jail in Venezuela is the former
Green Beret leading the operation, who later <a
href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article246819562.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">claimed</a> that it was
authorized by Donald Trump’s White House. The
Trump administration denied involvement.</p>
<p>“These [are] yahoos punching above their weight
trying to get rich quickly,” said Sean McFate, a
professor of strategy at Georgetown University and
former military contractor who reviewed the emails
shared with The Intercept. “It’s just amateur
hour. And we’ve seen a lot of that [recently].”</p>
<p>Gamarra, of Florida International University,
argued that Pereira’s claims to have the support
of the U.S. military were most likely false, but
that they highlighted the problem of weak
oversight of soldiers-turned-mercenaries around
the world.</p>
<p>Such groups of soldiers of fortune became more
dangerous after the Trump administration
encouraged them to “freelance,” he added,
referring to the alleged discreet endorsement of
the White House for Silvercorp’s activities in
Venezuela.</p>
</div>
<blockquote><span></span>
<p>“Conspiracies … cause a lot of damage, especially
in fragile places like Bolivia. All you need is
one Pereira to mess things up.”</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<p>“These guys are a dime a dozen, they all think
they’re generals. … They’re dangerous because of
what they promise,” said Gamarra. “Conspiracies
are generally just that, conspiracies, but they
cause a lot of damage, especially in fragile
places like Bolivia. All you need is one Pereira
to mess things up.”</p>
<p>If the short-lived Bolivian operation were funded
by the U.S. government, or enjoyed its “tacit or
explicit approval,” it would show how deep into
“reckless cowboy territory” the Trump
administration’s Latin America policy had gone,
said Adam Isaacson, director of the Defense
Oversight program at the Washington Office on
Latin America.</p>
<p>“It beggars belief that professional diplomats or
military commanders would approve a half-baked
mission like this,” Isaacson added.</p>
<p>“The last thing this region needs right now is
bands of mercenaries paid by who knows whom trying
to install their preferred leaders by force,”
agreed Eric Farnsworth, a former U.S. diplomat and
vice president of the Council of the Americas, who
also reviewed the emails and agreed that the plot
seemed well advanced. “It’s not democratic and it
can’t be condoned.”</p>
<p>A grim example of what might have occurred
unfolded in November 2019, when at least 19
demonstrators, mainly poor and Indigenous MAS
supporters, were <a
href="https://www.la-razon.com/nacional/2020/10/21/comision-muertes-en-sacaba-y-senkata-fueron-por-armas-oficiales/"
moz-do-not-send="true">shot dead</a> by Bolivian
security forces under the oversight of Áñez,
Murillo, López, and Orellana. Among those <a
href="https://research.reading.ac.uk/coca-cocaine-bolivia-peru/wp-content/uploads/sites/127/Unorganized/Dia-de-la-madre-copy.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">killed</a> was Omar Calle
Siles, 28, a keen soccer player who left behind a
5-year-old son.</p>
<p>“We cry every day,” said Omar’s sister, Angélica
Calle Siles. “We haven’t been able to eat together
for the past 17 months because we feel his absence
at the table.”</p>
<p>“All we want is justice,” she added, “for the
people who have destroyed so many humble families
to pay, so my brother can rest in peace.”</p>
<p>Had the planned coup in 2020 gotten off the
ground, Gamarra warned, “there would have been so
much bloodletting in Bolivia.”</p>
<p><em><a href="https://jackmurphywrites.com/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Jack Murphy</a>
contributed reporting. </em></p>
</div>
</div>
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