Indigenous Fund: Release of Julia Ramos sparks criticism of justice and there are questions against Evo

The Prosecutor’s Office annulled the case because the embezzlement of the Indigenous Fund that was underway against Julia Ramos, the peasant leader from Tarija elected vice president of the MAS faction who supports the government of Luis Arce. The decision unleashed criticism, including against Evo Morales.

These reactions came from various sides due to the impact that this corruption case had due to the loss of close to the $us 200 million that the Bolivian State suffered.

These resources, originating from the abundant oil revenues of the past decade, should be invested in projects development that were diverted to particular purposes.

Andrés Flores, deputy of the MAS faction loyal to President Arce, stated that in this case the president is not involved because it corresponds to Justice. Of course, he pointed to Evo Morales, because it was during his long administration (2006-2019) that this scandal broke out.

“In 2015, our former president Evo Morales has rewarded the parent organizations with the Indigenous Fund”noted the legislator regarding the political use and social mobilization that his government had at the mercy of these resources.

Flores recalled that nine years ago, when he was part of the MAS bases, he was aware that resources were arriving from that Fund.

“They informed us that they were giving two million bolivianos for institutional strengthening that supported the organizations. ¿And what did the national leaders do? They did workshops, but there were never any workshops”he claimed.

The current Vice Minister of Rural Development, Ramiro Guerrero, was Attorney General of the State between 2013 and 2018. It was in those years that millionaire embezzlement from the Indigenous Fund broke out. In 2017, being the main authority of the Public Ministry, Guerrero ordered the case to be closed.

“I have instructed the prosecutors who are watching the case close and issue appropriate resolutions, in this case a final resolution according to the analysis and objective assessment that they can make with a formal accusation or dismissal”, Guerrero said. on December 7, 2017, according to EL DEBER files.

In March 2023, the Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, declared that the former director of the Fund Elvira Parra, who was in preventive detention for more than seven years, and Ramos, whowho was Minister of Rural Development, had no responsibility and promised to withdraw the accusation.

A year later, just in March of this year, Ramos demanded compliance with that promise.to. It happened precisely at an event at the Ministry of Rural Development, where Guerrero—the former prosecutor—currently works. On Monday, Ramos reported that the case was closed.

The complaint of embezzlement from the Indigenous Fund generated 157 legal proceedings. The investigations began in 2014 and among those involved were Nemesia Achacollo and Ramos, two of the ministers in Morales’ cabinet, as well as social leaders.

The complaint was substantiated by Marco Aramayo, who was director of the Indigenous Fund in 2015. However, he was accused and spent seven years in prison where he died as a result of a stroke in 2022. Aramayo was tortured and visited all the prisons in the country.

Development Fund for Indigenous Peoples and Peasant Communities was created by decree on December 22, 2005 andn the government of Eduardo Rodríguez. His objective was to execute, “under the criteria of efficiency, effectiveness, equity, transparency and participation”, 5% of the collections of the Direct Tax on Hydrocarbons (IDH)

The “waste and embezzlement” in that entity reached $182.7 million in 1,032 projects, according to preliminary investigations by the Prosecutor’s Office. Of this loss, only $us 1.4 million. At the moment, there are no people detained in this case.

While the senator from Creo, Centa Reck, said that the dismissal of Julia Ramos demonstrates that “subject justice uses trials as currency to benefit the acolytes of archism and persecute the opposition.”

On December 1, 2015, Ramos was detained preventively in the Obrajes de La Paz prison, accused of the crimes of breach of duties, illicit enrichment, uneconomic conduct and breach of contracts due to irregularities.

Two years later he would achieve house arrest and since then he has attended his hearings, although the case never progressed. In February 2019 she proposed her dismissal because the prosecution could not find any evidence against her.

While deputy Renán Cabezas, from the evista faction of the MAS, indicated that many political leaders, who have accounts those pending with justice have had their processes pardoned or annulled by the government of Luis Arce.

“Why do they let the cases go? Any citizen who has committed any crime must pay for it in jail, for that there must be due process and someone must promote it. “The Judicial Branch obeys the instructions of the Executive,” he remarked.

For her part, deputy Ninoska Morales (MAS-arcista) considered that Ranis must undergo a new process in the case, to prove his innocence with the release of the resources that were given to him. and so that the Political Instrument also remains calm.

“Justice did its job and carried out the corresponding investigation. Within a team you cannot unite and say that everyone was the one who committed corruption crimes,” he said.

While Carlos Arrayaza, intercultural leader, pointed out that the only person responsible for this dismissal is the State Attorney General, Juan Lanchipa, since he considers that justice should not be partial to ‘arcism’ and retract.