Bolivia’s attorney general was arrested after the U.S. revoked his visa over alleged ties to drug trafficking

Bolivia's Attorney General, Roger Mariaca, was arrested by police two days after the United States canceled his visa, following allegations of alleged ties to drug trafficking. The arrest was confirmed by a source in Bolivia's Interior Ministry.

Alberto Zevallos, a prosecutor in the Santa Cruz department, was also detained along with Mariaca. The two were included by the U.S. State Department on a sanctions list targeting approximately 20 officials and businesspeople from Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador, accused of corruption, ties to drug trafficking, or plotting against their governments.

Police searched the offices of the Attorney General's Office in Sucre, Bolivia's constitutional capital. Images broadcast on social media showed masked police officers inside the institution. The prosecutor's representative denounced the intervention as illegal.

According to U.S. authorities, Mariaca allegedly accepted bribes to facilitate drug trafficking and help violent criminals escape justice. The prosecutor, appointed to the position in 2024, denied the allegations and described the sanctions as a form of political interference.