Bolivia: government announces arrest of interim attorney general Luis Montaño

The Bolivian government has announced that the police will arrest the new interim attorney general, Luis Montaño, accused of usurping functions and obstructing investigations into senior authorities arrested in the case of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset. This was stated by presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez, according to whom Montaño is also attempting to remove the prosecutors who follow up complaints against arrested officials.

Montaño took office today following the arrest, less than 24 hours earlier, of Attorney General Roger Mariaca as part of the investigation into the Marset case. The senior prosecutor for organized crime claims to have assumed the interim leadership according to the law, as the most senior prosecutor, to avoid an institutional vacuum. The Attorney General also defended his appointment, while the government maintains that it is up to Parliament to decide who should lead it.