Caught in Corruption, Former Bolivian President Luis Arce Detained for 5 Months While Waiting for Trial

JAKARTA - A Bolivian court has ordered the country's former president, Luis Arce, to remain in custody for five months pending trial on corruption charges, the latest development in a case that threatens to exacerbate Bolivia's political tensions.

Arce, 62, a leader of the Movement Toward Socialism party, was elected in 2020 and left office a month ago after the election of Bolivia's first far-right leader in nearly two decades.

He firmly denied the allegations of dereliction of duty and financial irregularities. Arce faces up to six years in prison if found guilty.

Two days after Arce's sudden arrest in the streets of the Bolivian capital, La Paz, a judge ordered his detention in a virtual hearing on Friday, December 13.

Reported by ABC News, Arce was transferred to one of Bolivia's largest prisons in La Paz overnight. No trial date has been announced.

The charges concern the alleged diversion of millions of dollars from state funds to personal accounts and began when Arce served as economic minister under former President Evo Morales from 2006 to 2017.

Although the scandal first surfaced in 2017, the investigation into the alleged corruption stalled during Morales' presidency as Bolivia's courts proved to be subservient to the political power at the time.

The case was reopened when conservative President Rodrigo Paz took office last month, ending nearly two decades of dominance by the Movement for Socialism, or MAS.

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Paz campaigned on promises to clean up the government and seek justice for corruption when he came to power amid a wave of anger over Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades.

Arce criticized the accusations as political persecution.

"I am the scapegoat," he told the judge, insisting he had no personal involvement in the government funds under investigation, which support indigenous people and farmers who are the backbone of MAS' support.

"The accusation is politically motivated," he said.