Qualla: Villa Tunari Massacre

Villa Tunari Massacre: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The coca farmers came to talk. On the morning of 27 June 1988, thousands of cocaleros -- peasant coca growers from Bolivia's Chapare region -- walked to the DIRECO eradication agency compound in Villa Tunari to confront officials about the use of herbicides on their crops. They found the compound empty. When their leaders crossed to the adjacent UMOPAR military police barracks to speak with the commander, they were admitted. What happened next turned a protest into a massacre that would reshape Bolivian politics for decades. UMOPAR reinforcements arrived at 10:30 that morning and opened fire on unarmed civilians, killing between nine and twelve people, including a woman named Felicidad Mendoza de Peredo who was shot in the nearby market grounds. Others, fleeing the gunfire, fell to their deaths over a steep drop into the San Mateo River. Three of the dead were never recovered.

Read more: Villa Tunari Massacre on Qualla

Villa Tunari Massacre: The Leaf at the Center

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

To understand what happened at Villa Tunari, you have to understand what coca means in Bolivia. The coca leaf is not cocaine. For indigenous Andean communities, it is a staple -- chewed for energy at high altitude, brewed as tea, central to religious ceremonies practiced for cent...

Read more: Villa Tunari Massacre on Qualla

Villa Tunari Massacre: The Morning Everything Changed

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The coca growers had been mobilizing since late May 1988, protesting the pending passage of Law 1008, which would criminalize coca production in the Chapare. DIRECO staff had already used herbicides to destroy crops in violation of agreements between the government and farmers. O...

Read more: Villa Tunari Massacre on Qualla

Villa Tunari Massacre: Repression Beyond the Barracks

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The killing did not end at the UMOPAR compound. In the hours and days that followed, security forces unleashed a campaign of violence across the Chapare. In Villa Tunari, helicopters circled overhead as soldiers raided houses. Residents were arrested, union and civic leaders were...

Read more: Villa Tunari Massacre on Qualla

Villa Tunari Massacre: Seeds of a Movement

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Evo Morales was among the coca farmers present that day. A year later, on the anniversary of the massacre, he spoke at the commemoration. The following day, UMOPAR agents beat him and left him in the mountains to die; other union members rescued him. The massacre catalyzed the co...

Read more: Villa Tunari Massacre on Qualla