Minister Oviedo announces continued fight against corruption and infiltration in Bolivian State
Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo states that internal corruption affects all State institutions, not just the Police. Among achievements cited, he mentioned the expulsion of Marset and the detention of former president Arce.
Bolivia fights internal corruption in all State institutions
Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo asserted that corruption and infiltration in Bolivian public institutions persist at an internal level. According to El Deber, Oviedo noted that the objective is to recover an institutionality that, in his words, has been "destroyed" over the past 20 years.
"We have fought—and I say fought because we are still fighting—internal levels of corruption and infiltration that affect not only the Police but all institutions of the Bolivian State," the minister declared.
Oviedo detailed that operations and investigations have been executed that ended the "tranquillity" of criminals. Some have been detained in Bolivian prisons and others expelled to their countries of origin. "This stage of recovering institutionality is a pending task," he stressed, and indicated that the work falls on the new authorities of the police high command.
Among concrete results, the minister mentioned four notable actions: the expulsion of Sebastián Marset, identified as one of the largest drug traffickers in the world; the detention of former president Luis Arce Catacora and his son, investigated for illicit enrichment and other acts of corruption; the capture of dozens of drug trafficking bosses of Brazilian and Colombian nationality, among others; and the dismantling of a criminal structure that operated from the General Prosecutor's Office, from where links with drug trafficking, extortion and abuse would have been directed.
Oviedo also issued a direct warning to judicial operators: "We are not going to stop, and this is a very clear message for judges and prosecutors who are covering up this criminal organisation. We are going to be tough towards the outside and also towards the inside. We will not accept that any of the Government's actions be tarnished by bad police officers."
As part of the future strategy, the minister announced that Bolivia will receive United States cooperation for the creation of an elite unit in Santa Cruz. "Little by little we try to recover Bolivia from the installation of criminals in our backyard," Oviedo concluded.
Source: El Deber