Bolivian court sentences opposition leader to 4 months in preventive detention

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The Justice of Bolivia sentenced the leader of the opposition in the country, the governor of the department of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, to four months of preventive detention this Friday (30). He is accused of terrorism and of instigating riots that culminated in the departure of former President Evo Morález from power in 2019, which the Attorney General’s Office calls a coup d’état.

On Wednesday (28), the prosecutor in charge of the case defended the preventive detention of the governor for six months, claiming that Camacho could flee the country or obstruct the investigations. In his arguments, he cited, for example, the times when the opposition leader refused to comply with subpoenas to provide clarification on the episode.

Earlier this month, Camacho said he would not turn himself in to La Paz and taunted authorities, saying that if they wanted to arrest him, they should go to Santa Cruz. So, then, they did: the governor was arrested on Wednesday and taken to the Bolivian capital.

Until then, however, the causes of the arrest were uncertain. One hypothesis was that he had helped organize recent protests that blocked streets and disrupted commerce in various regions of the country. The acts demanded that the Bolivian population census be carried out, whose work is delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and, according to experts, should guarantee more tax revenue and seats in Congress for representatives of the state of Santa Cruz, one of the most populous and richest in Bolivia. .

On the occasion, demonstrators gathered in Santa Cruz, in a sign of support for the governor. A few hundred people invaded the runways of two airports in the region — the international Viru Viru, and the domestic one, Trompillo. According to Bolivian broadcaster Unitel, demonstrators shouted slogans for Camacho’s release and tried to prevent aircraft from taking off.

This Friday, Judge Sergio Pacheco accepted the prosecution’s arguments and ordered Camacho’s transfer to a maximum security prison in La Paz. “I will never surrender; this is a fight for democracy and freedom,” the governor responded on his Twitter account.

With the decision, Camacho supporters returned to the streets, waving the state flag. In addition, civil groups have mobilized roadblocks and scheduled a general strike for this Friday morning – the level of adherence to the movement is still uncertain. “There are times of peace and times of war,” said Keyla Garcia, a congresswoman from Camacho’s party who led a rally the day before.

The governor, however, is far from unanimous in the region. His critics also took to the streets to demand justice and displayed coffins, symbolizing the victims of the 2019 riots, when Morales fled the country amid protests, some led by Camacho. “Let him go to jail for 30 years. We want justice. I was at the place where they killed the first victim,” Maria Laura, a pro-government demonstrator, told Reuters news agency.

Morales, for his part, said on Wednesday that he hoped Camacho’s arrest would bring justice after three years. “He will answer for the coup d’état that led to robberies, persecutions, arrests and massacres by the de facto government,” tweeted the leftist.

Former President Carlos Mesa, a Camacho ally who ran against Morales in the 2019 elections, told Reuters that the case resulted from “a monumental electoral fraud carried out by Evo Morales” and that the terrorism charge “does not make sense”.

So far, most South American governments have not commented on the arrest. A spokesman for the United Nations, on the other hand, said that the secretary general of the organization, Antonio Guterres, is concerned about the events and called for calm and moderation.

The United States, meanwhile, said it was monitoring the situation and called for a peaceful and democratic resolution of the episode.

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