Since the illegal Sept. 30 arrest of Bolivia’s Attorney General Roger Mariaca (and 12 others) on charges that Mariaca was running a “criminal enterprise” within the Justice system, every effort has been made to justify these actions with the backing of the U.S.-run “security” apparatus, the Shield of the Americas. Dramatic propaganda, photos of police, intelligence and anti-drug agencies are everywhere, amidst detailed reports of the “evidence” against him much of which appears to be fabricated. With lightning speed, Mariaca was transferred to the offices of the national anti-drug agency (FELCN), indicted on two charges by a judge, removed from his position by the National Assembly and sentenced to six months of “preventive detention.” His lawyer, Jerjes Justiano, has stated that all these proceedings are rife with legal irregularities. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was reportedly involved in the arrest, which is unconstitutional, and diplomats from the U.S., Argentina and Peru were present at the parliamentary hearing that stipped Mariaca of his position—with no explanation as to why they were there.

All of these events constitute a coup against Bolivia—not against the government of President Rodrigo Paz Pereira, who is complicit in these illegal actions to save his own skin—but against the country’s ability to function as an independent sovereign state free from foreign interference and dictates. It is the institutions of the nation state that are being destabilized to cohere with the imperial hemispheric agenda of the Trump administration. Mariaca’s investigation of key MAGA operative, Argentine Fernando Cerimedo, who was not only President Paz’s private consultant, but a technology whiz plugged into White House and affiliated digital platforms which helped him “fix” the elections in several recent Ibero-American elections. Mariaca’s investigation of Cerimedo also dug up damning evidence of the Paz family’s illegal operations which were a threat to the President’s political survival, and Mariaca had publicly warned that the U.S. was pressuring him to halt his investigation.

That this U.S. backed “coup” is not just limited to Bolivia, but is a message to the entire region, was made clear in the Oct. 2 Shield of the Americas, ["Joint Statement of Support of Bolivia’s Efforts to Fight Corruption and Narcotrafficking."](https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesman/2026/10/joint-statement-in-support-of-bolivias-efforts-to-fight-corruption-and-narco-trafficking/ ) which followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Oct. 1 statement offering the Trump administration’s “firm” support for Paz Pereira. This was one day after Mariaca was arrested. The 13 governments participating in the hemispheric group “commend the Government of Bolivia for its decisive actions to confront narco-trafficking, tackle corruption, and hold enablers accountable.” Encouraging Bolivia to continue investigating and prosecuting the alleged criminal networks, the statement emphasizes that “the recent high-profile law enforcement actions against current and former senior officials implicated in narcotrafficking send a powerful message: Bolivia’s democratically elected government and other Shield countries will no longer tolerate illicit influence in our hemisphere, no matter how high it reaches.” So, any other nation or political faction or organization that resists or questions the Shield’s assault on economic and political sovereignty, such as is now occurring in Chile, could very well get the Bolivian treatment.