Bolivia has found more documents on suspicious munitions shipments from Argentina

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivian Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo announced the discovery of an “entry certificate” from the Bolivian Air Force certifying the importation of anti-tumult ammunition, pepper spray, and tear gas grenades from Argentina, Argentina’s ambassador to La Paz, Ariel Basteiro, confirmed to Télam on Sunday (01)

The discovery adds a new piece of evidence – the third such document found in Bolivia – that could be included in the investigation into the alleged smuggling of supplies to the transitional government in the days following the November 2019 coup against Evo Morales.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Bolivia

Basteiro, who will meet with Novillo on Monday on the issue, told this agency that this new discovery “corresponds to a record, an entry transfer, of, according to the minister, six items.”

Argentina President Alberto Fernández, on July 12, officially denounced opposing ex-president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) and almost a dozen officials of the opposing Cambiemos administration for sending “repressive material” to Bolivia in November 2019.

The event occurred when Bolivian president Evo Morales, who had been in power since 2019, was forced to resign amid violent protests in what the Argentine agency describes as a “coup d’état.”

The current administration accuses Macri and his officials of illegally sending arms and ammunition to Bolivia, placing the material “at the disposal of the dictatorship which recently took power in the neighboring country, headed by Jeanine Áñez.”

The judicial charges state that the quantities and destinations declared at different control instances, including customs, were tampered with to collaborate with the new regime in the neighboring country.

Fernández reportedly considered the suspicion “very serious” and said the complaint was necessary, according to the local press.

On July 17, Argentine prosecutor Claudio Navas was tasked to initiate an investigation against former President Mauricio Macri and other members of his government for allegedly smuggling weapons (ammunition) to Bolivia to suppress social protests in that country in 2019 by taking up a complaint filed by the government of his successor, Alberto Fernández.

In addition to Macri, Navas charged the former Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, and the Minister of Defense, Oscar Aguad, and the former Argentine ambassador to Bolivia, Normando Alvarez García, and three officials of the Argentine Gendarmerie.