Five months of pre-trial detention are ordered for Luis Arce

Bolivian anti-corruption judge Elmer Laura ordered this Friday five months of pre-trial detention against former President Luis Arce, to be carried out in the San Pedro prison in the city of La Paz, for alleged corruption, local media reported. Arce was detained on Wednesday as part of an investigation into an alleged millionaire embezzlement from the Development Fund for Indigenous Original Peoples and Peasant Communities (Fondioc).

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During the precautionary measures hearing held this Friday, the former president assured that he is innocent and denounced that behind it there are political motivations to seek "scapegoats". To avoid preventive detention, he argued that he has a known residence and a job in Bolivia, but the prosecution asserted that he should be imprisoned due to the risk of flight and obstruction of the investigation. The Attorney General's Office accuses him of the alleged crimes of breach of duty and anti-economic conduct, while he was Minister of Economy and Finance, a position that gave him control over the Fondioc. The magistrate considered that the economic damage "is serious", quantified it at 40,000 million Bolivianos (around 5,800 million dollars) and, being corruption crimes, preventive detention is appropriate.