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Bolivia\u2019s former president Luis Arce was detained on Wednesday on charges that he \u201cenabled illicit enrichment\u201d by allegedly allowing state funds earmarked for Indigenous communities to be transferred into the personal accounts of government officials.<\/p>\n
Arce served as Bolivia\u2019s president until last month, when he handed over the sash to the centre-right former senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, who won the runoff in an election that ended nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftwing Movement for Socialism, or Movimiento al Socialismo<\/em> (Mas).<\/p>\n The new interior minister, Marco Antonio Oviedo, said Arce was being investigated as the \u201cprincipal person responsible\u201d for at least 360m bolivianos (\u00a339.2m) in economic losses involving a fund intended to channel hydrocarbon tax revenues into development projects for Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n The natural-gas boom was the main driver of astonishing economic growth that lifted thousands out of poverty \u2013 particularly many Indigenous and rural communities \u2013 during the early years of the administration of the former president Evo Morales<\/a>, under whom Arce served as finance minister.<\/p>\n The fund, however, was shut down in 2015 after a corruption scandal involving the alleged misappropriation of resources, though the accusations never reached Arce until now.<\/p>\n Investigations were revived after Paz Pereira took office. The president established at least 10 commissions<\/a> to audit and investigate Mas administrations, one of them focused on the \u201cIndigenous fund\u201d.<\/p>\n Oviedo said on Wednesday that Arce, had failed in his duties while serving as economy minister by authorising the transfer of large sums of money into officials\u2019 personal accounts for \u201cghost projects\u201d that were never carried out. One such official is the former Mas MP Lidia Patty, who has been in custody since Friday.<\/p>\n Arce \u201cis the principal person responsible for this multimillion economic damage that has occurred in the country,\u201d he told a press conference. \u201cAt the time he served as economy minister, Arce Catacora acted as president of this fund, and therefore bore direct responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Morales has not been named in the case. The country\u2019s first Indigenous president has been <\/a>hiding for more than a year in the coca-growing region of Chapare, where hundreds of farmers<\/a> prevent police or the military from enforcing an arrest warrant against him for allegedly having fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2006.<\/p>\n Paz Pereira has not yet addressed Arce\u2019s arrest directly, but his vice-president, Edmand Lara, posted a video<\/a> on his social media congratulating the police for apprehending the former president: \u201cWe said that Luis Arce would be the first to go to prison, and we are delivering. \u201cEveryone who has stolen from this country will return every last cent and be held to account.\u201d<\/p>\n Lara, a former police officer, became famous on TikTok for making corruption accusations.<\/p>\n According to the attorney general, R\u00f3ger Mariaca, Arce remained silent during questioning at the headquarters of the Special Force to Fight Crime in La Paz.<\/p>\n Mariaca said he had requested Arce\u2019s detention on the grounds of a a risk he might flee or obstruct the process.<\/p>\n A precautionary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, at which a judge will decide whether Arce should face proceedings in custody or at liberty.<\/p>\n Mar\u00eda Nela Prada Tejada, a former minister under Arce, was the first to denounce<\/a> the former president\u2019s arrest on Wednesday. She said he was innocent and had already presented all relevant evidence in his defence while still serving as a minister.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been a total abuse of power,\u201d she said. \u201cWe hope this case is not being taken as an opportunity to carry out political persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n