#south-america

Places (7)

• 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.
• Colombia Colombia is a country in South America that was the world's primary source of cocaine during the 1980s and has been profoundly shaped by drug trafficking, particularly through the operations of the Cali Drug Cartel and the Medellin Cartel.
• 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.