Bolivia’s Congress chose José Armando Urioste Viera as interim attorney general shortly after 6:15 a.m. Saturday, after five earlier rounds failed to produce a candidate with the required two-thirds support. Party blocs then agreed on Urioste as the sole candidate, and lawmakers selected him by a show of hands. They didn’t publish the exact tally.
Urioste, the new temporary head of the prosecution service, said hand-picked appointments had turned the office into a “corruption clique.” “Sadly, we are used to a prosecutor coming in and installing his friends. That is what has happened: it has become a corruption clique. That must change,” he told the El Deber group in Trinidad.
A seat settled by party blocs
The joint session began at 10:25 a.m. Friday and continued until about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, El Deber reported. The overnight process put the selection of a senior state official in Congress’s hands, where party leaders first proposed three lawyers: Gonzalo Flores Céspedes, William Herrera Áñez and Julio Coronado.
Flores led every roll-call round but fell short of the required threshold. El Deber counted 69 votes for him in the first round and 81 in the fifth. Herrera received between 40 and 45 votes. The second round required 85 votes.
After a recess, party blocs settled on Urioste, ending the contest with a show-of-hands vote. “There are more than two-thirds, so Dr Urioste has been selected,” Assembly chair Ávila announced, according to Opinión. Opinión described four rounds before the final vote, while El Deber and Urgente counted five.
The selection replaces Roger Mariaca, whose suspension passed by 113 votes to 11, according to reports Saturday. The Assembly’s leadership said it would swear Urioste in on Monday, 5 October, in La Paz, without convening a new session. The announcement came before the swearing-in took place.
Temporary command, permanent process
Urioste’s mandate lasts 90 days. During that period, the Assembly must complete the process of selecting a permanent attorney general for a six-year term. The temporary appointment changes who leads the office; the same legislative selection process will choose its longer-term authority.
Urioste said he’d review the central office first, then departmental offices, and fill posts on merit. “I have not spent a single cent,” he said about his election. He also said he’d investigate without a “witch hunt” and respect the presumption of innocence, but any prosecutor found to have committed or covered up a crime must leave.
Urioste had a long judicial career in Beni, including as dean of its departmental court. Luis Montaño, a senior prosecutor who had declared himself interim chief on Thursday, was arrested in Sucre Saturday, El Deber and Opinión reported.
Mariaca’s case moves through the courts
On Saturday, Judge Juan Carlos Montalbán of La Paz’s Fifth Criminal Investigation Court rejected Mariaca’s request for a juicio de responsabilidades, a special trial for senior officials under Law 044. Montalbán ruled that drug trafficking and criminal organisation are common crimes, not offences tied to Mariaca’s office, so the case would proceed as an ordinary criminal case.
Montalbán also said he lacked territorial jurisdiction and ordered the file sent to Santa Cruz, while still hearing the detention request. Prosecutors sought six months in La Paz’s San Pedro prison. Mariaca had been held since 30 September.
His defence lawyer, Jerjes Justiniano, appealed. The charges remain allegations to be proved at trial. As of Saturday afternoon, no decision on pre-trial detention had been reported, and no appeal date had been reported for the type of trial. The office has a new interim chief; proceedings against its former head remain unresolved.