Former Bolivian president Luis Arce detained on corruption charges | Bolivia
Bolivia’s former president, Luis Arce, was detained on Wednesday on charges that he “enabled illegal enrichment” by allowing state funds intended for Indigenous communities to be transferred to the personal accounts of government officials.
Arce served as Bolivia’s president until last month, when he handed over the sash to center-right former senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, who won the second round of elections that ended nearly 20 years of dominance by the left-wing Movement for Socialism. Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).
The new interior minister, Marco Antonio Oviedo, said Arce was being investigated as the “main person responsible” for economic losses of at least 360 million bolivivas (£39.2 million) related to a fund aimed at transferring hydrocarbon tax revenues to development projects for Indigenous peoples.
The natural gas boom was a key driver of astonishing economic growth that lifted thousands out of poverty in the early years of former president Evo Morales’ administration, during which Arce served as finance minister.
However, the fund was closed in 2015 following a corruption scandal involving alleged misuse of resources, but the accusations did not reach Arce until now.
After Paz Pereira took office, investigations flared up again. President at least 10 commission To monitor and investigate Mas managements, one of them focused on the “Indigenous fund”.
Oviedo said on Wednesday that Arce failed in his duty by allowing large amounts of money to be transferred to officials’ personal accounts during his time as economy minister for “ghost projects” that were never implemented. One of these officials is former Mas MP Lidia Patty, who has been detained since Friday.
“He is the main responsible for this multimillion-dollar economic damage that has occurred in the country,” Arce said at a press conference. “While serving as economy minister, Arce Catacora was president of this fund and therefore had direct responsibility.”
Morales was not named in the lawsuit. The country’s first Indigenous president has been hiding in the coca-growing Chapare region for more than a year; Here, hundreds of farmers are preventing police or the military from issuing an arrest warrant against him for allegedly fathering a 15-year-old girl in 2006.
Paz Pereira has yet to directly address Arce’s arrest, but vice president Edmand Lara shared a post. video He congratulated the police who caught the former president on his social media account and said, “We said that Luis Arce will be the first one to go to prison, and we deliver. Everyone who steals from this country will come back, down to the last penny, and will be held accountable.”
Lara, a former police officer, became famous on TikTok for making accusations of corruption.
According to Chief Prosecutor Róger Mariaca, Arce remained silent during his interrogation at the headquarters of the Anti-Crime Special Forces in La Paz.
Mariaca said she requested Arce’s arrest because of the risk of him escaping or obstructing the process.
A preliminary hearing will be held on Thursday, and at this hearing the judge will decide whether Arce will be tried in custody or free.
María Nela Prada Tejada, one of Arce’s former ministers, was the first to do this. condemn The former president was arrested on Wednesday. He said he was innocent and had already presented all relevant evidence in his defense while serving as a minister.
“This is a complete abuse of power,” he said. “We hope that this case will not be used as an opportunity to commit political persecution.”
