Vote-buying alleged in selection of prosecutor Mariaca in 2024
Former deputy Luciana Campero accused legislators of receiving payments to favour Róger Mariaca in the Assembly. Carlos Alarcón denied having pressured for withdrawal of a court case.
Bribery accusations overshadow Mariaca's appointment as prosecutor
The election of Róger Mariaca as Attorney General of the State, held on 21 October 2024, is once again at the centre of controversy. In a column published this Wednesday in El Deber, former deputy Luciana Campero denounced alleged vote-buying in the Legislative Assembly and identified deputy Carlos Alarcón as responsible for promoting the withdrawal of legal action aimed at blocking the appointment.
Mariaca obtained 115 votes from 161 assembly members present in the second round of voting, exceeding the two-thirds majority required. Campero maintained that this result was the product of payments to legislators and described a scheme involving erasable-ink pens: two opposition deputies reportedly distributed money and pens so that their colleagues would first mark their ballot in favour of candidate Montellano, photograph the vote as evidence for their groups, erase the mark, and finally vote for Mariaca. The former legislator did not identify the alleged operatives or present documentary evidence of those payments in her column.
Campero also stated that on 9 October 2024 she filed an abstract constitutional challenge in Sucre against the electoral call regulations. According to her account, a few hours later she received pressure from leaders of Comunidad Ciudadana (CC) to withdraw the lawsuit, including threats of removing her seat. She attributed to Alarcón a promise conveyed through a party intermediary: that Mariaca would not achieve two-thirds. "Carlos Alarcón gave me his word. Mariaca does not have two-thirds," she quoted in her text. She said she trusted that commitment, withdrew the lawsuit, and questioned why Alarcón is now demanding the prosecutor's removal when, in her view, he contributed to his election.
In statements collected by Correo del Sur, Alarcón categorically rejected the allegations. "I have never spoken with her, neither directly, nor indirectly, nor through an intermediary about that lawsuit," he asserted. He admitted, however, that he analysed the case together with Carlos Mesa and parliamentary officials of CC. The deputy explained that they considered it a "nonsense" because it could paralyse the entire electoral process and leave Juan Lanchipa as acting Attorney General. He added that resorting to the Plurinational Constitutional Court was, from his caucus's perspective, equivalent to legitimising magistrates whom they described as self-perpetuating.
"We chose to vote for Montellano," Alarcón insisted, emphasising that CC's position was aimed at preventing Lanchipa's continuity, not at favouring Mariaca.
The controversy resurfaces whilst Mariaca is held in preventive detention in Cantumarca, Potosí, investigated for alleged crimes of criminal organisation, trafficking in controlled substances, and money laundering. The accusations about vote-buying and the pressures described by Campero have not been legally established.
Source: El Deber