Havana, January 5 (Prensa Latina) The trial being followed in Bolivia against the governor of the department of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, is at the center of a campaign of disinformation and false versions that the embassy of that country is denouncing here.
A note circulated by this diplomatic headquarters indicates that Camacho’s arrest on December 28 was carried out in accordance with the order issued by the La Paz departmental prosecutor in October 2022, as part of what was dubbed “Coup I”. If issued.
Recall that the trial began in December 2020 and from October 2021 to the same month in 2022 the officer evaded a subpoena on at least four occasions to testify about the trial of which he was fully aware.
The memo adds that in light of his repeated failure to appear on the subpoena, under the terms of the Code of Criminal Procedure, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him to testify, and for that reason Camacho was transferred to La Paz, where the trial is located, criminal, and accepts the right to remain silent.
The text explains that on November 30, the eighth interim criminal investigation judge ordered Camacho to serve four months of preventive detention at Chonchocoro Prison in La Paz.
The note assures that all constitutional guarantees have been respected since the beginning of the trial and that in the Bolivian capital both the family and the doctors caring for the detainee attended the medical meeting on December 31st.
The text of the diplomatic headquarters considers crimes against facilities and the security of officials in the city of Santa Cruz following the arrest of Luis Fernando Camacho as a serious interference with the independence of the judiciary.
Among other things, he lists the kidnapping and torture of a lawyer from the National Tax Service, damaging the building of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the courts and the residence of the Minister of Public Works, and constant attacks on the National Police.
In this regard, the note points out “that the independence of the judiciary need not be compromised by external measures that impede its work”.
It also recalled that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ interdisciplinary group of independent experts ordered an investigation into all events that occurred from September to December 2019 and that this is the international obligation that the Bolivian judiciary is now honoring.
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