Bolivia is experiencing a political crisis. The governor of Santa Cruz, Luís Fernando Camacho Vaca, an opponent of socialist president Luis Arce Catacora, was arrested last week. According to the national government, Camacho is suspected of participating in an alleged coup that led former socialist president Evo Morales (2006-2019) to resign from power in 2019. For supporters of the governor of Santa Cruz, it is about a kidnapping.
The Lieutenant Governor of Santa Cruz, Mario Aguilera, tells the People’s Gazette that Camacho “was kidnapped by a police operation that certainly belongs to the highest spheres of the National Government”. He also describes that official vehicles intercepted the president’s opponent and, with weapons in hand, took him to a helicopter bound for the capital La Paz. Chonchocoro, where Camacho is based, is Bolivia’s maximum security prison for only the most dangerous inmates.
Aguilera highlights what he considers two major irregularities. “The arrest warrant was issued after the arrest, after the governor was kidnapped. In addition, the arrest took place despite an instruction by the judiciary that suspended all warrants due to the vacation recess ”, he explains.
Isolating Camacho may be strategic for President Catacora’s party, the Movimento ao Socialismo (MAS), since the governor of Santa Cruz was at the forefront of protests that questioned possible electoral fraud in Morales’ (also MAS) victory in 2019 and because Camacho is leader of the most important national department.
Santa Cruz has the largest population (approximately 3.5 million inhabitants), in addition to being the department that contributes the most to the national GDP (34%). Historically, it has been the center of Bolivian opposition in seeking a model different from that found in the Andean areas of the country. “Santa Cruz’s ethnic and historical origins are completely different from the rest of the country, which is why decentralizing ideas are claimed for this region of eastern Bolivia”, assesses Aguilera.
Electoral fraud of the Movement Towards Socialism 2019
A 2016 referendum prevented Evo Morales of the MAS from seeking a third term. Even so, he ran and received a majority of votes in the first round of 2019.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) presented a final report of the audit carried out in the general elections held on October 20 of that year in Bolivia. The conclusion was that there was “misleading manipulation” and “serious irregularities” that made it impossible to validate the results originally released by the Bolivian electoral authorities.
In response, protests erupted across the country, with Santa Cruz being the epicenter of the fighting. At the head of the Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, an institution that brings together the representation of the most important sectors of the department, was Luis Fernando Camacho Vaca, a lawyer with a long career in the civic struggle who led the so-called “21-day Strike” – the social and political movement which culminated in the resignation of Evo Morales.
With the departure of the socialist politician, an opponent assumed power on an interim basis: Jeanine Añez Chávez, 2nd vice-president of the Senate.
However, 11 months after Morales’ resignation, the MAS, with candidates Luis Arce Catacora (former Economy Minister under Evo Morales) and David Choquehuanca (former Chancellor of Evo Morales), won the elections. There began a persecution of leaders of the “21 Day War”.
The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, stated that “the Bolivian judicial system is not in a position to offer the minimum guarantees of a fair trial” and called for the release of the detainees.
The Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, considered Almagro’s statements as “malicious provocations”, which “aim to favor private and political interests”.
Lidia Patty, a former MAS deputy of indigenous origin, was the denouncer of the cases called “Coup I” and “Coup II”, through which opposition leaders such as former interim president Jeanine Añez, governor Luís Fernando Camacho, former ministers, military, police and activists.
“They say I’m a puppet, that I’m manipulated, that I’m just an object of the MAS”, mentioned Patty in an interview with EFE, pointing out that the “accusations of the right are not true”.
The former legislator mentioned that “at no time” did she receive orders from her party or from former President Morales to activate the complaint.
After Patty’s allegations, former interim president Añez was sentenced in 2021 to 10 years in prison, being accused of “terrorism, sedition and conspiracy” for the events of November 2019. Camacho received preventive detention in December 2022 for allegedly “plotting a coup”.
“This represents a disastrous precedent for Bolivian democracy. Without a doubt, we are talking about state terrorism”, concludes the deputy governor of Santa Cruz.
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