Bolivia’s Congress elected José Armando Urioste Viera interim attorney general by a show of hands shortly after 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, 3 October. Five earlier rounds had left the other candidates short of the required two-thirds. Within hours, Urioste said hand-picked appointments had turned the prosecution service into a “corruption clique.”
He replaces Roger Mariaca, whose suspension passed by 113 votes to 11, according to a report published Saturday.
A Marathon Session
The joint session began at 10:25 a.m. on Friday and ran until about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, El Deber reported. Party leaders first put forward three lawyers: Gonzalo Flores Céspedes, William Herrera Áñez and Julio Coronado. Flores led each roll-call round but never reached the threshold. El Deber counted 69 votes for him in the first round and 81 in the fifth. Herrera received 40 to 45. The second round required 85 votes.
After a recess, party blocs settled on Urioste as the sole candidate. “There are more than two-thirds, so Dr Urioste has been selected,” Assembly chair Ávila announced, according to Opinión. Urgente said lawmakers voted by raising their hands, and the outlets reviewed didn’t report an exact tally. Opinión described four rounds before the final vote. El Deber and Urgente counted five.
Ávila said the Assembly’s leadership would swear Urioste in on Monday, 5 October, in La Paz, without convening a new session. He would then move to Sucre, the judicial capital and seat of the Attorney General’s Office. His mandate lasts 90 days. During that period, the Assembly must finish selecting a permanent attorney general for a six-year term.
Promises of a Clean-Out
Urioste spent years in Beni’s judiciary, including as dean of its departmental court. In an interview with the El Deber group in Trinidad, he addressed how the prosecution service has been staffed. “Lamentablemente estamos acostumbrados a que entra el fiscal y pone a sus amigos y eso es lo que ha pasado, se ha vuelto una camarilla de corrupción. Eso debe cambiar.” The report translated this as: “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 said he would review the central office first, then the departmental offices, and fill posts on merit. “I have not spent a single cent,” he said of his own election. He promised to investigate without a “witch hunt” and to respect the presumption of innocence. Any prosecutor found to have committed a crime or covered one up, he said, must leave.
The handover came amid turmoil. El Deber and Opinión reported that police arrested Luis Montaño, a senior prosecutor who had declared himself interim chief on Thursday, in Sucre on Saturday.
Mariaca in 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. That’s a special trial for senior officials under Law 044. The judge ruled that drug trafficking and criminal organisation are common crimes, not offences tied to Mariaca’s office. The case will therefore proceed as an ordinary criminal case, El Deber, Opinión and Brújula Digital reported. He 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, Brújula Digital reported. The charges remain allegations to be proved at trial. As of Saturday afternoon, no decision on pre-trial detention had been reported, and no date had been set for the appeal. Urioste’s exact vote count hadn’t been published, and the swearing-in hadn’t yet taken place.
Why This Matters: A prosecution service answers to the public only when citizens trust how it’s staffed and run. Urioste’s description of friends installed by personal choice points to a basic accountability problem inside an institution meant to enforce the law equally. His pledge of merit-based hiring and respect for the presumption of innocence addresses both concerns. The tests will come quickly. He has 90 days, the Assembly still must settle a permanent six-year appointment, and his predecessor faces a case that ordinary courts must handle under ordinary rules. How openly the Assembly handles that process, and whether it publishes the vote count, will shape whether Bolivians see the change as reform or another round of political maneuvering.