LA PAZ (Reuters) - A former Bolivian interior minister known as "Minister for Cocaine" for his role in turning the impoverished nation into a narco-state during a military dictatorship in the 1980s has died after decades in prison, local media said on Tuesday, citing a Bolivian government minister.
Luis Arce Gomez, reported by local media to be 82, was interior minister in the Andean nation's 1980-81 dictatorship of General Luis Garcia Meza. He was accused of presiding over the deaths and disappearances of more than 100 political prisoners, as well as the detentions of 4,000 more who alleged human rights abuses.