US Revokes Visas of 27 Officials in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru

The State Department announced visa revocations for 27 Latin American officials and their families over corruption accusations, targeting allies of Washington.

The State Department said the revocations were carried out 'to fulfill the commitments to defend democratic governance across our hemisphere against corruption and narco-trafficking,' adding that 'undermining a democratically-elected government is a threat to security and rule of law in the Americas and will not be tolerated.' The move was described by the administration as part of broader efforts to clamp down on corruption tied to the narcotics trade and illegal migration.

The administration is targeting officials in countries led by right-leaning governments friendly with Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had visited Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru earlier this month to pledge US support for their anti-drug and anti-trafficking efforts, and those leaders have publicly complained that some individuals targeted by the visa revocations were hindering their crime-fighting work.

The 27 targets include Bolivia's Attorney General Roger Mariaca and more than 20 other Bolivian prosecutors and judges — 12 named as current visa holders and nine who would be denied visas should they apply. Two Colombians, a business mogul and a lawmaker, along with two Ecuadorians and one Peruvian judge, are also affected, according to the pack's reporting on the AP story.

Roger Mariaca, who was elected to a six-year term in 2024, is accused of abusing his public position by soliciting and accepting bribes to facilitate narcotrafficking and of helping violent criminals evade justice, according to the State Department documents cited in the pack. The department said his actions 'endanger President Trump's efforts to combat narcoterrorism while undermining the very democratic institutions Bolivia, as a Shield participant, is working to strengthen.'

The move deepens Washington's use of visa restrictions as a geopolitical pressure tool across the hemisphere, extending a pattern that has ranged from bans on South African officials accused of discriminating against white people to refusing visas to the Palestinian delegation to the UN. By striking at judicial and prosecutorial figures in allied countries, the administration risks fraying the very partnerships it is courting, even as it signals that Shield of the Americas members are expected to align with its anti-narcotics agenda.

Mariaca condemned the visa restrictions as political pressure on his office and vowed to pursue investigations, including a sensitive case involving Federico Cermelo, an Argentine political strategist with ties to Trump's circle who advised President Rodrigo Paz's campaign. 'No political pressure, national or international, can stand in the way of establishing the facts, which must be investigated,' he said at a news conference in Sucre. The standoff sets up a test of whether targeted officials will change behavior or whether the Shield bloc will absorb the friction.