Last night, Del Castillo provided a report on the clashes between unions related to the Movement for Socialism (MAS) and neighbors who tried to stop them. At the conference, he said that the march of the masistas was “peaceful”, despite the fact that the videos recorded by the media show that they arrived with sticks and firecrackers to attack those who were blocking different roads.
Regarding the destruction of the peasant and COB headquarters, the Minister of Government said that the people of Santa Cruz “have suffered attacks from sectors related to Mr. Camacho.” He also referred to the fact that they supposedly participated “criminals who are part of the Cruceñista Youth Union (UJC)”.
According to the report he gave on Friday, 15 people were apprehended (there are already 17 with the two captured this Saturday) and brought before the Public Ministry. Also, counted “dozens of injuries and considerable economic damage.”
A doctor, a firefighter and a journalist
Among those apprehended is the doctor Arnoldo Job Nava Palenque, who, according to his friends, was just passing by the scene of the confrontation when the police stopped him. The Santa Cruz Medical College reported this Saturday that its legal team would defend Nava from the crimes that he is accused of by the Prosecutor’s Office.
While Josué Arias Torres, a volunteer firefighter, who was apprehended when he went with his emergency unit to suffocate the fire registered at the peasant headquarters, according to members of the Fundasol Volunteer Firefighters.
Sulma Torres, mother of Josué Arias, accuses the police of planting evidence against his son that is apprehended. “They force him to grab this device, there is a complete video where you can see how they arrest him, beat him, reduce him and gas him in the face. See what kind of police and authorities we have, where else are we going to turn if we are supposed to that they have to give us security. So, who are we going to ask for protection,” exclaimed the woman desperately.
Another of the defendants is Sebastián Méndez Sevilla who He is a reporter for the television channel Noticias Villanas. According to his father, Jorge Méndez, Sebastián was covering the clashes that took place between trade unions and blockers when he was illegally captured by UTOP members. “He introduced himself as a press worker, but the police still grabbed him and made his credentials, microphone and cell phone disappear,” he denounced.
The story of the other 14 apprehended is similar, since their families denounce that they were only passing through the area, as “onlookers” or simply live in the area and for that they were arrested and now charged.
Walter Gómez, lawyer and uncle of one of those arrested, Juan Pablo Sánchez Gómez, denounced the police abuse of the uniformed men to capture with violence those who are currently locked up in police cells.
“He was leaving a house of his friends and that’s when the police arrive, he gets scared and runs to the front because they come to question him, they grab him, punish and subdue him and bring him to prison without saying anything. They have hit him on the head and he has a wound on one of his thighs, they have not found anything on him and then he appears as accused of robbery, “he claimed.
The Prosecutor’s Office took the statement from the 17 defendants this Saturday and is working on the imputation that will appear before a judge, who will define the legal situation of those arrested. The different cases were opened, one due to the destruction in the COB and the other due to the fire at the peasant headquarters.
For her part, the deputy of the Citizen Community, Luisa Nayar, denounced the illegality of the arrests of the young people and went to the offices of the Felcc to carry out a vigil in defense of the accused. Alsostated that the director of the Forest and Land Authority (ABT), Luis Roberto Flores Orellana, was one of the instigators of yesterday’s clashes.
