Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—On Monday, Bolivia’s incarcelated attorney general, Roger Mariaca, was transferred to Cantumarca prison in Potosí amid allegations that his arrest and the restructuring of the Prosecutor’s Office are obstructing investigations into Fernando Cerimedo, the far-right political operative and former adviser to President Rodrigo Paz.Mariaca arrived under heavy police escort and was placed in temporary isolation under the prison’s admission procedures. Potosí departmental police commander Roger Villazón said he would receive round-the-clock protection, with guards rotated monthly. Police said they had no formal reports of threats against his life.Mariaca was arrested on September 30 at Viru Viru International Airport alongside Santa Cruz departmental prosecutor Alberto Zeballos. Authorities accuse him of money laundering, drug trafficking, and criminal organization. He denies the allegations; the accusations serve as a convenient tool to attempt to derail the Cerimedo case.A six-year mandate interruptedBorn in Santa Cruz in 1987, Mariaca graduated in law from the public Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University and completed postgraduate studies in criminal and procedural law. He worked as a university lecturer and headed the Santa Cruz departmental Prosecutor’s Office from 2020 to 2024.The legislature elected him attorney general in October 2024 for a six-year term, scheduled to end in 2030. His arrest interrupted his mandate nearly two years into office. He was voted in primarily by the Movement for Socialism (MAS), which dominated the legislature at the time. Because the MAS party was split internally into two rival factions, Mariaca’s 115-vote victory relied on a combined backing from both sides of the party, those supporting former presidents Evo Morales and Luis Arce, respectively.The timing is central to the objections raised by the lawyer of Nadia Beller, Jerjes Justiniano: the campaign against Mariaca escalated while prosecutors were investigating Cerimedo and allegations reaching into Bolivian President Paz’s political circle. Justiniano argues that removing the prosecutor has served to obstruct those investigations.US pressure and the Cerimedo investigationAs Orinoco Tribune previously reported, the Prosecutor’s Office condemned the arrests as a “kidnapping.” The arrests followed Washington’s September 28 announcement of visa restrictions against Mariaca, Zeballos, and other Bolivian officials.Mariaca denied the US corruption accusations and linked Washington’s intervention to sensitive investigations, including those involving Cerimedo.Cerimedo, a co-founder of right-wing news outlet La Derecha Diario, a Trump ally, and former campaign adviser to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Argentina’s Javier Milei, was arrested in August after Nadia Beller, the Bolivian lawyer at the center of the case, survived a shooting in Santa Cruz. Beller was Cerimedo’s former lover and is pregnant with his child. She accuses him of organizing the assassination attempt to silence her.On October 1, former Bolivian President Evo Morales condemned the “open and direct intervention” by the United States against the prosecutors investigating Cerimedo. “Saving Cerimedo means saving President Paz and his family,” said Morales.Beller warns of efforts to derail the casesOn Tuesday, October 6, via social media, Beller warned that what she described as an effort to manufacture a case against her was being carried out using photographs from a past meeting with a prosecutor.She said that the meeting involved other activists, was publicly documented, and took place before she knew Cerimedo. According to Beller, Cerimedo’s lawyer, Margarita Arce, was circulating the accusations to confuse the proceedings, delay hearings, and help secure his release.Her statement followed Justiniano’s October 5 complaint that the investigations had stalled after Mariaca’s removal. Beller’s lawyer noted that her scheduled testimony as a protected witness in a drug-trafficking investigation involving Cerimedo was suspended, allegedly for her security.Justiniano characterized the suspension as evidence of an emerging cover-up benefiting the far-right presidential adviser. He also represents Mariaca in the proceedings against him.Prosecutorial overhaulOn October 6, Interim Attorney General José Armando Urioste stated that the Cerimedo investigations would be not halted. He nevertheless announced that new departmental prosecutors would be appointed, initially without competitive examinations or merit-based selection “because of the urgency of the case.”Cerimedo: MAGA Comes to Latin AmericaFor Justiniano, the concern is already concrete: a protected witness’s testimony was suspended after the arrest of the prosecutor overseeing the institution. His allegations place the preservation of evidence and the independence of Bolivia’s investigations at the center of the dispute over US intervention in the case. Special for Orinoco Tribune by staffOT/JRE/SL