The parliamentarians of the MAS and the opposition questioned President Luis Arce for not removing Juan Santos Cruz from the position of Minister of the Environment and only allowing him to resign, alleging that the complaints about the collection of bribes are a mere “media attack”. Meanwhile, the second collaborator of the ex-authority was preventively arrested for illicit enrichment.
“Giving a minister with serious allegations of corruption the opportunity to ‘resign’ is an example of the government’s policy of: “Let it go, let it go.” Those who commit acts of corruption, cover up drug trafficking and commit other crimes are dismissed and prosecuted”, refuted the deputy of the Evista bloc Héctor Arce.
This claim was joined by the pro-government senator William Torrez, who harshly questioned the head of state for not removing his former minister. “Juan Santos Cruz should already be apprehended and brought to justice,” he said and believes that there must be an adjustment in the cabinet of ministers.
Fears of a possible leak are growing among politicians and on the social networks of masista groups. The ex-authority was last seen in a public act in Tarija, the same city from which his nephew Jhonny ASS tried to escape, now detained in the San Pedro jail for illicit enrichment and for buying real estate in Tarija.
On Sunday, a television outlet published a tax request for an “immigration alert” against Santos. On Saturday, the Single Union Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia (Csutcb) warned that the former minister could escape as his nephew tried.
“In order to have more elements of conviction in this case, the corresponding section and/or unit urgently and immediately activates the migratory alert against Juan Santos Cruz,” says the request signed by the Prosecutor Franklin Alborta.
The Vice Ministry of Transparency did not denounce Santos, but gave names of other officials. For the deputy Carlos Alarcón, from CC, the signs of corruption are “so revealing and convincing” that the former minister “should be prosecuted and imprisoned together with his nephew who is already in jail, the official who confessed in an interview his participation and the businessmen who gave those bribes”.
Regarding the official Viviana B., Santos’ right-hand man, on Sunday the Fourth Criminal Investigation Court of La Paz issued six months of preventive detention in the Miraflores prison. The woman was in charge of buying real estate in Cobija. She would have purchased at least four with “commission” money.
authority designation
The possession of the new authority in command of the Ministry of the Environment remains in doubt. The Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, pointed out that as soon as President Luis Arce makes the decision of his new minister, the population will be made aware.
On social networks, it is speculated that the second secretary of the Csutcb, Ibsen Quiñones, would have been chosen to take command of the Ministry of Environment and Water.
EL DEBER contacted Quiñones and when asked if he was proposed to be a minister in the meeting he had on Saturday with President Luis Arce, the leader hung up the call and then turned off his cell phone.
On Saturday, the president published photographs together with leaders of the Csutcb. “After an intense day of delivery and start of works in Caranavi, we closed the day with a productive meeting with the Single Trade Union Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia. We will strengthen industrialization to guarantee our food security with sovereignty,” he wrote.
