Arturo Carlos Murillo Prijic (born 27 December 1963) is a Bolivian businessman, hotelier, and politician who served as the minister of government from 2019 to 2020. As a member of the National Unity Front, he previously served as a senator for Cochabamba from 2015 to 2019 and as a plurinominal member of the Chamber of Deputies from Cochabamba from 2006 to 2010.
Murillo was appointed at the tail end of the 2019 political crisis, and he quickly became characterized as one of the "strong men" of the Jeanine Áñez administration. Minutes after his inauguration, he announced the "hunt" for ex-officials of Evo Morales's government under various criminal charges and warned of severe consequences for acts of sedition. In May 2020, Murillo was alleged to be the ringleader in the tear gas case, in which the Ministries of Government and Defense were accused of irregularly purchasing non-lethal weapons at inflated prices. His refusal to cooperate with various criminal and legislative investigations was denounced by Attorney General José María Cabrera, whom the president dismissed at Murillo's behest. Cabrera's removal brought the scope of Murillo's influence over the president into question and led to the resignation of multiple ministers amid accusations that he was the "power behind the throne" of the Áñez administration. Murillo was called to hearings by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly but failed to present himself, ultimately resulting in his censure by the legislature. Per the terms of the Constitution, he was dismissed as minister but was reappointed the next day, exploiting a loophole in the document's text that Áñez had previously utilized in another minister's censure months prior.
After the 2020 general election, Murillo, along with Minister of Defense Luis Fernando López, fled the country three days before the inauguration of President-elect Luis Arce. He traveled to Panama from Brazil before arriving in the United States. In May 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him and four associates in Florida on criminal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was incarcerated in the Federal Detention Center in Miami until 2025, when he was released and subsequently deported to Bolivia.
Early life and career Arturo Murillo was born on 27 December 1963 in Cochabamba. He began working at the Victoria Hotel in Villa Tunari at the age of 14 and eventually became its owner. Murillo did not pursue university studies, and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Center for Accelerated Secondary Education before entering the business sector of the hotel industry. Through that, he founded the Association of Hoteliers of the Tropic of Cochabamba and was a member of the Federation of Private Business Entities of Cochabamba. Both posts put Murillo into conflict with the cocalero activist Evo Morales whose political tactics, including roadblocks, seriously interrupted tourism in the Chapare Province.
Political career Chamber of Deputies At the invitation of businessman Samuel Doria Medina, Murillo entered the political field in 2005 as a member of the National Unity Front (UN). In the 2005 general elections, he was elected as a deputy for the Cochabamba Department on a party list for the UN. During his term, Murillo was noted as a staunch critic of the now-president, Morales. Due to his condemnations, he claimed political persecution when in 2009, the Cochabamba Department of Tourism closed his Victoria Hotel, along with sixteen other hotels, having found that they had violated regulations by not having an operating license or keeping daily guest entry and exit reports.
Cochabamba mayoral election
In 2009, Murillo was absent from his party's parliamentary lists. Instead of seeking reelection, he directed his attention towards the 2010 Cochabamba mayoral election, facilitating his mayoral candidacy through the All for Cochabamba alliance, a coalition between UN and Popular Consensus. On 4 January 2010, he secured the support of the Social Democratic Power candidate Ninoska Lazarte, who agreed to withdraw her name from contention in exchange for the position of first municipal councilor. Through his candidacy, Murillo managed to form a broad bloc of opponents of Morales's Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).
The mayoral race on 4 April remained too close to call for two days. On 6 April, the Departmental Court of Cochabamba released its official report, putting MAS candidate Edwin Castellanos in first place at 39.5%. Murillo came in second with 38%, losing by a one-point margin of 4,773 votes.
Chamber of Senators After the 2010 elections, Murillo remained close with Doria Medina's party, eventually becoming UN's spokesman at the national level. He returned to the political scene in 2014 when UN, hedging its bets on ex-legislators to confront MAS, presented him as their candidate for first senator for Cochabamba as a member of the Democratic Unity (UD) coalition. In the 2014 general elections, Murillo was elected senator for Cochabamba, winning the position as the only opposition senator in the department.
Forged document case In 2011, Murillo was met with allegations by the Ministry of Defense that he had forged his military service records in order to qualify before the National Electoral Court as a candidate in 2009. According to the ministry, the files in question were false because the numerical code they belonged to corresponded to another person. For this, the Ministries of Defense and Institutional Transparency filed criminal proceedings with the prosecutor's office against him for the crimes of filing a forged instrument and ideological falsehood. On 3 May 2016, the Fifth Sentencing Court of the Judicial District of La Paz, by unanimous vote, acquitted Murillo on the second charge but found him guilty on the first, sentencing him to two years in the San Pedro prison. In response, UN denounced the ruling as an "abuse of political power against democratic dissent", alleging that the judicial branch had become subject to the MAS, who sought to silence Murillo as the head of the Democratic Unity caucus in the Senate.
Murillo appealed the decision in October 2018, seeking the conviction's annulment under the justification that the falsehood of the documents had not been adequately demonstrated at the trial; the appeal took two years and five months to resolve. On 4 June 2021, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice re-affirmed the original sentence of two years. Had the ruling been released in 2019, it would have barred him from assuming office as minister of government. Break with National Unity Murillo announced that he had decided to leave the National Unity Front and retire from politics on 30 November 2018 as a result of the collapse of the DU coalition between National Unity and the Social Democratic Movement (MDS), which numerous members of both parties criticized. In his statement, he endorsed MDS senator Óscar Ortiz Antelo in his presidential bid and announced that he would not seek reelection, instead hoping to retire to his hotel business in Cochabamba.
Burning of the Hotel Victoria Amid the wave of violence and social turmoil of the 2019 political crisis, on 11 November, Murillo denounced the burning of Hotel Victoria the night before. He alleged that his "work of more than twenty years" had been reduced to ashes by a mob of cocaleros and militants of the MAS "just because it belonged to [him]"; hours prior, Morales had been forced to resign due to nationwide protests. Murillo's family —three elderly people, including his sister; and two young girls, one one-year-old and the other six— spent eight days in hiding on the bank of a river in the Villa Tunari tropics before being rescued by a land and air police-military operation.
Minister of Government
Following Morales' resignation, opposition legislator Jeanine Áñez, a member of the UD alliance, legitimized her succession to the presidency and assumed office as the head of a transitional administration on 12 November. The following day, she appointed her ministerial cabinet, designating Murillo as minister of government. In an interview with Radio Fides on 31 May 2021, former minister of communication Roxana Lizárraga revealed that Murillo's appointment "did not have the backing of many of the [other] ministers […] because he believed that, as a minister of government, he had all the power in the world". However, she claimed that his entry into Áñez's cabinet had been sponsored by UN leader Samuel Doria Medina, who she confirmed had suggested Murillo for the position. Medina denied the allegations the following day, stating that he would not have had any motive to do so given Murillo's departure from UN in 2018.
During his time in office, Murillo signed the Madrid Charter and joined an alliance of right-wing and far-right politicians organized by the far-right Spanish political party Vox.
Processes against "sedition" Soon after being sworn in, Murillo announced the "hunt" for the "seditious", stating that "this is not going to be a ministry of persecution […]. But whoever tries to be seditious from tomorrow, take care". In particular, he singled out Juan Ramón Quintana, ex-minister of the Morales government, whom he called "an animal that is killing people in our country". He ended his comments by warning that Quintana and other dissidents should "begin to run because [he is] going to catch them". On 25 November, the Prosecutor's Office issued an arrest warrant against Quintana on charges of sedition and terrorism, with further notices being issued for the ex-minister of cultures Wilma Alanoca.
In December, Murillo made the first visit of a transition official to the United States where he announced that an arrest warrant would be issued against Morales in the "next few hours" on charges of terrorism. At a press conference held on 8 January 2020, Murillo held up a pair of handcuffs before the media, stating, "here we are waiting for Mr. Evo Morales to come to Bolivia; here are the handcuffs to take him to Chonchocoro [prison, …] not because of politics, not because of persecution, [but] because [he is a] terrorist". The following day, Murillo requested the activation of an Interpol Red Notice in order to seek Morales's arrest abroad. Days later, the minister made further comments calling Morales a "confessed terrorist" and saying that he had a "cell with his name in Chonchocoro".
Senkata and Sacaba investigation Following the events in Senkata and Sacaba, several legislators from the MAS announced their intent to file a request for interpellation in the Legislative Assembly for Murillo and Minister of Defense Luis Fernando López, in order to receive an oral report on the incidents which led to several deaths. In late December, President of the Senate Eva Copa stated that the interpellation would be held after the recess of the assembly, with President of the Chamber of Deputies Sergio Choque announcing on 3 January 2020 that the meetings had been scheduled for 11 and 12 January. In response, on 10 January, both Murillo and López presented justifications for why they could not attend the session, which were accepted by the legislature, who rescheduled it for 17 January. However, neither of the two presented themselves on that date, issuing further justifications for their absence. In view of this, the Chamber of Deputies approved on 19 February a formal request demanding that Áñez "instruct the ministers of State to comply with their constitutional duties". Tear gas case