Judge in Santa Cruz orders cancer hospital admission for Arce; Government challenges ruling
A Santa Cruz judge granted a protective order to the detained former president in La Paz and ordered his admission to a specialised cancer centre. The Government questions the territorial competence of the ruling.
Judicial ruling on Arce triggers competence conflict between La Paz and Santa Cruz
The 15th Criminal Sentencing Judge, Anti-Corruption and Violence Against Women of Santa Cruz, Carlos Alberto Moreira, granted a protective order to former president Luis Arce and ordered his "immediate admission" to a specialised cancer centre, according to El Deber.
The ruling was confirmed on Wednesday by the Vice-Minister of Transparency, Yamil García, who openly questioned whether a Santa Cruz magistrate should be making decisions about a defendant in custody in La Paz.
"Señor Arce is detained in the city of La Paz, under the jurisdictional control of a La Paz judge; however, remarkably, in the city of Santa Cruz, instruction judge number 15 took cognisance of a freedom action, which was not filed by Señor Arce but by his son," García declared.
The vice-minister added that the ruling had also ordered the convening of a hearing to review the legal situation of the former president, which rekindled the question of which court has effective competence in the case. "Who is the competent judge?" the official questioned.
García warned that the Executive would request further information about the proceedings to avoid a contradiction between rulings from different departments—a scenario that, he recalled, has already occurred in the past when a judge in one region authorised a process and another rejected it. "We will take action," he assured.
Arce remains in preventive detention at San Pedro prison in La Paz since last December, charged in the Indigenous Fund case. His legal defence has stated that the former president must undergo medical checks every six months for an oncological condition which, according to his lawyers, was controlled before his imprisonment.
Source: El Deber