Santa Cruz, the largest region of bolivian and the economic engine of the country, celebrated six days of protests this Tuesday after the imprisonment of its governor, Luis Fernando Camacho. The opposition leader was arrested on December 28 and transferred to La Paz.
However, in his apartment, people have taken to the streets every day since his “kidnapping” -as they have called it-, organizing vigils in state entities, roadblocks and marches that are also scheduled for the next few hours.
Despite the rain that is recorded in the area, dozens of people remain firm in their rejection to the actions of the police and justice and maintain their camps in the regional offices of national state entities -such as the Tax Service, the Union Bank or the National Telecommunications Company- to prevent their operation.
Some have even posted themselves at the entrance doors with their Bolivian and Santa Cruz flags to prevent the entry of officials who work in the buildings.
Along with these vigils, they take place in the apartment locks on the main roads that connect the region with the rest of the country. For the next few hours, a march with white flags is also planned.
In these protests endless slogans are heard, all against the arrest of Camacho and in rejection of the police repression that the security forces have been carrying out since last Thursday.
“Santa Cruz is respected, damn it”, “The Governor has been brutally kidnapped” and “Wake up police, you are a friend of your people” are some of the slogans that the participants chanted.
Luis Fernando Camacho was arrested last Wednesday in a police operation that intercepted him while he was driving home in his vehicle. Despite the immediate reaction of the people, who moved to the airport to avoid his transfer, the opposition leader was taken to the Bolivian capital by helicopter, where he remains detained.
The precautionary judge ordered after nine hours of hearing that the governor remain four months in pretrial detention in the maximum security prison of Chonchocoro since he considers a high risk of escape and interference in the judicial process.
Camacho’s defense denounced the poor conditions in which he is being held, which led him to suffer a decompensation with the paralysis of a part of his body due to a disease that “affects his blood vessels”, for which he needs urgent treatment. The national authorities, however, ignored it and assured that the politician is “stable” and that his medical attention in prison was guaranteed.
The prosecution accuses Camacho in the framework of the case “coup d’état I”for the events recorded during the 2019 crisis that led to the resignation of evo Morales to the presidency who, in turn, denounced being the victim of a “coup d’état”, despite being accused of electoral fraud in his favor in the unsuccessful elections of that year.
Since Camacho was brought to justice, the protests in Santa Cruz have not stopped and, on the contrary, the call has increased as well as the violence. The civilians come with firecrackers Y pyrotechnicsto which the police respond with gases tear to disperse the crowds.
For their part, the Ombudsman’s Office and the National Association of Bolivian Journalists requested guarantees for the work of the press in view of the records of police officers who fired at point-blank range with gas grenades and pellets at some informants.
