#south-america

Places (6)

• Bolivia Bolivia was a primary source country for the cocaine that flowed through the Contra-connected trafficking networks, with the politically connected Suarez family supplying the Blandón-Meneses drug ring.
• Chile Chile was the South American nation where CIA Deputy Director William Nelson ran the agency's controversial destabilization program that overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973.
• Ecuador Ecuador was a South American country affected by the cocaine paste smoking epidemic that spread from Peru and Bolivia in the 1970s, part of the broader Andean drug production zone.
• Lima Lima, the capital of Peru, was where the first documented epidemic of cocaine paste smoking occurred in the 1970s, foreshadowing the crack epidemic that would hit the United States.
• Peru Peru was the South American country where smoking coca paste originated in the 1970s, a practice that preceded and foreshadowed the crack cocaine epidemic in the United States.
• Venezuela Venezuela is a country in South America whose president, Hugo Chavez, was a close ally of Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras.