Ex-Bolivian president ordered into rehab after allegedly smoking pot and harassing minors
By APWednesday, August 18, 2010
Ex-Bolivian president sent to rehab for marijuana
LA PAZ, Bolivia — A former Bolivian president has been ordered into rehab after he allegedly harassed minors in public under the influence of marijuana.
Prosecutor Maria del Carmen Rocha says that Gen. Juan Pereda Asbun was detained Tuesday night in Santa Cruz, 335 miles (540 kilometers) east of the capital of La Paz.
Rocha says that Pereda was arrested on complaints that “under the effects of the drug, he was harassing and bothering minors” in public. She says the 79-year-old Pereda was not charged because no one filed a formal complaint.
Pereda told television station ATB that he was accused of “harassing a young girl, which is false.”
Pereda was president for about three months in 1978 after ousting military dictator Hugo Banzer.
