Clashes between demonstrators and police broke out on Wednesday in the region of Santa Cruz, locality of the governor arrested.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Luis Fernando Camacho, governor of the Santa Cruz region, in Bolivia, and one of the main opponents of the country’s government, was arrested on Wednesday, December 28. An arrest which sparked a wave of protest and clashes between demonstrators and police in the locality.
m. Camacho was apprehended in the city of Santa Cruz, on the orders of a prosecutor who accuses him of “terrorism” for an alleged “coup” against former leftist president Evo Morales, in November 2019, said the public prosecutor.
Since then, several districts of the most populous city in Bolivia have been blocked by protesters, who used stones, vehicles and pieces of wood. Clashes with the police broke out. No injuries, however, was identified at the moment.
Protesters also set fire to the local prosecutor’s offices, after others have invested the two airports of Santa Cruz, Viru Viru (International) and El Cheminlo (interior flights). They were trying to prevent the governor’s transfer to the capital, the Paz. The director of the National Air Transport and Bolivian airports, Elmer Pozo, announced that thefts were interrupted.
Luis Fernando Camacho defended himself several times to have fomented a coup and prefers to speak of a popular rebellion against Evo Morales (2006-2019), which he accuses of having rigged the presidential elections in 2019 to stay in power. Mr. Camacho is the subject of several surveys, in particular for his role in the departure of Mr. Morales and for having encouraged demonstrations between October and November. He then claimed that the government organizes a population census in its region earlier than expected at 2024, in order to obtain more subsidies.
“We currently do not know where the governor is and we hold the government of President Luis Arce responsible for the physical security and the life of the governor,” said Camacho’s office in a statement, denouncing an “operation of absolutely irregular police “.
Luis Fernando Camacho is one of the main leaders of the Bolivian right and directs the second political force of opposition to Parliament, Creemos, behind the Citizen Community Party (CC) of former centrist president Carlos Mesa. The former Bolivian heads of state Jeanine Añez (2019-2020) and Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002), on the same political edge as Mr. Camacho, as well as Mr. Mesa (2014-2018) condemned the governor’s arrest. “It is a violation of international law. We ask Luis Arce to clarify the situation immediately,” said Carlos Mesa on Twitter. “I repudiate and denounce this intolerable violence which generate more pain and hatred for the Bolivians,” castigated Jeanine Añez, targeted by the same accusations as Mr. Camacho and sentenced to ten years in prison in June.
The supporters of the socialist government of Luis Arce, they hailed the detention of Mr. Camacho. The prosecutor general of the State, Wilfredo Chavez, a former minister of Evo Morales, said in particular that “justice had to do his job”.
