President Paz warns that his family receives threats for combating organised crime in Bolivia
Rodrigo Paz denounced to magistrates that his family faces risk following decisions against drug traffickers such as Sebastián Marset. Minister Oviedo confirmed that the threats are being investigated.
Paz warns of threats to presidential circle following captures of drug traffickers
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz announced on Monday that the security of his family faces "risk" because of measures adopted by his Government against organised crime, according to bolivia.com.
"My family faces risk because we have taken decisions against the Marsets, against high-level criminals," Paz stated during an event with magistrates and judges held in La Paz on Monday 19 October.
This is not the first time the president has made public this type of denunciation. Days earlier, following the capture of a member of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) in Santa Cruz, Paz had already pointed out that he had received death threats. Monday's statement would therefore be the second occasion on which the Bolivian president has publicly warned of risks to his life and that of his circle.
The president extended the warning to the judges themselves present at the event, particularly those serving in border areas, whom he described as "defenceless" against criminal organisations operating in those sectors.
"It cannot be that the threat of organised crime is what dictates sentences in Bolivia. You must feel free, you must feel protected," Paz said to the gathered judicial authorities.
Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo confirmed to the media that there are concrete threats against the presidential family, currently under investigation.
Among the most significant actions of Paz's first year in office are the detention of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, arrested in March in Santa Cruz and subsequently extradited to the United States, where he faces various charges; and the capture of former attorney-general Roger Mariaca, apprehended at the end of September after being accused of cover-up and of forming part of a criminal organisation.
Source: Google News BO — Crime