Bolivian police arrested Luis Fernando Camacho, Governor of the department of Santa Cruz and one of the main opponents of Luis Arce’s socialist government. Following the attack, Camacho was transferred by plane to the capital, La Paz, around noon on Wednesday, December 28, where he chose to remain silent while awaiting the pre-trial hearing, which will decide whether he will commit suicide can defend in the process ‘coup I‘ At large or in preventive detention. The fees? terrorism and conspiracyfor taking part in the unrest that led to the 2019 coup, when violent street protests and positions by police and military leaders forced re-elected President Evo Morales to flee to Mexico.
The arrest of Camacho, a leading figure on the Bolivian right, has provoked contrasting reactions in the South American country. In the capital, a peaceful vigil commemorated the Senkata and Sacaba massacres that killed dozens of Morales supporters precisely in those days in November 2019, when protests against alleged fraud in favor of Morales himself (never really attempted) were spearheading the self-proclaimed Interim President rules Jeanine Añez (now in prison, sentenced to 10 years last June for dereliction of duty and unconstitutional resolutions). In contrast, in the department of Santa Cruz, the richest area of the country, supporters of Camacho provoked riots and violence, setting fire to the public prosecutor’s office and the home of the Minister of Public Works, Edgar Montaño, in protest, which Camacho himself – who is currently in the police facilities of La Paz’s arrest – described as an “irregular kidnapping”, supporters of the ultra-conservative governor have led to clashes with police in various areas of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, who also set fire to police vehicles, who used tear gas. Not only that: Several demonstrators broke into the city’s two airports, which is why La Paz-Santa Cruz flights were grounded.
“I am proud to have taken part in the greatest struggle in Bolivia’s history for freedom and democracy‘ said Camacho, who accuses police of ‘violently kidnapping’ him. “I am not afraid of the prison of the dictatorship. I will always defend Santa Cruz and Bolivia,” he added on social media, before telling the prosecutor that he will “defend himself in writing as he doesn’t believe in the Bolivian judiciary.” “It’s not kidnapping or political persecutionThe Attorney General replied that Camacho had been aware of the allegations since October, when the arrest warrant was approved by a criminal judge in compliance with “constitutional rights and guarantees”.
“Finally, after three years, Luis Fernando Camacho will answer for the coup that led to robberies, persecutions, arrests and massacres of the de facto government,” he commented on social media. Evo Moraleswho moved to Mexico as a refugee after exile in Mexico Argentina, returning home on November 9, 2020. Immediately following the inauguration of Arce, former Economy and Finance Minister in the Morales government and considered the dolphin of the former Cocalero President. Camacho, leader of the Creemos and active in the extreme right since his youth (from the paramilitary group Unión juvenil Cruceñista to the Santa Cruz Civic Committee), has been accused in recent months of fomenting more than a month of violence and roadblocks in Santa Cruz Ask the government to bring the census forward to 2023 (a year earlier). Application rejected by the MAS (Movimiento al socialismo) government. The Bolivian judiciary has sentenced Luis Camacho to six months in preventive detention.