The Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP) of Bolivia managed in the early hours of this Saturday to appoint an interim Attorney General of the State, after the dismissal of the previous holder, Roger Mariaca, who faces accusations of drug trafficking.
"There are more than two thirds, therefore Dr. Urioste has been selected," said the president of the ALP, Diego Ávila, after the fifth and final vote, according to Bolivian media.
The new head of the Public Ministry is José Armando Urioste Viera, who takes office in place of Mariaca under the recently approved Law 1773, promulgated on Friday by the Bolivian president, Rodrigo Paz.
The departure of Mariaca was supported by 113 favorable votes, 11 against, three abstentions, and one blank vote, out of a total of 128 present parliamentarians. Law 1773 establishes that when the Attorney General is removed for being formally charged or subjected to a personal precautionary measure for crimes punishable by prison sentences, a replacement must be elected in the same session.
The Prosecutor's Office of Bolivia itself had requested on Friday preventive detention for six months for Mariaca and for the magistrates Alberto Zeballos and Martín Irusta, who are also being investigated for drug trafficking.
Urioste holds a degree in Law, Legal and Social Sciences and has a master's degree in Constitutional Law and Agrarian Law. Throughout his career, he has served as an Instruction Judge, Party Judge, Public Civil and Commercial Judge, member of the Social, Contentious and Administrative Contentious Chamber, and Dean of the Departmental Court of Justice of Beni, in addition to working as a university professor.
This change occurs while the United States keeps the Attorney General and other high and former high-ranking Bolivian officials under scrutiny, to whom it has imposed entry restrictions and sanctions.
In particular, the U.S. Department of State accuses Mariaca of "abusing public office to solicit and accept bribes to facilitate drug trafficking and help violent criminals evade justice."
Before being detained, Mariaca rejected the accusations from Washington and attributed them to pressures from the investigations he was carrying out, including one related to the detention of the right-wing political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, close to Rodrigo Paz and Argentine President Javier Milei.
"We know that the work we have been doing has not been to the liking of certain political sectors, both inside and outside our country," he stated. Cerimedo faces charges of attempted femicide and other crimes.