José Armando Urioste, new interim prosecutor general of Bolivia following Roger Mariaca's detention
The Legislative Assembly appointed Urioste Viera as interim prosecutor general for 90 days, following five failed votes and the suspension of Mariaca.
Urioste Viera assumes Bolivia's Prosecutor General's office amid institutional crisis
José Armando Urioste Viera was elected interim prosecutor general of the state by Bolivia's Plurinational Legislative Assembly, according to infobae.com, following an exhausting day marked by five failed votes and the detention of the then-serving prosecutor general, Roger Mariaca. The legal expert will hold the position for 90 days, during which the Legislature must appoint a permanent successor with a six-year mandate.
The parliamentary session extended into the early hours of the morning. The initial candidates—Gonzalo Flores Céspedes, Julio Ariel Coronado and William Herrera Áñez—failed to secure the required two-thirds majority in any of the voting rounds. At 05:26 a request was made for patience to reach a consensus; after 06:00 the session resumed with Urioste Viera as the sole candidate, and he was elected immediately by show of hands voting.
The appointment took place hours after the Assembly approved, before midnight on Friday 2 October, Mariaca's immediate suspension. The day had begun at 10:30 with a presentation by the government minister, Marco Antonio Oviedo, on the operation that resulted in the arrest of the prosecutor general. In that same operation, the departmental prosecutor of Santa Cruz, Alberto Zeballos; the superior prosecutor, Martín Irusta; and police major Rubén Aparicio were also detained.
The Legislature also approved and enacted a short law modifying article 25 of Law 260, the statute governing the election and functions of the prosecutor general of the state.
Profile of the new interim prosecutor general
Urioste Viera holds a degree in Law, Legal and Social Sciences, a diploma in Civil Law and Higher Education, and a master's degree in Constitutional Law and Agrarian Law. His professional background includes positions as chamber secretary of the Departmental Court of Justice of Beni and of the National Agrarian Court.
He worked for three years as an examining judge, served as a district judge and civil and commercial judge for more than eleven years. He subsequently spent six years in the Social and Administrative Contentious Chamber as a vocal member. He was also dean of the Departmental Court of Justice of Beni for six years, taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at various universities, and was an instructor at the Institute of the Magistracy.
Accusations against Mariaca and the Marset case
Mariaca was detained on suspicion of leading an alleged criminal organisation dedicated to protecting activities linked to drug trafficking. The government of Rodrigo Paz attributes to him the crimes of money laundering and illicit trafficking of controlled substances.
The central basis of the accusation is the escape of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset during a police operation in 2023, when Mariaca was departmental prosecutor of Santa Cruz. The Executive argues that the alleged protection links to Marset's organisation predate Mariaca's arrival at the Prosecutor General's office. Marset was captured in March and handed over to the United States in an operation in which the Public Ministry did not participate.
Before taking up the position of Prosecutor General, Mariaca had headed the departmental prosecutor's office of Santa Cruz for four years, a period during which he received criticism for his handling of high-profile investigations, including one related to a flight that transported approximately half a tonne of cocaine from Bolivia to Spain in 2023. Despite these criticisms, Congress elected him prosecutor general in October 2024, when the Movement for Socialism controlled the Legislature. Opposition sectors at the time pointed to alleged political affinity between Mariaca and that force.
Two days before his detention, the United States revoked Mariaca's visa on suspicion of corruption and included his name in a list of high-ranking officials and former government officials from Bolivia, Colombia and Peru accused of corruption and of "undermining democratically elected governments". Mariaca rejected the accusations, said he had received the US measure "with great surprise" and called for "respect" for Bolivian sovereignty. He also denounced an attempt to "condition" or "interfere" in the Public Ministry's work, and linked the decision to investigations driven by the Prosecutor's office, including those involving Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo.
Institutional dispute over leadership of the Prosecutor's office
Along with Mariaca and Zeballos, other persons linked to the Prosecutor's office were detained. Among those arrested were six accused of attempting to remove documentation from the prosecutor general's home; over 300,000 dollars transported in an ambulance that left the premises were seized near the residence.
Following Mariaca's arrest, Luis Montaño provisionally assumed leadership of the Prosecutor General's office as the superior prosecutor with the longest tenure, according to the Public Ministry. The Government rejected that appointment, accused Montaño of usurping functions and argued that it was up to the Legislature to define transitional leadership. The election of Urioste Viera took place following that dispute over the institutional continuity of the body.
The Executive argues that, as these are common crimes, Mariaca should be tried by the ordinary courts and not through a responsibility trial before Congress. The US State Department and countries of the "Shield of the Americas" coalition backed the Paz government and called for the investigations underway to continue.
Source: Google News BO — Crime