The following text complements that from CIA and the origin of Medellin Cartel: Part 1
Barbie was a principal organizer -within Bolivian intelligence agencies- of a coup that saw drug lords and their military allies overthrow the Bolivian government and transformed Bolivia into the first modern narco-state.
In the Cocaine Coup, Barbie supported the Argentine military, which was dealing its own 'dirty war', 'disappearing' over 40,000 people. Besides labor activists, the coup makers targeted government officials participating in arresting drug criminals, many of whom joined the violent riot.
One interesting mini-Cocaine Coup was the creation, under Barbie, of a 'safe' pipeline of raw coca paste for a fledgling drug operation in Medellin. Such an operation became known as the Medellin Cartel and flooded the United States with enormous quantities of 'gold standard' cocaine in the 1980s.
Cocaine Coup in Bolivia set the stage for the Colombian clubs to transform themselves into the main suppliers of cocaine to the United States and 'it could not have been done without the tacit help of DEA and the active, covert help of the CIA (*)
(In 1983 Barbie was deported to Paris and condemned to life imprisonment in 1987. He died in prison in 1991.)
Sources:
Washington Post, April 28, 2001
Martin E. Andersen: Dossier Secreto.
Robert Parry: Lost History.
(*) Levine J: Big White Lie.
(*) Levine J: Deep Cover.