LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) 鈥� Bolivian law enforcement officials on Wednesday arrested former as part of a corruption investigation, opening an uncertain chapter in the country’s politics a month after the inauguration of ended .
A senior official in Paz’s government, Marco Antonio Oviedo, told reporters that Arce had been arrested on charges of breach of duty and financial misconduct related to the alleged embezzlement of public funds during his stint as economy minister in the government of (2006-2019).
A special police force dedicated to fighting corruption confirmed to The Associated Press that Arce was in custody at the unit’s headquarters in Bolivia’s capital of La Paz.
Officials described Arce鈥檚 arrest as proof of the commitment to fighting graft at the highest levels in fulfillment of its .
鈥淚t is the decision of this government to fight corruption, and we will arrest all those responsible for this massive embezzlement,鈥� Oviedo said.
But underlining the country鈥檚 polarization, Arce鈥檚 allies said his arrest was unjustified and smacked of political persecution.
Accusations of theft from a fund for rural peasants
Authorities accused Arce and other officials of diverting an estimated $700 million from a state-run fund dedicated to supporting the Indigenous people and peasant farmers who formed the backbone of Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party. As Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, Morales transformed the country鈥檚 power structure and gave more sway than ever.
Serving on the board of directors of the Indigenous Peasant Development Fund from 2006 to 2017, Arce was in charge of allocating funds to social development projects in rural areas. During that time, officials allege, Arce siphoned off some of that money for personal expenses.
鈥淎rce was identified as the main person responsible for this vast economic damage,鈥� said Oviedo.
Bolivia’s attorney general, Roger Mariaca, told local media that Arce had invoked his right to remain silent during police questioning.
He said Arce would remain in police custody overnight before being brought before a judge to determine whether he will remain detained pending trial. The charges against Arce carry a maximum sentence of 4-6 years in prison.
An ex-president allegedly grabbed from the street
Arce’s key ally and former government minister, Maria Nela Prada, insisted on the ex-president’s innocence and denounced the corruption scandal as a case of political persecution.
Although the prosecution said it issued an arrest warrant, she said Arce was not notified of the case before he was bundled into a minivan with tinted windows in an upscale La Paz neighborhood on Wednesday and brought in for interrogation.
Arce had been walking along the cafe-lined streets of Sopocachi after teaching an economics class at a major public university, Prada said, and managed to tell her of his arrest before losing communication. A police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that account of events.
鈥淭his is a total abuse of power,鈥� Prada said, banging furiously on the doors of the police headquarters where Arce was being held.
Mariaca, the prosecutor, promised the case was about nothing more than tackling graft in Bolivia.
鈥淭his is not persecution, nor is it a political act,鈥� he said.
Paz swept to victory in on a wave of public outrage over the that Arce’s administration bequeathed its successors, including , a shortage of fuel and .
Critical to his popularity was his running mate, the straight-talking, TikTok-savvy former police Capt. Edman Lara, who achieved celebrity status when he denounced high-ranking police officers for corruption.
Courts not neutral arbiters
Experts long have noted that Bolivia’s brittle institutional framework fosters corruption, often lets those in power off the hook 鈥� whether on the left or right of the political spectrum.
Morales, who guided the country through an era of economic growth and shrinking inequality before his fraught 2019 ouster, was accused of stacking the constitutional court and bending the laws to stay in power.
When he resigned to a fourth term, the right-wing interim government that took over on charges ranging from terrorism to corruption.
Then and went on to target his own political rivals.
Former interim president on charges tied to her 2019 takeover and other right-wing . Judges even went after Morales, Arce’s mentor-turned-rival, who remains hunkered down related to statutory rape.
Shifting political winds
With the pendulum now swinging back to the right, and have walked free from prison. President Paz the leftist policies of Arce and Morales.
Celebrating Arce’s arrest on social media, Vice President Lara warned that the ex-president was just the first felled by what would become a wave of anti-corruption cases against former officials.
鈥淭hose who have stolen from this country will return every last cent,鈥� Lara said, ending his message by wishing 鈥渄eath to the corrupt.鈥�
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DeBre reported from Santiago, Chile.
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