October 21, 2024, 4:00 AM
October 21, 2024, 4:00 AM
The Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP) meets this Monday to fulfill its last task of the 2023-2024 administration, which is to elect the new State Attorney General. For this, 10 applicants were selected by the Commission in charge, but none of them managed to generate consensus among the parliamentarians who have several observations about the applicants, more because of their close relationship with the Government.
The session will begin at 3:00 p.m. with the only topic on the agenda, the “appointment of the State Attorney General.”
Among the 10 candidates are the current departmental prosecutor of La Paz, William Alave Laura, who has the highest score with 186 points out of 200. The second is the current judge Iván Córdoba Castillo, with 170 points. The third is Henry Herrera Herrera with 169. The fourth is the judge of the Supreme Court of Justice, Olvis Egüez Oliva with 165 points.
In fifth is the current departmental prosecutor of Santa Cruz, Roger Mariaca Montenegro with 163 points. The sixth is the former Secretary General of the Prosecutor’s Office, Edwin Quispe Mamani, who obtained 161 points out of 200.
The seventh is the former departmental prosecutor of Cochabamba, Nuria Gonzales Romero with 169 points; The eighth is Rubén Ramírez Conde who is also with 160 points and the last two are Iván Montellano Roldán with 151 points and Omar Fulguera Gonzáles with 149.
From that list there are at least three “favorite” candidates of the ruling party: Alave, Mariaca and Egüez, but these same ones are rejected by the opposition that classifies them as functional to the MAS.
Of these three, prosecutor Alave generated more antibodies since he was surprised on Wednesday, October 16, in a meeting in a restaurant in La Paz with the current president of Deputies, Israel Huaytari.
To date, Alave has avoided meeting the press to give explanations, and Huaytari became angry with the press when they asked him why he had met with Alave and what they talked about. What’s more, the Arcista legislator questioned the journalists, described the media that surprised him as “gossiping” and asked for explanations. “Is it a crime?”
In this Monday’s session, prior to the vote, the head of the Joint Justice Commission must give a report on the pre-selection work and present the list of the 10 candidates. After this comes the election of the new authority which, according to the Political Constitution, must achieve support with two-thirds of the votes of the members present.
From the Citizen Community (CC) bench, deputy Enrique Urquidi announced that he will not support candidates who have political affinity with the Masismo with the vote of his legislators and with that position he will go to session this afternoon.
“On that list there are those identified with Masismo, and under no circumstances are they going to be supported and as far as it is up to us, none of those candidates will be Attorney General, because it is clear that they do not guarantee suitability and much less political independence,” Urquidi told THE DUTY.
Meanwhile, Senator Centa Rek said that there are two paths: achieve a democratic agreement between all the parties and thus guarantee two-thirds to elect the new Prosecutor. Otherwise, a stalemate is expected due to lack of agreements with the risk that the new Prosecutor will be chosen by President Luis Arce through a decree.
Rek hoped that there would be consensus and that the person least questioned and capable of generating consensus could be chosen.
