The pretrial detention of Santa Cruz governor Luis Fernando Camacho for four months has sparked fresh violent clashes in Bolivia between his supporters and the police.
Judge Sergio Pacheco ordered that the accused Luis Fernando Camacho Vaca be sentenced to “pretrial detention” for “four months” and to be served “in the Chochocoro Detention Center”, a maximum security prison in the Bolivian Andes, some 30 kilometers from La Paz. He joined there after the hearing, as television cameras recorded.
The prosecution requested yesterday Thursday that Mr. Camazzo, 43, be remanded in custody for six months.
The governor of Santa Cruz He was arrested on Wednesday by order of the prosecution, which accuses him of “terrorism”, of being involved in the “coup” that overthrew the left-wing former president Evo Morales in November 2019.
The jailing of the influential opposition leader sparked fresh clashes between protesters and police in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s most populous city, capital of the region of the same name that is the engine of the Bolivian economy.
Mr. Camacho has repeatedly denied instigating a couphe prefers to talk about a popular uprising against former President Morales (2006-2019), whom he accused at the time of committing fraud in the 2019 presidential election to stay in power.
He has been among the most important leaders of the Bolivian right in recent years and leads its second largest faction in parliament, the Creemos (“We Believe”) party, behind the Comunidad Ciudadana (“Community of Citizens”) party of the center-right former president Carlos Mesa.
Former presidents Mesa (2014-2018), Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002) and Janine Añez (2019-2020) condemned the arrest of the governor.
Former president Anies, who faced the same charges, was sentenced in June to serve ten years in prison.
Supporters of the government of Socialist President Luis Arce, on the other hand, expressed satisfaction at Mr. Camacho’s arrest. Attorney General Wilfredo Chávez, former minister of Evo Morales, ruled that “justice must do its job”.
Source: News Beast
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