Government says it ‘dismantled criminal organization’ inside prosecutor’s office
Bolivian police arrested Attorney General Roger Mariaca at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz on October 1, two days after the United States revoked his visa over allegations linking him to drug trafficking and corruption.
Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo said Mariaca was detained on suspicion of involvement in a criminal organization, money laundering and drug trafficking, according to Bolivian broadcaster Unitel. “We have dismantled a criminal organization embedded in the justice system and in the administration of a very important institution, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which, led by Roger Mariaca, became a criminal organization dedicated to encouraging and protecting narcoterrorism in the country,” Oviedo said.
Four senior officials were arrested in addition to Mariaca, Oviedo said. They include Santa Cruz departmental prosecutor Alberto Zeballos, who was also targeted by Washington; police Maj. Rubén Aparicio; and senior prosecutor Martín Irusta.
The U.S. government had included Mariaca and Zeballos among Latin American officials targeted under a new visa policy. According to the State Department, Mariaca’s alleged actions “endanger President Trump’s efforts to combat narcoterrorism, while undermining the very democratic institutions that Bolivia, as a participant in the Shield of the Americas program, seeks to strengthen.” Washington accused Mariaca of accepting bribes to facilitate drug trafficking and help criminals evade justice.
Bolivian authorities initially provided few details about the arrest and did not specify the local charges or the warrant under which Mariaca was detained. The Attorney General’s Office in Sucre characterized the operation as a “kidnapping” and an illegal detention, and said police entered its headquarters to carry out the action. Mariaca had previously rejected the U.S. action against him, calling it “political interference.”
On Monday, the State Department revoked the visas of Latin American officials and businesspeople under a new Trump administration policy targeting people it accuses of undermining democratically elected governments through corruption or drug trafficking. The department targeted officials, judges, prosecutors and businesspeople, both current and former, from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Bolivia had the largest number of people affected by the measures.
Bolivia’s Legislative Assembly is scheduled to meet Monday to consider creating a special parliamentary commission to investigate the allegations behind the U.S. measures.