Luis Arce Gómez (1938 – March 30, 2020) was a colonel in the

Bolivian Army The Bolivian Army () is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of Bolivia. Figures on the size and composition of the Bolivian army vary considerably, with little official data available. It is estimated that the army has between 26,000 and 6 ...

. In 1980 he backed the bloody coup (sometimes referred to as the "

Cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

Coup") that brought to power the General

Luis García Meza Luis García Meza Tejada (8 August 1929 – 29 April 2018) was a Bolivian general who served as the ''de facto'' 57th president of Bolivia from 1980 to 1981. He was a dictator convicted of human rights violations and leader of a violent coup. ...

. Arce served as García Meza's Minister of the Interior.

Biography

Early life

Arce was born in 1938 in

Sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

, Bolivia. He was the cousin of the notorious Bolivian drug lord

Roberto Suárez Gómez Roberto Suárez Gómez (January 8, 1932 – July 20, 2000), also known as the King of Cocaine, was a Bolivian drug lord and trafficker who played a major role in the expansion of cocaine trafficking in Bolivia. In his prime, Suárez made $400 mi ...

Career

Arce's tenure as Minister involved the passing of such measures as the banning of all political parties, the incarceration and/or exile of most political opponents, the repression of

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s, and the censorship of the

mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...

. Arce had said that all Bolivians who may be opposed to the new order should "walk around with their written will under their arms." The García Meza government was also deeply involved in

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

activities, with Arce as a link. Eventually, Arce was forced to resign, as was García.

Incarceration

In the late 1980s, Arce was extradited to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where he was put in jail, serving a lengthy sentence for drug trafficking. On April 21, 1993, while he was still incarcerated, he was condemned by the Bolivian justice system to 30 years in prison for serious human rights violations incurred by the regime he took part in. In November 2007 he was released from his US prison sentence and applied for political asylum in the US. His application was denied, and on July 9, 2009, he was deported back to Bolivia to serve out the sentence for his convictions there. He was held in Chonchocoro Prison in

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

. In 2009, he was in poor health but apparently expressed a willingness to speak about his role in the 1980-81 dictatorship. In September 2010, Arce Gómez offered to share his knowledge about the remains of people who disappeared during the dictatorship in "exchange for something": "If they want to know something... I have to gain something as well. It's not free." His sentence is not subject to negotiation. Interior Minister Sacha Llorenty stated that Arce Gómez could face disciplinary sanctions for refusing to reveal this information, although the legal basis for doing so was disputed by legal experts. On 17 January 2017, Italian courts condemned Arce to life imprisonment for his role in the death of Italian dual-nationals in the 1970s and 1980s. The deaths had been part of

Operation Condor Operation Condor (; ) was a campaign of political repression by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America, involving intelligence operations, coups, and assassinations of left-wing sympathizers in South America which fo ...

In popular culture

General Cocombre, a character based on Gómez, is featured briefly in the 1983 film ''

Scarface Scarface may refer to: Gangster-related * Scarface, nickname for Al Capone (1899–1947), an American gangster and a businessman. * ''Scarface'' (novel), a novel by Armitage Trail, loosely based on Capone's rise to power ** ''Scarface'' (1932 ...

''. The picture of Cocombre that the Bolivian cocaine investigator Orlando Gutiérrez shows on TV during his interview (that Alejandro Sosa shows to

Tony Montana Antonio "Tony" Montana is a fictional character and the villain protagonist of the 1983 film '' Scarface''. This character is portrayed by Al Pacino in the film and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game '' Scarface: The Worl ...

and the rest of his guests), is in fact of Gómez.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arce Gomez, Luis 1938 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Bolivian politicians Bolivian anti-communists Bolivian expatriates in Spain Bolivian expatriates in the United States Bolivian drug traffickers Bolivian military personnel Bolivian people imprisoned abroad Bolivian photographers Deaths from sepsis Immigration ministers of Bolivia Interior ministers of Bolivia Justice ministers of Bolivia People convicted in absentia People extradited from Bolivia People extradited to the United States Foreign nationals imprisoned in the United States Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government People from Sucre