Bolivia’s Congress selected José Armando Urioste Viera as interim attorney general shortly after 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, 3 October, after five earlier rounds failed to secure the required two-thirds support for any candidate. A joint session that began Friday morning continued through the night. Urioste replaces Roger Mariaca, whose suspension passed by 113 votes to 11.
The Assembly now sits at the center of a temporary handover in Bolivia’s prosecution service. Urioste’s mandate lasts 90 days, and lawmakers must use that period to choose a permanent attorney general for a six-year term. The announced swearing-in is scheduled for Monday, 5 October, in La Paz; afterward, Urioste is due to move to Sucre, the judicial capital and seat of the Attorney General’s Office.
Five rounds before a choice
The joint session began at 10:25 a.m. on Friday and ran until about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, El Deber reported. Party leaders first put forward Gonzalo Flores Céspedes, William Herrera Áñez and Julio Coronado. Flores led every roll-call round but fell short of the two-thirds threshold. El Deber counted him at 69 votes in the first round and 81 in the fifth, while Herrera received between 40 and 45 votes. The second round required 85 votes.
After a recess, party blocs agreed to advance Urioste as the sole candidate. “There are more than two-thirds, so Dr Urioste has been selected,” Assembly chair Ávila announced, according to Opinión. Lawmakers voted by raised hands, and the outlets reviewed didn’t report an exact tally. Accounts 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 without convening a new session. The announced ceremony is set for La Paz. Urioste is due to move to Sucre afterward, where the prosecution service has its headquarters.
Urioste’s stated priorities
Urioste has built a judicial career in Beni, including service as dean of its departmental court. In an interview with the El Deber group in Trinidad, he criticized appointments based on personal ties, saying prosecutors had installed friends and that the service had become a “corruption clique.” He said he would first review the central office, then departmental offices, and fill posts on merit.
“I have not spent a single cent,” Urioste said of his election. He also said he would investigate without a “witch hunt” and respect the presumption of innocence. Prosecutors 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.
Mariaca’s case remains before 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 the drug-trafficking and criminal-organisation allegations were common crimes, not offences tied to Mariaca’s office. The case would therefore proceed as an ordinary criminal case, according to El Deber, Opinión and Brújula Digital.
Montalbán also said he lacked territorial jurisdiction and ordered the file sent to Santa Cruz, while continuing to hear the detention request. Prosecutors sought six months in La Paz’s San Pedro prison. Mariaca’s 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 date had been reported for the appeal concerning the type of trial. Urioste’s exact vote count hadn’t been published, and his announced swearing-in hadn’t yet taken place.