LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia’s incendiary former interior minister was arrested at the airport Thursday after being deported from the United States to face a litany of charges, including crimes against humanity for ordering a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in 2019.
The deportation of Arturo Murillo follows his release from U.S. prison in June after serving four years in a money laundering case in which he was accused of taking $532,000 in bribes to help a Florida company win a lucrative contract to sell tear gas to his government.
Late Wednesday he was expelled from Miami on a flight to Bolivia, where he has been tried and sentenced in absentia in two of the many cases against him. In addition to the homicide and crimes against humanity charges, he faces accusations of money laundering, abuse of authority, aggravated theft and influence‐peddling in his purchase of overpriced tear gas to use against protesters.
U.S. authorities accompanying Murillo turned him over to their Bolivian counterparts after landing in the eastern province of Santa Cruz. Murillo was promptly whisked on another flight to the capital of La Paz, where prosecutors say they plan to transfer him to the maximum-security Chonchocoro prison.
“Murillo must end up in a prison in the city of La Paz,” Attorney General Roger Marica told reporters. “It will be up to the judges, but there are already arrest warrants against him.”
Murillo’s prosecution in Bolivia will be a test of the independence of the judiciary in this politically polarized nation, where the Supreme Court last month ordered a review of detention orders against right-wing opposition leaders after elections brought down the long-ruling Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party.
Murillo, 61, served as interior minister under then-interim President Jeanine Áñez, a conservative Christian senator who took power in November 2019 after former president and MAS party founder Evo Morales resigned under pressure from the military as protests disputing his reelection to a fourth term shook the country.
Judges in Bolivia last week annulled a key case against Áñez and ordered the release of her jailed political allies under lenient house arrest arrangements.
The series of court decisions reopened wounds from Bolivia’s 2019 crisis that left at least 37 people dead and dozens wounded – the vast majority civilians protesting Morales’ ouster – after Áñez took power in what many saw as a coup.
As interior minister, Murillo referred to his political opponents as “narco-terrorists” and “animals,” and led the deadly police crackdown on protests that drew sharp rebuke from human rights groups. The Organization of American States’ human rights watchdog reported evidence of “massacres,” “systematic torture” and “summary executions” by security forces.
During his time in power, Murillo also brought charges against Morales for sedition and terrorism, memorably dangling a pair of handcuffs at a press conference in which he promised to “hunt down” Bolivia’s first Indigenous president.
On Thursday, it was Murillo in handcuffs as he was escorted to the main investigative police station in La Paz ahead of a court hearing.
“He must be held accountable,” said Government Minister Roberto Ríos at a press conference.
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