Appointed in the tail end of the 2019 political crisis, López, along with Minister of Government Arturo Murillo, quickly became characterized as the "strong men" of the Jeanine Áñez administration and were implicated in the deadly events at Senkata and Sacaba.

After the 2020 general election, López entered contact with American ex-army soldiers, seeking to facilitate the transport of mercenaries and paramilitaries to Bolivia in order to launch a preemptive coup d'état that would prevent President-elect Luis Arce from coming to office.

During the ensuing political crisis, López noted that Camacho, in discussions with Morales' likely successor Jeanine Áñez, had proposed him as a candidate to assume the defense portfolio.

In view of this, the Chamber of Deputies approved on 19 February a formal request demanding that President Áñez "instruct the Ministers of State to comply with their constitutional duties".

In August, the assembly passed a law that closed this loophole by requiring the dismissal of censured ministers within 24 hours and barred them from serving in government positions for 3 years.

[22] López was implicated in another scandal when on 31 May 2020, the journalist Junior Arias brought to light accusations of irregular purchases of tear gas at highly inflated prices during the social conflicts of late 2019.

[25] Nearing the end of Áñez's transitional government, the Prosecutor's Office accused Murillo and López of crimes of improper use of influence, negotiations incompatible with the exercise of public functions by individuals, contracts harmful to the State, and breach of duties.

[1] The whereabouts of Murillo and López remained unclear for some days leading the Prosecutor's Office to request a report from the General Directorate of Migration on whether either of the former ministers had fled the country.

[29] The following day, Police Commander Colonel Johnny Aguilera reported that Murillo and López departed on a FAB-046 from El Trompillo Airport on 5 November, arriving in Santa Cruz, from where they crossed the border through Puerto Suárez and into Brazil.

[31] As a result of these events, the former head of the General Directorate of Migration, Marcel Rivas, was apprehended on 19 November, with the Prosecutor's Office accusing him of having helped facilitate the flight of the ex-ministers.

[37] On 17 June 2021, journalists from The Intercept broke the story that in the few weeks after Luis Arce's victory in the 2020 general election López had attempted to facilitate a coup d'état to prevent his assumption to office.

During his ministerial administration, López had echoed such concerns, stating in January 2020 that "[Evo Morales] indicates that there is a serious intention to eliminate the Armed Forces and the Police so that there is a foreign militia in our country".

[38] In different call logs, Pereira assured that he could "get up to 10,000 men with no problem", outlining a plan to pick up personnel in Homestead Air Reserve Base in Miami using Bolivian-owned C-130s, of which the Ministry of Defense had one.

The coup plot ultimately never came to fruition, largely due to disagreements between López and Murillo, whose capacity as minister of government gave him singular control of police.