Bolivia's attorney general, Roger Mariaca, was detained Wednesday night in the eastern region of Santa Cruz, two days after the United States revoked his visa over alleged ties to drug trafficking, while police raided the offices of the Attorney General's Office in Sucre, according to official sources cited by AFP and a complaint from the Public Ministry itself.
"The detention of prosecutor Mariaca is confirmed," a source from the Ministry of Government, who preferred to keep their identity confidential, told AFP tersely. Along with the attorney general, the departmental prosecutor of Santa Cruz, Alberto Zeballos, was also detained; he is likewise among the officials sanctioned by Washington.
The Bolivian Public Ministry denounced that Mariaca was apprehended "illegally" for reasons that remain unknown. An official from the Attorney General's Office stated in a live broadcast from Sucre that it was the "kidnapping" of the attorney general, after local media reported his detention at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz.
The Attorney General's Office indicated that Mariaca had traveled to that region to "fulfill his institutional agenda" and said it did not know the reason for his detention.
In parallel, officials from the Attorney General's Office denounced a police intervention at the headquarters of the Public Ministry in Sucre, Bolivia's constitutional capital. "We denounce...
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File photograph of Bolivian Attorney General Roger Mariaca during a press conference in La Paz, Bolivia. EFE/Luis Gandarillas
Bolivia's Attorney General Roger Mariaca was detained Wednesday night in the eastern region of Santa Cruz, two days after the United States revoked his visa over alleged ties to drug trafficking, while police raided the offices of the Attorney General's Office in Sucre, according to official sources cited by AFP and a complaint filed by the Public Ministry itself.
"The detention of Attorney General Mariaca is confirmed," a source from the Ministry of Government, who preferred to remain anonymous, told AFP tersely.
Along with the attorney general, Santa Cruz departmental prosecutor Alberto Zeballos was also detained; he likewise appears among the officials sanctioned by Washington.
The Bolivian Public Ministry denounced that Mariaca was apprehended "illegally" for reasons that remain unknown. An official from the Attorney General's Office stated in a live broadcast from Sucre that it was the "kidnapping" of the attorney general, after local media reported his detention at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz. The Attorney General's Office indicated that Mariaca had traveled to that region to "fulfill his institutional agenda" and said it did not know the reason for his detention.
In parallel, officials from the Attorney General's Office denounced a police intervention at the headquarters of the Public Ministry in Sucre, Bolivia's constitutional capital.
"We denounce before the entire Bolivian population this intervention that is being carried out illegally," said Claudia Pardo, head of communications for the Attorney General's Office, in a broadcast shared on the institution's social media.
The images showed police officers with covered faces and vests from the Special Police Investigation Center, an intelligence unit.
Officials from the Attorney General's Office and the Santa Cruz Departmental Prosecutor's Office did not immediately respond to AFP inquiries.
As of now, the Bolivian government and the police had not released official information about the reasons for the detentions of Mariaca and Zeballos or about the operation carried out at the Prosecutor's Office facilities in Sucre.
The detentions came two days after the U.S. State Department announced the revocation of visas of senior officials from Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, whom it accused of being "corrupt" and of "undermining democratically elected governments."
Bolivia is the country with the most citizens included on the list released by the United States, which names thirteen current and former officials, including Mariaca and Zeballos.
According to the U.S. government, the actions attributed to Mariaca "endanger President Trump's efforts to combat narcoterrorism, while undermining the very democratic institutions that Bolivia, as a participant in the Shield program, seeks to strengthen."
In another accusation released this week, the U.S. government stated that Mariaca received "bribes to facilitate drug trafficking and help violent criminals evade justice."
Mariaca rejected the accusations and called the U.S. decision an act of "interference" and "political pressure" related to the investigations driven by the Public Ministry. The attorney general also linked the sanctions to the "implications" that some of those investigations had inside and outside Bolivia.
Among the proceedings mentioned by Mariaca is the case against Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, accused, among other crimes, of the attempted femicide of his ex-partner.
The Bolivian government on Monday called the accusations made by the United States "serious" and asked Washington for the corresponding information to investigate in the country the individuals included on the list.
The situation will also be addressed by the Bolivian legislature, which has scheduled a session for next Monday to analyze the information sent by the United States and evaluate the possible formation of a commission to investigate the accusations.
Mariaca was elected attorney general of Bolivia in October 2024 for a six-year term by the previous legislature, which had a majority of the then-ruling Movement toward Socialism (MAS), the party of former presidents Evo Morales and Luis Arce.
(With information from AFP and EFE)