Former Bolivian President Luis Arce, who left the head of state job on November 8, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of misappropriation of state funds as part of an investigation into a broad corruption scheme linked to the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) Party.

The MAS Party ruled Bolivia for two decades, first under its original leader Evo Morales and later under Arce. The brief period between Morales and Arce in 2020 was marked by Morales attempting to unconstitutionally retain the presidency, allegedly committing widespread electoral fraud and being forced to flee the country. As his top MAS officials fled the country at the time as well, the highest-ranking person left in the chain of command was conservative Senator Jeanine Áñez, whom Arce later had imprisoned on dubious “coup” charges.

Despite using his power as president to punish anti-socialist political leaders, Arce had a major falling out with Morales that tore the MAS Party in two when the latter returned from exile and demanded to take over his party from Arce. The schism tore the party in half, prompted Arce not to run for re-election, and kept Morales from staging an unconstitutional run for re-election yet again.

Áñez was released from prison in November, shortly after the leftists lost power and “capitalism for all” candidate Rodrigo Paz was elected president. Paz’s government, officials announced on Wednesday, had launched a widespread investigation into the MAS era that resulted in Arce’s arrest, among several other major criminal probes.

According to the Bolivian newspaper El Deber, police detained Arce in a “surprise operation” in La Paz on Wednesday; the former president reportedly did not resist or cause any complication with his arrest and was taken away for interrogation in a white van. The news of his arrest initially arose through alarmed messages published on social media by former cabinet minister María Nela Prada, who claimed that Arce had been “abducted” and wrote adamantly, “of course he is innocent.”

Paz administration officials later confirmed Arce’s arrest and clarified that it was related to the “Indigenous Fund” corruption scandal that erupted in 2014 and has resulted in the investigation and arrest of large numbers of MAS party officials associated with Arce and Morales. Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo issued an official statement late on Wednesday explaining that Arce’s arrest was part of the “deepening of the struggle against corruption.”

“The economic damage is gigantic: 360 million bolivianos [about $52 million] just in this case,” Oviedo explained in his statement.

Bolivian media reported that the accusations against Arce are linked to both his presidency and his time serving as minister of economics and a member of the socialist Directorate of the Indigenous, Peasant, and Agro-Fishing Development Fund, or the Indigenous Fund. Arce is reportedly facing accusations of aiding in the illicit transfer of public funds meant for the indigenous projects to the private bank accounts of certain officials, including himself. El Deber reported that Arce appears to be tied to a specific fund meant for the construction of winter homes that allegedly ended up in the hands of a former lawmaker, Lidia Patty Mullisaca, who received 669,876 bolivianos (about $97,000).

Arce will reportedly be kept behind bars, prosecutors announced, given his status as a flight risk and his potential to obstruct the investigation by threatening witnesses, among other actions.

Áñez, the former president, has not commented on the situation at press time, but other implicated in the purge following Arce’s election have. Conservative Governor of Santa Cruz Luis Fernando Camacho, who was also arrested for allegedly helping stage a “coup” after Morales chose to flee the country, celebrated the arrest, recalling that the MAS governments had allegedly tortured a former administrator of the Indigenous Fund to death.

“The corruption at the Indigenous Fund is one of the darkest and most embarrassing chapters in MAS authoritarianism,” Camacho offered. “They disbursed over $100 million and put them in the personal accounts of MAS leaders at the expense of projects that were never conducted. And on top of that, they prosecuted the administrator of the Fund and subjected him to various years of judicial torture until he died in prison.”

Imprisoned General Juan José Zúñiga, who dramatically tried to oust Arce from the presidential palace physically in 2024, also published a letter celebrating the arrest.

“Welcome to the people’s prisons, Mr. Luis Arce Catacora,” the general wrote. “The executioner finally gets to know the prison.”

Zúñiga published a list of MAS officials he hoped to also see imprisoned and declared that the day would “be recorded in the memory of the people as the day in which the executioner fell and the hope of a new, dignified nation was reborn, sovereign and free of traitors and tyrants.”

Evo Morales, who is in hiding due to a warrant out for his arrest on charges of pedophilia, has at press time not commented publicly on Arce’s arrest.

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