Judges, Fiscal Brass and Washington's Blacklist Collide

Armed police with automatic rifles surrounded a home on Avenida Alemana in northern Santa Cruz de la Sierra at midday on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, and took away Aldo Quezada, until last month the president of the Departmental Justice Tribunal of Santa Cruz. The charge: drug trafficking and criminal association. The setting: a US-backed crackdown on officials suspected of cartel ties across Latin America.

The arrest came one day after Quezada walked into the prosecutor's office on his own to testify as a witness. By Wednesday he was a suspect. Agents of the Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Narcotráfico searched the house and found two empty safes. Senior prosecutor Marcelo Inchausti told reporters Quezada is under investigation for trafficking of controlled substances, criminal association and conspiracy. Under Article 226 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, he must be put before a judge within 24 hours, and that judge decides whether he sits in pretrial detention.

Who Has the Power

This is a story about the people who run the courts, prosecuting each other. According to Quezada's own testimony, published by the newspaper El Deber, he processed a travel permit for two minor girls from his home, outside court hours, on the orders of Rómer Saucedo, who then presided over the Supreme Court of Justice. "Me llama Rómer Saucedo y me dice que tiene que salir ese permiso," he said. The permit went out even though the girls' father hadn't signed the authorization, according to former deputy Laura Rojas.

Quezada also said that at a dinner in Mexico, after both men received honorary doctorates, Saucedo told him the suitcases were his and held genetically modified marijuana, to be processed cold into e-cigarette liquid for sale in Brazil and other markets, with former judge Hebert Zeballos setting up an ice factory as a front. Saucedo allegedly added that then-Attorney General Roger Mariaca oversaw the luggage's departure from the terminal. Prosecutors haven't said whether they credit that account. They maintain Quezada knew of the shipment since at least August.

Who Gets Crushed

Rojas spent almost seven months in pretrial detention at Palmasola prison, from late January to August, and has been under house arrest since 24 August. Her two minor daughters flew on the charter that carried the suitcases. The luggage came in on 29 November 2025, about one year ago, and Rojas removed it the next day without customs inspection by presenting a diplomatic passport, though she no longer held her seat, according to the prosecution's investigation. Police later found 79 kilos of marijuana in a Santa Cruz warehouse. They've recovered only four of the 31 suitcases.

The pattern runs upward. Mariaca, the former Attorney General, was arrested on September 30 at Viru Viru, about six weeks ago, with police finding bundles of cash smuggled out of his house. He sits in pretrial detention at Cantumarca prison in Potosí. On 3 November prosecutors ordered Saucedo's arrest; a day later he announced on X that he had left the country with his family and denounced political persecution.

Washington's List, Paz's Alliance

Quezada resigned on 22 October, about three weeks ago, hours after Washington put him on a list of 15 Bolivians with visa restrictions over alleged links to corruption or drug trafficking. An earlier list of 13, published 28 September, included Mariaca. The measures also reached officials and businesspeople in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The government doing the arresting is that of conservative President Rodrigo Paz, now in his first year in office after taking power on November 8, 2025 and ending nearly 20 years of Movement for Socialism governance. He has sought closer ties to the US. In March, Bolivia joined the "Shield of the Americas," the security alliance Donald Trump launched in Miami, which has 13 member countries. After Mariaca's arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US government "respalda firmemente al presidente Rodrigo Paz."

The courts that jail the poor have now jailed their own, on a foreign government's blacklist and a new government's timetable. Whether any of it reaches past the individuals named is a question no one in the base record answers.