La Paz, Bolivia – Former President of Bolivia Luis Arce was arrested on Wednesday and transferred to police cells in La Paz due to an ongoing corruption investigation, according to his former Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada.
Prada told the media at the doors of the Special Force to Fight Crime (FELCC) in La Paz that Arce was alone and carried into a minibus with tinted windows. She added that this is all the information they have.
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Prada noted that Arce was not formally notified or summoned to testify. “They simply grabbed him, put him in a minibus, and transferred him to the FELCC,” Prada said.
According to local media, the arrest may be due to an ongoing corruption investigation involving the management of the Indigenous Development Fund during Arce’s tenure as Minister of Economy and Public Finance under Evo Morales’s government (2006-2019).
The former president is also facing a lawsuit filed by a high-ranking former official who accuses him of getting her pregnant and abandoning her.
Prada told the media that, if the case is related to the Indigenous Fund, Arce presented “all the corresponding clearances” when he was Minister. She also recalled that, as a former president, Arce would be entitled to a trial of responsibilities.
The former Minister said that Arce’s detention was a “complete abuse” and insisted that Arce was not notified to testify.
According to a law in effect since December 2020, high-ranking former Bolivian authorities must remain in Bolivian territory for at least three months after the end of their term to “submit all necessary reports” and “prevent impunity in the face of a possible act or instance of corruption.”
Arce’s administration from the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) ended on Nov. 8 when centrist Rodrigo Paz Pereira was inaugurated as president.
Before concluding his term, Arce repeatedly stated that he would not leave the country nor would he return to teach at the university.
Thus far, no government, police, or public ministry authority has commented on Arce’s detention.
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