Bolivia BCB Arrests Mark Paz’s Biggest Anti-Corruption Move Yet
Key Points
—Bolivia BCB ex-president Edwin Rojas and three former senior directors were arrested on April 28-29 over inflated bond swap operations that cost the state $124 to $142 million.
—Seven bond swap transactions in June and July 2024 priced above market levels, with internal records altered after the fact via email instructions.
—Ex-Finance Minister Marcelo Montenegro is on the prosecutor’s witness list, with audits widening to a $250 million sovereign bond deal and 6.6 tonnes of central bank gold forward sales.
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The Bolivia BCB arrests are the largest anti-corruption move of Rodrigo Paz’s young presidency — and the first time prosecutors have reached into the macroeconomic machinery that kept the previous government’s debt payments flowing.
Bolivia BCB ex-president Edwin Rojas and three former senior directors were arrested on April 28 and 29 over inflated bond swap operations that prosecutors say cost the state between $124 million and $142 million. The detentions come from a federal investigation into seven debt swap transactions executed in June and July 2024, after the central bank’s board modified its internal trading rules. Prosecutor Miguel Cardozo is leading a probe that names seven people and is set to widen further.
The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that the case marks the first major corruption prosecution of the Paz government and reaches directly into the macroeconomic machinery that kept Bolivia’s debt service flowing during the dollar crisis. The arrests follow an audit by the new central bank administration, published in March, that flagged the trades. Rojas had been appointed BCB president in November 2020 by then-Finance Minister Marcelo Montenegro under President Luis Arce.
How the Bolivia BCB Bond Swaps Worked
In June and July 2024, the central bank board passed a new internal regulation governing operations. The change allowed transactions to be priced outside legal market margins. Officials then executed seven debt swap deals with local financial entities at inflated valuations, a structure that imposed losses on the state every time the books were closed.
Vice-Minister of Transparency Yamil García said the original transaction records were later altered through internal email instructions to disguise the overvaluation. He did not specify who issued the orders or who modified the data. The audited losses sit at $124 million by the BCB internal review and at $142.3 million by Bloomberg’s reporting, both consistent with the inflated pricing pattern.
Why the Bolivia BCB Case Matters Politically
Paz took office in November 2025 promising to expose two decades of accumulated MAS-era corruption. The Bolivia BCB case is the first time his prosecutors have reached the apex of the financial system. Rojas and his three ex-colleagues — the former Operations Manager, the former Director, and the former Economic Policy Manager — were the people running the central bank during the worst of Bolivia’s dollar crisis.
The political reach of the case extends beyond the four detentions. Prosecutor Cardozo confirmed Montenegro will be cited as a witness, alongside executives from the local financial entities that participated in the bond swaps. Audits already underway cover a $250 million sovereign bond transaction with the state pension administrator Gestora Pública in 2024 and a 6.6 tonne gold forward sale by the BCB in 2025.
The Macroeconomic Context
The trades took place during the most acute phase of Bolivia’s macro crisis. Dollar reserves had collapsed and natural gas export revenue, the historic backbone of the economy, was in terminal decline. The Arce government leaned on the central bank to engineer creative liquidity, including a controversial 2023 law allowing the BCB to buy local gold and sell it offshore for hard currency.
By the time Paz took office, Bolivia owed roughly $300 million in dollar bond payments per year through 2027. Foreign investors had spent a year asking how Bolivia kept honoring its debt while running a parallel currency black market. The audit findings now suggest part of the answer was financial engineering at the central bank that produced losses for the state and gains for selected counterparties.
What Happens Next in the Bolivia BCB Case
Rojas turned himself in voluntarily and exercised his right to silence. The Fiscalía ordered him transferred to police cells based on the preliminary evidence, and the four detainees deny wrongdoing through their lawyers. The investigation is expected to widen as financial entity executives are deposed and as the gold forward and pension fund audits conclude.
For markets, the case sets a marker for how aggressively Paz will pursue accountability for the Arce-era debt management. Bolivia’s dollar bonds still trade at distressed levels, and any signal that the central bank’s operations were tainted by inflated pricing could affect future swap negotiations. The administration has separately announced that the Inter-American Development Bank approved an $800 million credit line and that YPFB has been authorized to buy hydrocarbons directly on international markets — measures designed to reduce the kind of financial engineering that landed Rojas in custody.
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