The Prosecutor's Office of Bolivia has requested this Friday preventive detention, for a period of six months, for the Attorney General, Roger Mariaca, as well as for the magistrates Alberto Zeballos and Martín Irusta, arrested this week as part of an investigation for drug trafficking.
The Public Ministry has filed formal charges against the three prosecutors and against the police officer Rubén Aparicio for alleged crimes of drug trafficking and belonging to a criminal organization, demanding that they be sent to the penitentiary centers of San Pedro and Patacamaya, both located in La Paz, the administrative capital of the country.
The Deputy Minister of Government, Marco Antonio Oviedo, has informed of these actions during a session in Parliament, after security forces have detained the four named and ten other people linked to the same case.
Also this Friday, the prosecutor of the department of La Paz, Luis Carlos Torrez, has submitted his resignation, following the police raid of the Prosecutor's Office premises, which remain cordoned off by agents.
These events occur while the United States has intensified pressure on the Attorney General and other high and former high-ranking Bolivian officials, whom it has banned from entering its territory and has imposed various sanctions.
In its statement, the U.S. Department of State directly points to Mariaca for "abusing public position to solicit and accept bribes to facilitate drug trafficking and help violent criminals evade justice."