LA PAZ – Bolivian law enforcement officials on Wednesday arrested former President Luis Arce as part of a corruption investigation, the country's vice president said on social media, opening an uncertain chapter in Bolivia’s politics a month after the inauguration of conservative President Rodrigo Paz ended 20 years of socialist rule.
In a video posted to TikTok, Vice President Edman Lara congratulated police forces for detaining Arce, who left office just over a month ago. He said Arce was arrested on alleged embezzlement charges, without giving further information. A spokesperson for Lara confirmed to The Associated Press that the vice president posted the message on his official account.
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Addressing his hundreds of thousands of followers on Wednesday, Lara vowed that Arce would be the first of many targets as the new government seeks accountability for alleged corruption at the highest levels.
“Those who have stolen from this country will return every last cent,” Lara said, ending his video by wishing “death to the corrupt.”
Arce’s former government minister and closest ally, Maria Nela Prada, said the corruption charges seemed to stem from Arce’s stint as economy minister in the government of his erstwhile ally and predecessor, former leader Evo Morales.
The founder of Bolivia’s long-dominant Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, Morales became the country’s first Indigenous president in 2006 and governed for 14 years before his 2019 ouster in the wake of mass protests over his disputed re-election to a fourth term.
Speaking to journalists outside the headquarters of a special police force dedicated to fighting corruption where she was seeking information about Arce's whereabouts, Prada insisted on the ex-president's innocence.
“Of course he's innocent, I can confirm that,” she said.