Bolivia: New US Chargé d’Affaires is Known Expert in Subversion and Destabilization
Orinoco Tribune, October 5, 2023 —
The newly appointed US chargé d’affaires in Bolivia, Debra Hevia, has been condemned by Bolivian political analysts and public opinion as an expert in subversive activities and destabilization, according to a report published by the local news outlet La Época.
The publication—specialized in political analysis—noted that it is “very important to refer to the fact that she had a position in the Operations Center of the Department of State (DOS), which is characterized as a space for designing political destabilization strategies.”
The article, written by Jacinto Roca, adds that the DOS is a working group dedicated to intelligence and special operations tasks, attached to the US State Department.
It further specifies that former US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, continued to operate from within that subversive structure, even after being expelled from Bolivia in 2008 for promoting and supporting the violent and secessionist actions of the anti-democratic opposition, led by Luis Fernando Camacho.
This interventionist regime change work utilized political intelligence reports provided by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which was also expelled from Bolivia that same year, the article reports.
According to journalist Pepe Pomacusi, Hevia—married to a Bolivian born in Tarija and with two children—shared a video in which she talked about the snowy La Paz Illimani, the marraquetas (the traditional bread of this city), and Bolivian hospitality, following the initiation of her duties in La Paz on September 14.
However, the report warns that behind this seemingly pleasant image—reinforced by mainstream social media platforms—that “there is a State Department official with experience and expertise in interventionism and such special operations, written in an invisible script.”
La Época noted that according to Hevia’s resumé, she holds the rank of minister counselor (equivalent to a two-star military rank), and has completed missions in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, and Ecuador. She has also worked in the Office of Central American Affairs, after working as a political advisor in Romania, the Netherlands, and Slovakia.
The news piece further highlights that Hevia’s areas of expertise relate to drug trafficking, human rights, and individual freedoms, according to her resumé. It should be noted that these areas are often cited by US foreign policy as grounds for their unlawful regime change operations.
The president of the US entity, Joe Biden, published a report on September 15 in which he includes Bolivia in a list of “the main drug transit countries or the main producing countries of illicit drugs for the fiscal year 2024.”
In response to this, the Bolivian minister of government, Eduardo del Castillo, criticized the US decision and stated that it was “prepared unilaterally and lacks technical support, with a clearly geopolitical backing to it.”
The list presented by Biden includes nations that have sovereign positions against the US empire’s hegemonic aspirations in global geopolitics, such as China and India (and the BRICS economic bloc), Colombia, Honduras, Laos, México, and Nicaragua, among others.