The Devil's Agent: Life, Times and Crimes of Nazi Klaus Barbie by Peter McFarren & Fadrique Iglesias

Author:Peter McFarren & Fadrique Iglesias
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781483654799
Publisher: Xlibris US
Published: 2014-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 97. Cover of the book El Rey de la Cocaína (The King of Cocaine: My Life with Roberto Suárez Gómez and the Birth of the First Narcostate) by Ayda Levy, 2012.

Levy described the occasion when she and her husband travelled to La Paz in October 1979 and met privately with Colonel Alberto Natusch Busch at a downtown hotel. Following the meeting, they were invited to a dinner at the officers’ club where they shared a table with the colonel, some businessmen, and Klaus Altmann (Barbie) who sat next to her. All present expressed concern over the political and economic crisis of the country.

A few days later, Roberto Suárez asked Ayda Levy to organize a private dinner with Klaus and Regine Barbie in the city of Cochabamba. Levy tells of being initially impressed by Regine as a charming and well-educated woman until she learned that Levy’s father, Shalom Levy Simonds, was born in Haifa (now Israel) and had immigrated to Bolivia around 1913. Levy recalled Regine’s change of attitude when she learned her family was Jewish:

As I talked about my background, the expression on Regine’s face changed until it was completely disfigured and showed an expression of disgust. We barely exchanged words the rest of the evening. That night I did not understand the reason for her strange behavior. I found out years later when I learned the real identity of her husband. We were never friends.

The main subject of the dinner conversation was the recent surge of kidnappings and assaults that took place in the main cities of the country, caused no doubt by an increase in the traffic of cocaine. Roberto was worried that the price of drugs was so low that even a child could buy them with the little money he carried in his pocket. The German [Barbie] said with a firm voice that bothered me: “You, the Bolivians, are not prepared to live in democracy, you need a hard-line government, similar to those that rule neighboring countries.” He ended the conversation saying that Dr. Walter Guevara Arze, who was designated by congress as interim constitutional president, was too weak to face the problems that lay ahead.

After the dinner, Suárez Gómez referred to the meeting with Regine and Klaus Barbie:

They are not bad people. She is cold and a bit strange, like all Germans, but he has very good contacts with the governments of neighboring countries, and he could be very useful to me in the future.

A few days after Barbie and Suárez Gómez met, Colonel Natusch Busch staged a violent military coup that overthrew the government of Walter Guevara Arce. According to Levy, Roberto Suárez sent a message to the military leader through Barbie demanding that he step down and allow for a civilian government to assume power.

Ayda Levy said that Barbie was a guest at her husband’s birthday celebration in early 1980. She wrote:

Among other things Altmann commented: “The last few weeks I have dedicated myself to travelling to all the capitals of the departments and its provinces and making surveys among different sectors of society.

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