In the space of one week, between Sept. 30 and Oct. 7, the takedown of Bolivia’s law enforcement system and affiliated institutions occurred at lightning speed under the supervision of the Trump administration’s imperial hemispheric Shield of the Americas apparatus and with the support of what some are calling President Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s “palace guard.” Attorney General Roger Mariaca was illegally arrested on Sept. 30—no arrest warrant or legal orders—swiftly accused of leading a “criminal enterprise” within the justice system, charged with drug trafficking, money-laundering and illicit enrichment, and carted off to the Cantumarca prison in Potosi for six months of “preventive detention.” Three other arrested prosecutors were each sent to separate prisons. A dragnet of police and intelligence agents subsequently arrested other departmental prosecutors and judges and occupied their offices. With much publicity, security officials raided Mariaca’s homes and offices, making sure to allow media cameras to film “evidence.” On Oct. 4 the Plurinational Legislative Assembly officially voted to remove Mariaca and replace him with a new interim Attorney General, Jose Armando Urioste, who was sworn in on Monday, Oct. 5.

This was all a very fast, unexpected and “efficient” way to carry out a coup against Bolivian sovereignty, warning any who might resist that they will be “hunted down” and thrown in jail on any pretext. One observer pointed out that those arrested constituted a “bloc” of public prosecutors who opposed the neoliberal President Paz. As a next step, according to Los Tiempos, Urioste announced Oct. 6 that his office is seeking “international help,” chief among which is the Shield of the Americas, “to assist in investigations and the institutional recovery” of the public prosecutors’ office, which he said is “almost dead.” Foreign assistance will help “guarantee absolute transparency and zero tolerance for corruption.” What this help entails isn’t specified. Will the U.S.’s Justice Department, FBI or CIA descend on Bolivia?