Bolivia arrested its attorney general on Wednesday night, days after the United States accused him of soliciting and accepting bribes connected to drug trafficking.
In an operation in the middle of the night, authorities “dismantled a criminal organization” and arrested 14 people, the country’s interior minister said. Four of the 14 were arrested in an attempt to haul bundles of cash out of the home of the attorney general and into the back of an ambulance, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo said.
On Monday, the State Department accused Bolivian Attorney General Roger Mariaca of involvement in “significant corruption” and helping “violent criminals evade justice.” Mariaca has denied the allegations; he says they’re part of external efforts to influence ongoing investigations, including a probe into Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine political consultant known as “MAGA’s man” in Latin America.
An official with Mariaca’s office denounced the arrest as a “kidnapping.”
Mariaca was elected attorney general during the administration of socialist President Luis Arce. Bolivia is now led by right-wing President Rodrigo Paz, a Trump administration ally.
The State Department declared Mariaca and 12 other Bolivians and their families ineligible for entry into the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday morning said in a post on X the Trump administration “stands firmly” with Paz and the Bolivian government “as it takes bold and decisive actions to combat narco-trafficking, systemic corruption, and transnational organized crime.”
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