State Dept. Awarding Contracts to Bolster Bolivia Counterdrug Operations

The U.S. State Dept. is taking steps to continue counterdrug operations in Bolivia, where it is arranging -- and will pay for -- the annual delivery of more than a quarter-million liters of fuel to the Government of Bolivia. According to a contracting document located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, this foreign-assistance program will enable the Morales Administration to carry out air-based operations executed in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy's Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS). State intends to award a sole-source contract for the fuel to the La Paz unit of the Coquimbo, Chile-based PETROPAC, LLC. PETROPAC is an affiliate of the energy/steel/shipping conglomerate Compania Minera del Pacifico S.A. (CMP) (home page in English and Espanol).

In addition to annually providing 250,000 liters of unleaded gasoline to Bolivia, PETROPAC additionally will deliver 22,000 liters of diesel fuel and 15,000 liters of liquid petroleum gas to Bolivian authorities, according to the document.

Meanwhile, State also is recruiting a privately contracted Counternarcotics Advisor. The contractor will provide to NAS-La Paz "critical analysis, advice, and recommendations on program directions, activity development, and tactical approaches to achieving" the goals of U.S.-led initiatives via Bolivia and Washington.

Likewise, State is seeking to recruit a Law Enforcement Training and Development Advisor] (LETDA) who will "develop and implement basic and advanced training programs that improve the capacity of the Government of Bolivia (GOB), the Bolivian National Police (BNP) and the counternarcotics police (Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Narcotrafico, FELCN) to respond to the threat of drug trafficking and other forms of transnational crime, including trafficking in persons."

It remains unknown whether these personnel-procurement actions will create new positions in Bolivia or will simply provide successors to existing ones.