Shield of the Americas supports Bolivia following detention of Attorney General Mariaca
Fifteen countries backed Bolivia in its fight against drug trafficking following the detention of prosecutor Róger Mariaca, who was sanctioned by the US.
Fifteen nations support Bolivia after arrest of prosecutor Mariaca in Santa Cruz
Fifteen governments from across the American continent expressed their support for Bolivia in its fight against drug trafficking and corruption on Thursday, according to latercera.com. The joint statement, released by the US State Department, came days after the detention of Bolivia's attorney general, Róger Mariaca, who had previously been sanctioned by Washington.
The signatory countries—the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago—are part of an initiative called the Shield of the Americas. In their communiqué, they congratulated the Bolivian executive branch for measures adopted to pursue networks linked to drug trafficking and to hold accountable those who collaborate with such structures.
Message to the region
The signatory governments urged La Paz to keep investigations open and to bring members of these organisations before the courts. The communiqué highlighted recent high-profile police operations targeting senior officials—both sitting and former—allegedly linked to drug trafficking.
These actions, the statement says, "send a resounding message" within Bolivia and across the region as a whole, demonstrating that democratically elected governments reject the penetration of illicit networks in the hemisphere. The text further emphasises that regional cooperation is based on a shared commitment to protect institutions that emerged from democratic processes and to strengthen security against narcoterrorist organisations.
"Today, we stand firmly in solidarity with Bolivia," concludes the communiqué, which evokes the meeting of leaders of the Shield of the Americas held on 22 September, at which countries reaffirmed their determination to confront these organisations and preserve regional stability.
Detention at Viru Viru airport
The central episode of the statement is the arrest of Mariaca and the prosecutor for the department of Santa Cruz, Alberto Zeballos, at the Viru Viru international airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Both had been sanctioned by the United States just days earlier, accused of corruption and of favouring drug trafficking.
Spokespeople for Bolivia's Attorney General's Office denounced in a video distributed on social media the alleged "kidnapping" of Mariaca and the "violation of his human rights", claiming that "the state's institutional framework is not being respected" and that the prosecutor was "detained" at the airport informally and "without an arrest warrant".
For their part, police authorities told Bolivian newspaper El Deber that the officials were intercepted by intelligence agents inside the airport terminal as they arrived from Sucre, although they did not specify the reasons for the detention.
Context of Washington's sanctions
The episode comes at a time when Washington has intensified its attention on the attorney general and other high-ranking Bolivian officials, both current and former, to whom it has banned entry to US territory and applied economic sanctions. The Shield of the Americas statement represents the first formal multilateral endorsement of actions taken by the Bolivian government in this context.
Source: Google News BO — Crime