Bolivia’s Congress chose José Armando Urioste Viera as interim attorney general shortly after 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, 3 October, after earlier rounds failed to produce a candidate with the required two-thirds support. The choice followed the reported suspension of Roger Mariaca by 113 votes to 11 and came after an overnight joint session of the Assembly.
A selection after deadlock
The joint session began at 10:25 a.m. on Friday and continued until about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, El Deber reported. 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 two-thirds. El Deber counted him at 69 votes 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 agreed to put Urioste forward as the sole candidate. Assembly chair Ávila announced, “There are more than two-thirds, so Dr Urioste has been selected,” according to Opinión. Members voted by a show of hands. Urgente said the outlets it reviewed didn’t report an exact tally for Urioste. Reports differed on the number of rounds: Opinión described four before the final vote, while 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. Urioste was then due to move to Sucre, Bolivia’s judicial capital and the seat of the Attorney General’s Office. His interim mandate lasts 90 days. During that period, the Assembly must complete the selection of a permanent attorney general for a six-year term.
Appointments and the prosecution service
Urioste, who had a long judicial career in Beni and served as dean of its departmental court, said he would first review the central office and then departmental offices. He said he planned to fill posts on merit. “I haven’t spent a single cent,” he said about his own election.
In an interview with the El Deber group in Trinidad, Urioste criticized appointments made by personal choice. “Sadly, we are used to a prosecutor coming in and installing his friends. That’s what has happened: it has become a corruption clique. That must change,” he said, according to the report’s translation. He said he would investigate without a “witch hunt” and respect the presumption of innocence. Any prosecutor found to have committed or covered up a crime, he said, must leave.
Luis Montaño, a senior prosecutor who declared himself interim chief on Thursday, was arrested in Sucre on Saturday, El Deber and Opinión reported. Urioste described the appointment dispute as rooted in placing friends in prosecutorial posts; his stated proposal was to review offices and make appointments on merit.
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, the special trial for senior officials under Law 044. The judge ruled that drug trafficking and criminal organisation were common crimes, not offences tied to Mariaca’s office, and said 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, and his defence lawyer, Jerjes Justiniano, appealed. The charges remain allegations to be proved at trial.
By Saturday afternoon, no decision on pre-trial detention had been reported, and no date had been reported for the appeal over the type of trial. Urioste’s exact vote count hadn’t been published, and the announced swearing-in hadn’t yet occurred.