Bolivia's new president scraps his country's justice ministry
A country without a Ministry of Justice—is that conceivable? For the new president of Bolivia, the answer to this question is yes. He dissolved the ministry without further ado on Thursday.
La Paz (AFP) - Bolivia's new president Rodrigo Paz has fired his justice minister and then scrapped the ministry altogether, after discovering the minister inaugurated just two weeks earlier had failed to disclose a three-year prison sentence.
The minister, former lawyer Freddy Vidovic, was sentenced in 2015 to three years' imprisonment for bribery and aiding the attempted escape of a businessman with links to a former president serving time for corruption. Bolivia's government did not clarify whether Vidovic had served his time, but said a criminal sentence precluded him from holding public office.
As Vidovic's past became public, president Paz first replaced him with Jorge Franz Garcia on November 20. Later in the day, the president said he had also decided to abolish the justice ministry, leaving Garcia's fate uncertain.
Paz recalled that he had promised during his election campaign to shutter the ministry, which he claimed had been abused by his rivals on the left of the political spectrum for decades. "Today, I am keeping my word...the ministry of persecution is over, the ministry of injustice is over," he said.
Paz took office as president of Bolivia at the beginning of November 2025. As the candidate of the centrist Christian Democratic Party, he had won the election in October with around 55% of the vote. His victory ended almost two decades of left-wing governments in the country.