Mudslides ruin Bolivian capital

Rescue teams on Tuesday continued to salvage what they could in more than a half a dozen neighborhoods in the Bolivian capital of La Paz following last weekend's devastating mudslide, a disaster being described as the worst in the country's history.

More than 4,000 people have been affected by the mudslides, which were brought on by the torrential rains that have pounded the country for several months. La Paz Mayor Louis Revilla said that the mudslides occurred in areas east and south of the capital.

In eight neighborhoods, more than 250 homes were completely destroyed. Residents, who had been evacuated beforehand, came back to their homes and picked through the damage hoping to salvage whatever they could find of their belongings.

On Saturday, entire homes, paved streets and playgrounds were literally washed away by tons of mud. A cemetery in the La Paz neighborhood Valle de las Flores was split in two.

Miraculously no one was reported injured or killed in the mudslide. According to the La Paz daily La Razón, neighbors began contacting each other in an effort to escape before the disaster took place. More than 200 volunteers have been mobilized to the affected areas to help clear the mess and start the rebuilding process.

On Sunday, President Evo Morales visited the disaster areas. His vice president, Álvaro García Linera, pledged that the government would help victims recover. "Many of you have lost the homes that you spent so much time and effort building, and I want to tell you that we are not going to abandon you," the Bolivian news agency ABI quoted him as saying.

Ex-police chief busted

The former head of the country's counter-narcotics unit was arrested in Panama and extradited to the United States after a Miami grand jury indicted him on cocaine trafficking charges.

René Sanabria, a former general who headed the FELCN counter-narcotics police from 2007 to 2008, was accused of smuggling cocaine shipments from Bolivia to the United States by way of Panama. He was arrested on Thursday by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration and put on a plane to Miami where he faces drug charges in a US District Court.

According to the charges, Sanabria was responsible for smuggling more than 144 kilos of cocaine in Miami last November. Several other alleged coconspirators have also been arrested.