Bolivia’s President Scraps Justice Ministry After Firing Minister

Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz abolished the Ministry of Justice on Thursday, just hours after dismissing its minister, following the revelation of a past criminal conviction that had gone undisclosed at the time of his appointment.

Freddy Vidovic, a lawyer who took office only two weeks ago, was removed after local media revealed that he had been sentenced in 2015 to three years in prison for bribery and for assisting a businessman—now jailed on corruption charges—in an attempted escape. Vidovic had not disclosed the conviction when he joined the cabinet.

In response to the revelations, President Paz swiftly replaced him with Jorge Franz García in a decree published earlier on Thursday. However, in a dramatic escalation later in the day, the president announced that he had decided to eliminate the entire Ministry of Justice, leaving García’s future unclear.

Paz reminded Bolivians that during his presidential campaign he had pledged to shut down the ministry, claiming it had been misused for decades by his left-wing opponents. “Today I am fulfilling my promise… The ministry of persecution is over, the ministry of injustice is over,” he declared in a televised statement.

Government officials did not clarify whether Vidovic had served his prison term, but they confirmed that a criminal conviction legally bars him from holding public office.

The sudden dismissal and immediate abolition of the ministry mark one of the most sweeping shake-ups of Paz’s administration since he took office, raising questions about the future structure of Bolivia’s justice and legal oversight systems.