Dozens of trucks are waiting to cross the Chile-Bolivia border in the municipality of Colchane. Agency Anadolu (via Getty Images)
The case of Chilean truck driver Mario Bello showed once again that the illegal and stolen car smuggling mafias have exceeded the capabilities of the Bolivian state. Bello was shot dead on July 8 near the town of Challapata, capital of Abaroa province, considered the “red zone” where these smugglers operate, while he was looking for the truck that had been stolen from him in Chile and who he knew was nearby. Her story moved her compatriots, who followed her through the media.
In Bolivia, the situation was not surprising: cars stolen in Chile and freely traded on the Bolivian market have repeatedly embarrassed the country. Following the ordeal of Bello, who was shot in the back and likely unable to walk, Chilean Consul General in Bolivia Fernando Velasco announced there would be a high-level bilateral meeting to discuss the issue.
A large yellow-and-blue semi-truck was the only asset the trucker had to support his family and pay off his debts. On June 26, it was stolen in the Chilean city of Calama. I knew, because that’s what usually happens, the thieves would sell it to Bolivian smugglers of undocumented cars, or as they’re called in Bolivia, “chutos” cars. Due to its landlocked nature, Bolivia imports most of the goods it buys through Chile. In addition to legal trade, there is also smuggling, which is very diverse.
Among the most coveted goods are cars, which enter Bolivia through the more than 70 secret border crossings between the two countries. It used to be all about “chutos” cars; In recent years, there has been an increase in stolen vehicles, increasing the vulnerability of groups of informal traders.
More than a year ago, Chilean TV channel Meganoticias followed a Chilean group of stolen vehicle rescuers to Bolivia, proving the connections of high-ranking members of the Bolivian police force to the stolen car trade. One of these cars, which could be located using the GPS system, was in the hands of a police chief.
When Mario Bello, despite all the risks, found out that his truck had reached Bolivia on July 1, he crossed the border in search of him, accompanied by his two daughters and his son-in-law Luis Alfredo Anza. As one of his daughters later recounted, they asked the Bolivian police in the cities of Oruro and Uyuni for help, but did not receive it. Then some people posing as police officers, and one of them has already been arrested, contacted the police and gave them the location of the truck. Bello, Anza and one of these “guides” went to the place where the smugglers met them with bullets. They managed to escape, but the trucker was seriously injured. For a time it was thought the son-in-law had been kidnapped, which can happen to anyone entering the “red zones”, but Bolivian police found him trying to cross the border to return home.
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The government mobilized 250 police officers to arrest the perpetrators, who remain at large to this day. It is believed that they are two very wealthy smugglers with a history from the province of Abaroa.
The smuggling and trafficking of “chutos” cars has been an important avenue of social advancement in recent decades. The ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) has been accused of not sanctioning this practice, which allowed farmers who used bicycles and had to rely on middlemen to transport their produce for the last century to equip themselves with their own trucks and cars. Yes, without papers. Months ago, MAS deputy MP José Rengel Terrazas was accused by prosecutors of making $51 million in transfers to four countries, and caused astonishment when he justified that fortune by saying he was involved in the buying and selling of ” shock” was involved. and “transformers” (used cars converted to suit Bolivia’s needs).
Along with the undocumented vehicles are creeping in the stolen ones, which are sold at informal fairs across the country as if they were just “gunshots”. And they will also be confiscated by customs along with the others. That institution was in turmoil when months ago it was found that among the cars confiscated by the state from smugglers and given to some union institutions by President Luis Arce were units stolen in Chile.
According to the police, control would improve if Chile were to put information online about the vehicles wanted in that country more quickly. “A call to both countries so that what happened to my father does not happen to anyone else.” “Let it be a call for us to behave like brothers,” explained Carla, Mario Bello’s daughter, at the handover of the recovered truck by the Bolivian police. He said his dad was happy to have him back: “We made it mom,” he’d told her over the phone. And she thanked the police officers who helped her. “There are also good police officers,” he explained through tears.
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