Barvechos is the capital of Bolivia's Barvechos Province. Barvechos was historically a mining outpost, but, after the Santa Blanca Cartel arrived in 2008 and seized power in the 2010s, Barvechos developed into the cartel's money laundering hub. In 2019, the cartel attempted to detonate a dirty bomb in the city to punish its residents for their support of the Kataris 26 resistance movement, but this was thwarted by American special forces during Operation Silent Spade.