Bolivia's attorney general arrested whilst investigating Trump-linked adviser
Roger Mariaca was detained on 30 September, two days after the US revoked his visa. Before his arrest, he was investigating Argentine strategist Fernando Cerimedo, linked to figures in Trump's circle.
Detention of Bolivia's attorney general after investigating MAGA-linked adviser
According to laizquierdadiario.com, which reproduces an article by José Luis Granados Ceja originally published on the US website Drop Site, Bolivia's attorney general, Roger Mariaca, was arrested on 30 September, two days after the United States revoked his visa and accused him of corruption and collaborating with drug traffickers.
The day after his arrest, presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez held a press conference to thank US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for his support. "This has only just begun," Gálvez warned.
Investigation into Cerimedo at the centre of the case
Before his detention, Mariaca was investigating Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine political strategist linked to the MAGA movement, for allegedly hiring a hitman to murder his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Nadia Beller. Cerimedo, one of the principal advisers to president Rodrigo Paz, was also under investigation for drug trafficking.
Beller told Drop Site that she expected to be arrested by Bolivian authorities within days. According to her, government sources warned her that she would be accused of failing to report Cerimedo's drug trafficking and his alleged electoral interference. She added that the Interior Ministry planned to "mount a case against me to persecute and intimidate me, and thereby exonerate [Cerimedo], dismiss all charges against him and absolve him of all responsibility".
US sanctions, two days before arrest
On 28 September, the United States sanctioned Mariaca and revoked his visa for "participation in significant acts of corruption", allegedly including "soliciting and accepting bribes to facilitate drug trafficking", helping "violent criminals to evade justice" and "undermining" Bolivia's democratic institutions.
Gálvez claimed in an interview with CNN on 6 October that the timing of the arrest was simply a "coincidence" and that the investigation had been underway since the arrest in March of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset.
The charges against Mariaca centre on his relationship with Marset, whom the former attorney general is accused of protecting through bribes and leaked confidential information. On the night of the arrest, an ambulance attempting to leave Mariaca's residence was intercepted with approximately 300,000 dollars, in both local currency and US dollars. Prosecutors say they also have financial information linking him to drug trafficking networks.
Before being detained, Mariaca firmly denied the US charges and maintained that they were motivated by political interests related to the investigations he himself was conducting.
Links to figures in Trump's circle
Beller told Drop Site that she believes the Trump administration was involved in the decision to arrest Mariaca, given that his investigation into Cerimedo reached US political figures such as Brad Parscale and Donald Trump Jr. In September, shortly before the arrest, she posted on her Facebook page a photograph of Cerimedo alongside Trump Jr. and Parscale.
Bolivian vice president Edmand Lara Montaño, who has publicly broken with president Paz, leaked an audio recording that allegedly captures Cerimedo negotiating payments for aircraft related to drug trafficking operations.
Beller further alleges that the Paz government acted driven by fear that Mariaca's investigation could reach government ministers and even Paz's wife, María Elena Urquidi. Following Cerimedo's detention, Lara's legal team accused Urquidi of being implicated in drug trafficking offences, but prosecutors ultimately chose to exclude her from the investigation.
Beller accuses Bolivian authorities of deliberately delaying and derailing the investigation into the murder plot after her testimony as a protected witness was abruptly suspended. "They want to protect their allies, there is no other explanation," she told Drop Site.
Selective use of drug trafficking accusations
Canela Crespo, Bolivian lawyer and political analyst, told Drop Site that Mariaca's detention "ignores all legal procedures and due process guarantees". "I believe it is important that, if crimes have been committed, these are investigated and sanctioned, but his detention, as it has occurred, does not respect legal guarantees," she stated.
Crespo further notes that the arrest not only seeks to obstruct investigations into Cerimedo's alleged criminal activities, but also to gain control of the country's prosecutor's office.
Since Mariaca's arrest, Bolivian authorities have adopted other measures of a political reach: they have acted to silence a left-wing media outlet, they have jailed an opposition legislator on terrorism charges and they have announced an investigation against former president Evo Morales.
For Drop Site and for laizquierdadiario.com, the case illustrates the selective use of drug trafficking accusations as an instrument to promote US interests in Latin America and to displace figures that represent a political problem for the government in office.
Source: Google News BO — Crime