Roberto Suárez Gómez

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Suárez and the second or maternal family name is Gómez.
Roberto Suárez Gómez
Born8 January 1932
Santa Ana del Yacuma, Beni, Bolivia
Died20 July 2000 (aged 68)
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
NationalityBolivian
Other namesKing of Cocaine
El Padrino (The Godfather)
El Robin Hood del Beni (The Robin Hood of Beni)
Don Roberto
SuccessorJorge Roca Suarez
SpouseAyda Levy
Children4
Parent(s)Nicomedes Suárez and Blanca Gómez Roca
Criminal chargeDrug trafficking and smuggling
Penalty15 years imprisonment

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 million annually, was one of the major suppliers of the Medellín Cartel as well as the leader of the largest Bolivian drug empire, and was considered to be the biggest cocaine producer in the world.[1][2][3]

Born to a prominent family, Suárez entered the drug trade and made millions from cocaine in the 1970s and 1980s.[4] He is known for financing the 1980 coup d'état, known as the "Cocaine Coup", and was a major supplier of cocaine for various criminal organizations.[5] Suárez was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was released after serving half his sentence. He died on July 20, 2000, from a heart attack.

Early life[edit]

Suárez was born on January 8, 1932, to a wealthy cattle-ranching family in the tropical Beni Department of Bolivia.[6][7] His parents were Nicomedes "Cattle King" Suárez Franco and Blanca Gómez Roca. Suárez was the descendant of the Suárez brothers "rubber barons", famous for expanding the rubber trade worldwide, expanding westernization in the Bolivian northern Amazon, and for singlehandedly financing the Columna Porvenir, during the Acre war with Brazil. He was also the great-grandson of Nicolás Suárez Callaú.

Criminal career[edit]

Suarez originally owned airplanes to support his legitimate cattle operations. In the 1970s, Suárez first entered into the cocaine trade, conducting business with the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Later he recruited Bolivian coca producers into his company "La Corporación" (transl. the corporation).[2][8] Suárez had a fleet of aircraft, primarily the Cessna 206 and the Douglas DC-3, which flew cocaine shipments from the Bolivian Amazon to Colombia,[9] selling the cocaine at $9,000 per kilogram.[10]

Suárez's wife Ayda Levy recounted in detail that Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro contacted Suárez and Escobar in January 1983 and invited them to Cuba.[10] Upon visiting the island nation, Castro had planned to use drugs as a weapon against "Yankee imperialism". Fidel and Raúl charged millions of dollars per day in exchange for giving coverage to cocaine trafficking and the use of airports for refueling airplanes. In self-defense against the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Suárez established his own private air force, as well as a private army of 1,500 soldiers and Libyan-trained bodyguards.[11]

With aid from the Argentine military dictatorship, Suárez financed the military coup and bankrupted the government, which collapsed. The coup installed a dictatorship in 1980, in which Luis García Meza would be president and Suárez's cousin Luis Arce Gómez was Minister of the Interior, and so he received political protection for his enterprise[2] Arce Gómez ordered the killings of many Bolivians, including union leaders and intellectuals such as Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz. During the 1980s, Suárez' relationship with Escobar slowly deteriorated because of Escobar's murderous activities, which contrasted with Suárez's use of violence only as a last resort.[12]

In 1981, Suárez's favored son Roberto "Robby" Levy was arrested in Switzerland and was extradited to the United States.[13] In a letter to Ronald Reagan in 1983, Suárez offered to pay Bolivia's foreign debt of more than $3 billion if he and his son received amnesty.[8][14]

The downfall of Roberto Suárez began when he met undercover DEA agent, Michael Levine in 1980 when Levine was serving as DEA's special agent in charge of undercover operations in the Southern Cone, with a residence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, As Levine recounts in National bestseller The Big White Lie,[15] he was introduced to Suárez by a confidential informant as a Spanish speaking mafioso from the US. After days of negotiations in south America the two contracted for the sale of 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of cocaine to be delivered to Levine in South Florida, at the time the biggest undercover drug deal in history. Also at the time, while among international drug traffickers Suárez was known to be the biggest purveyor of coca base (raw product) and cocaine on earth, he was entirely unknown to the DEA, who at first would not authorize Levine spending any funds on the operation. As Levine describes in his book, he and a small group of dedicated DEA undercover agents had to work around obstacles and dangerous roadblocks put in their path by DEA management, CIA and the Department of Justice to successfully complete the largest undercover cocaine seizure in history at that point. Levine and his team were also able to document CIA protection of the Suárez cartel from prosecution and incarceration in the United States. Levine and his undercover DEA team were also able to document the CIA's role in causing the coca revolution of July 17, 1980, the bloodiest revolution in that nation's history, that had its purpose the destruction of the anti-drug faction in the Bolivian government that had been working with Levine and DEA to bring down the Roberto Suárez organization.[16] Subsequently, on the basis of Levine's book, on March 3, 2011, Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled the DEA from all operations in Bolivia. As a result of the investigation Michael Levine was targeted for the death by both the Bolivian Santa Cruz Mafia and the Medellín Cartel who placed a $200,000 price on Levine's head, calling him "El Judio Trigueño" (the Dark Jew). In secret testimony held before the US Senate Kerry Committee, Ramon Milian Rodriguez, convicted of laundering more than $1 billion in drug money for the Medellín Cartel, testified that Suárez was the biggest and most powerful drug trafficker in the world.[citation needed]

Arrest and release[edit]

On July 20, 1988, Suárez was arrested by the Bolivian National Police and his hacienda was raided; more than one and a half tons of cocaine was found. He was sentenced to 15 years in the San Pedro prison for drug trafficking but served only 7 years. He was released in 1996 due to accounts of good behavior and declining health, having suffered two heart attacks in prison.[17] His nephew and successor, Jorge Roca Suárez (known as "Techo de Paja"), was also serving a 30-year sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.[18] During his time in prison, Suárez was said to have shown regret for his crimes, had found religious faith in jail and preferred to be photographed next to images of Jesus Christ.[19] Suárez had lost most of his fortune, spent on the construction of buildings and other philanthropic activities.[20] He spent the remaining years of his life managing his hacienda.

Personal life[edit]

Suárez owned various lavish homes in Bolivia, including a hacienda known as "El Mosquito" ("The Mosquito"), in northern Bolivia and an armored palace in Santa Ana del Yacuma.[21] His family owned more than 16 million acres of farmland, which he used for cattle ranching, farming and sometimes airstrips.[1] He gained popularity by building churches, hospitals, streets in rural villages and soccer fields.[19] In his hometown province of Beni, Suárez was most popular around the locals and often called "Robin Hood".[22] His Robin Hood image gained popularity and protection from the Bolivian government and the Roman Catholic Church.[citation needed]

Suárez married Ayda Levy Martínez in 1958 and had four children; Roberto, Gary, Heidy and Harold Suárez Levy. The couple split after Levy discovered his involvement in the drug trade but remained on good terms. Suárez was heavily involved in politics.[23] Suárez's son, Roberto "Robby" Levy, was killed by Bolivian police and DEA agents on March 22, 1990, in Santa Cruz.[24]

Death and legacy[edit]

On Thursday evening, July 20, 2000, Suárez died from a heart attack in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.[8][14][25] Weeks before his death, in a TV interview, Suárez expressed remorse for his crimes and stated "The worst mistake I ever made in my life was to have gotten involved in cocaine trafficking".[6] Suárez was buried in a small niche in Cochabamba.[26]

The character Alejandro Sosa in the 1983 American crime film Scarface and the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours was based on Suárez.[27] On November 21, 2012, Suárez's ex-wife Ayda Levy published an account of his life, entitled The King of Cocaine: My Life With Roberto Suárez And The Birth Of The First Narco-State.[28]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Long, William R. (31 August 1988). "After Nephew Steals Business, Suarez Gomez Winds Up in Jail : Treachery, Police Pressure Ended Bolivia Drug King's Rule". LA Times.
  2. ^ a b c "Suárez Gómez, Roberto". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  3. ^ "Bolivian Drug Lord Is Captured". The New York Times. 22 July 1988.
  4. ^ JJMMJJ (22 July 2000). "Roberto Suarez Gomez ("King of Cocaine"), 68". Newsgroup: alt.obituaries. Usenet: [email protected].
  5. ^ Gunson, Phil (3 August 2000). "Roberto Suárez". The Guardian.
  6. ^ a b "Roberto Suarez Gomez; Bolivian Drug Trafficker". LA Times. 24 July 2000.
  7. ^ "BOLIVIANS FIND A PATRON IN REPUTED DRUG CHIEF". NY Times. 15 August 1982.
  8. ^ a b c Lutteman, Markus (2007). El Choco : svensken i Bolivias mest ökända fängelse (in Swedish). Norstedts. pp. 118–120. ISBN 978-91-7263-878-5.
  9. ^ "El rey de la cocaína: Mi vida con Roberto Suárez Gómez y el nacimiento del primer narcoestado". AméricaEconomía (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  10. ^ a b "Una vida cinematográfica: Revelaciones de la viuda del boliviano Roberto Suárez, el rey de la cocaína".
  11. ^ Naylor, R.T., p. 170
  12. ^ "La cinematográfica vida de un jefe narco - América".
  13. ^ Dominic Streatfeild (1 July 2003). Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography. Picador. p. 245. ISBN 978-0-312-42226-4.
  14. ^ a b "Roberto Suarez Gomez; Bolivian Drug Trafficker". Los Angeles Times. July 24, 2000. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  15. ^ Levine, Michael (2013). The big white lie : the deep cover operation that exposed the CIA sabotage of the drug war : an undercover odyssey. Laura Kavanau-Levine. Lexington, KY: Michael Levine. ISBN 978-0-9852386-2-9. OCLC 840399912.
  16. ^ "Michael Levine: Former Undercover DEA Agent and Author". www.michaellevinebooks.com. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  17. ^ AP Archive (21 July 2015). BOLIVIA: LA PAZ: DRUG LORD ROBERTO SUAREZ GOMEZ IS RELEASED. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ "Drug boss model for 'Scarface' dies in Bolivia". Independent. 23 July 2000.
  19. ^ a b "Roberto Suarez Gomez, Bolivia's King of Cocaine, died on July 20th, aged 68". The Economist. 3 August 2000.
  20. ^ "Cuando el "Rey de la Cocaína" fundó el primer narcoestado". 25 November 2012.
  21. ^ Streisland, Dominic, p. 249
  22. ^ "The Incredible Story of The Bolivian Drug Lord Who Built The 'General Motors Of Drug Trafficking'". Business Insider. 27 November 2012.
  23. ^ Danny (22 November 2012). "BOLIVIA... LO MEJOR QUE TENEMOS: "HOY BOLIVIA ESTA LLENA DE NARCOS MEXICANOS": GARY SUAREZ GOMEZ, HIJO DE QUIEN FUERA EL "REY DE LA COCAINA" DURANTE LOS AÑOS 80, ROBERTO SUAREZ GOMEZ".
  24. ^ Redacción (2000-07-22). "Murió el narco que quiso pagar la deuda de Bolivia". Diario Río Negro | Periodismo en la Patagonia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  25. ^ "Bolivia 'cocaine king' dies in home from heart attack". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
  26. ^ Marinelli, Alejandro (27 November 2012). "When The King Of Cocaine Built The General Motors Of Drug Trafficking". Worldcrunch.
  27. ^ "El Rey Blanco". Pagina 12 (in Spanish). March 10, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  28. ^ "Mexican Narcos Dominate Bolivia".

Bibliography[edit]

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