By Theodore Shoebat

The new interim government of Bolivia has recently asked Israel for help to fight ‘the Left.’ The new government of Bolivia took over the Evo Morales government after allegations of voter fraud and the military pressured Morales to leave his position. The interim government, unlike the prior administration, is Right wing and is backed by the wealthy elite of the Santa Cruze region of Bolivia. According to Haaretz, Bolivia’s interim government has made reference to plots being contrived by Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and other Left-wing forces to destabilize the country. Bolivia’s Interior Minister, Arturo Murillo, asserted that the Bolivian police is investigating Left-wing radical activity who they say are linked to drug traffickers who they claim sparked the unrest after Morales resigned.  “We’ve invited them to help us. They’re used to dealing with terrorists. They know how to handle them,” Murillo said of the Israelis. “The only thing we want is to bring peace.”

The Right-wing interim government requesting assistance from Israel reminds me of how the Right-wing monarchist organization, Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) backed Israeli military trainers to train Columbian paramilitaries. In the 1980s, the TFP supported the stay of Yair Klein — an Israeli arms dealer and trainer — in Columbia while he trained paramilitaries who would commit a massacre in that country. Yair Klein, a former elite soldier of the Israeli Army and leader of the group, in fact, stated in an interview with El Espectador  in 1989, that he was in Columbia as a military trainer, that he was hired to train, and that the anti-communist organization, “Tradition, Family and Property” (TFP) supported his stay in the country. According to an AP report, “Yair Klein is accused of training far-right paramilitary groups in the 1980s that stole land and murdered Colombians during a decade-long reign of terror across the countryside.” In another AP article it reads that Klein “confirmed that he did instruct the far-right death squads in how to eliminate the leftist insurgency.” The leading ideologue for the Pinochet regime was one Jaime Guzman, a TFP activist with ties to the paramilitary group, Frente Nazional Patria y Libertad (Fatherland and Freedom National Front). The TFP is really a part of the militant Right.

The argument is that Klein simply trained the paramilitaries to protect the property of landowners. But truth is that these paramilitaries became more than just security, but terrorists involved in drug trafficking. Klein’s trainees would eventually form into death squads. Regardless if Klein intended this or not, the question still stands: If Israel trains Bolivia’s troops, will they turn into death squads who will commit massacres?