Bolivia, a hotspot in the Global Jihad
By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 07/06/2026
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Evo Morales' international relations were characterized by placing Bolivian diplomacy at the service of any anti-Western cause that arose. He began by breaking relations with Israel, then expelled the DEA, and finally sealed agreements with the Iranian theocracy.
In September 2007, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a whirlwind tour of Latin America. With the aim of meeting with coca grower Morales, one of his stops was La Paz. After the diplomatic honors, the two leaders signed cooperation agreements worth $1.1 billion.
In September 2008, Evo Morales traveled to Tehran and agreed with Ahmadinejad to accelerate the implementation of joint projects. On that occasion, the leaders accused the UN Nuclear Weapons Council of interfering in a sovereign nation. It is more than obvious that the Iranian regime was interested in nothing other than the nuclear supplies that abound in the country.
A year later, Iran sponsored a TV channel in Chapare, the main stronghold of Morales's shock troops, and a hospital in El Alto. Several opposition members, including then-congresswoman Lourdes Millares, denounced that doctors and nurses were forced to wear the Islamic veil inside the hospital.
The events made it clear that all that "goodwill" from the Iranian ayatollahs was not about technical assistance in the area of health, but rather a colonialist advance of Shiite Islam.
In 2011, General Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Minister of Defense, inaugurated the Anti-Imperialist School in the department of Santa Cruz. This event marked the complete subjugation of the Bolivian Armed Forces to Iran's expansionist plans, as all instruction was placed in the hands of Iranian military personnel and experts. At the opening ceremony of the military center, Evo Morales stated: "The objective of the school is to build an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist ideology that links the Armed Forces with social movements and counteracts the influence of the School of the Americas."
During Arce Catacora's administration, Iran's militaristic advance was consolidated, as on July 20, 2023, Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo flew to Tehran and signed a memorandum of understanding on security and defense cooperation with General Mohammad Reza Qarai Ashtiani. The theocratic regime described the agreement as including the sale of military equipment, personnel training, the provision of Shahed drones, and intelligence sharing.
Our neighboring countries viewed these agreements with concern. In fact, Patricia Bullrich denounced that Bolivia granted Bolivian passports to Iranian citizens, not just ordinary civilians, but members of its shock troops. Regarding this, Grover Colque, in his book, *Bolivia, an Asymmetric Threat to the Americas*, states: “Iranian penetration in Bolivia has two facets: 1) a change in military doctrine and 2) the training of violent cadres, especially in the hotspots of Achacachi, the southern region of Cochabamba, and Chapare. These trained and radicalized elements are then exported to the conflicts in our neighboring countries.”
In November 2025, Rodrigo Paz assumed the presidency of Bolivia for the second time in two decades, hoping to emerge from the nightmare of the Movement for Socialism (MAS). Indeed, his first steps were in the right direction: he re-established relations with Israel, announced the return of the DEA—expelled by Morales in 2008—and participated in the Shield of the Americas summit at Trump National Doral in March 2026, joining the regional coordination mechanism for defense and intelligence with twelve other countries.
However, six months into the administration, reality shows that it all amounted to nothing more than good intentions. Chapare remains an epicenter of organized crime and ongoing conflict; Abya Yala TV continues to broadcast; Iranian civilian cooperation projects—hospitals, clinics, and dairy plants—have not been audited; relations with Cuba have not been severed; Bolivia has not designated Hezbollah, Hamas, or the IRGC as terrorist organizations, despite explicit pressure from Washington; and allegations of Iranian activists' presence in the country have not been investigated.
In closing, the country's current crisis, with over thirty days of road blockades and several deaths, is not solely a national issue. All the anti-Western regimes (Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba) are involved, as they intend to make the country the new epicenter of their operations. This is something the government seems either not to understand or, worse, not to care about.
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