Bolivian judge orders four months in prison for governor and opposition leader

A Bolivian judge ordered this Friday the preventive detention for four months of the opposition governor of the Santa Cruz region, Luis Fernando Camacho, accused of “terrorism”, in a case related to the departure of the leftist Evo Morales from the presidency in 2019.

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The hearing of precautionary measures against Camacho lasted for more than nine hours, in which the Prosecutor’s Office requested six months of preventive detention on the grounds that there was a risk of flight.

The criminal judge, Sergio Pacheco, said that “orders the application of preventive detention for the accused Luis Fernando Camacho Vaca, preventive detention that must be served for a period of four months in the Chonchocoro prison,” a maximum penalty security in the country’s Andes.

Prosecutor Omar Mejillones requested his six-month detention on Wednesday, arguing that there was a risk of flight.

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At the end of the hearing, the plaintiff’s lawyers, former pro-government legislator Lidia Patty, the State Attorney General’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior (Interior) They announced that they would appeal the ruling to increase the pretrial detention to six months, as initially requested.

Likewise, the defense of the governor of Santa Cruz said that he will appeal the judge’s decision, stating that “there is no justification for preventive detention in a jail.”

Last Wednesday Camacho was arrested in the city of Santa Cruz and then he was transferred to La Paz, seat of the Government and Parliament, in a questioned police operation.

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‘Coup d’état’ I and II

The Prosecutor’s Office accuses Camacho of the crime of terrorism for the events recorded during the 2019 crisis that led to the resignation of Evo Morales from the Presidencywho later denounced being the victim of a “coup d’état”, amid allegations of electoral fraud in his favor in the failed elections that year.

After the arrest of the governor of Santa Cruz, Morales said last Wednesday that “finally after 3 years, Luis Fernando Camacho will answer for the coup that led to robberies, persecutions, arrests and massacres of the de facto government.”

In a message on Twitter, the former president was confident that “this decision will be upheld with the firmness demanded by the people’s cry for justice.”

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For this same case The former interim president of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez and two of her former ministers were arrested in March 2021although she was finally sentenced in June of this year to 10 years in prison for illegally placing herself in the line of presidential succession due to the process called “coup d’état II”.

Protests continue against the arrest of Camacho

This Friday, after knowing the decision of the pretrial detention judge against Luis Fernando Camacho, a 24-hour strike was called in the largest region of Bolivia.

The governor of Santa Cruz said during the hearing that “he will never give up” and that he will continue to “fight” against what he considers to have been an “abuse” by the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS).

“I will never give up, we have been fighting against the abuse of massismo. This is a fight for democracy and freedom, it is a fight for Bolivia,” he declared in court.

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The strike was called by the “Assembly of La Cruceñidad”, which brings together the main civic entities of Santa Cruz, to demand the release of the governor of that Bolivian region and opposition leader.

“Santa Cruz repudiates the kidnapping and political persecution against authorities and the civilian population,” was the message with which the Santa Cruz Civic Committee began the strike.

EFE

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