December 31, 2022, 4:00 AM
December 31, 2022, 4:00 AM
The last day of the year closes with sadness, restlessness and uncertainty. The apprehension of the governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, his arrest and subsequent imprisonment in the Chonchocoro prison for four months in the city of La Paz have put the region and the country on edge in the next few hours.
The reaction of burning institutions and a 24-hour strike in the Santa Cruz department are factual evidence of the rejection of the political measure taken by the Government of Luis Arce Catacora.
A risky measure from a political point of view that seeks to demonstrate absolute power without hiding nonsense. This run-over to the first democratically elected departmental authority does not figure in the annals of history. No one had dared so much. The quest to consolidate power at any cost shows that loose ends may remain in the process. Above all, if they insist on closing internal fissures without taking into account the new hostile scenarios that are opening up in other regions of the country.
Not surprisingly, the Secretary General of the United Nations Organization (UN), António Guterres, expressed his concern about the events in Bolivia, with the arrest of the governor of Santa Cruz. And he appeals to all political and social actors to exercise maximum restraint. But he also points to the judicial system and urges adherence to the rule of law that ensures “due process and transparency in judicial processes,” according to the UN statement.
If there is a purpose to decapitate a region, with violent methods, with cunning and despicable actions, the result could be the reverse. The union of the citizen of Santa Cruz is strengthened by injustices, outrages, abuses; he has been demonstrating it in the streets, the mobilizations and the councils. The results of this indignation could be seen in the next elections, but this sentiment can also be reproduced in the other regions that still passively watch how the central government acts.
The calculating silence of the Executive hides the hand of the stone thrown on December 28. However, times in politics are usually different.
The strengthened unity of the people of Santa Cruz will take action against the actions of the Bolivian justice, without neglecting a political and calculated direction.
Yesterday, while the Movimiento Al Socialismo, in its hardest core, celebrated the event, a civic strike was held in the region in rejection of what had happened and demanding the release of the governor, with some violent events that illustrate the tension that lives in the capital city.
It seems that it matters little to take stock of what was experienced, suffered and achieved during the year when reality does not give breath nor does it recognize the efforts to have new times and other possibilities.
The image of President Luis Arce has mutated during the past year. He has gone through several processes and even in September he was a visitor looking for an approach calculating distances. The event of the year, the fight for the Population and Housing Census, was decisive and sealed an unfriendly relationship for the region.
The last day of the year is now lived thinking about what will come. Waiting for new lights that give hope in the face of the radiant darkness, the region, for its part, will surely need air to breathe deeply and give shape to new instances seeking to strengthen other ways of fighting and survival. A chapter closes, but another opens, which is not the same, even if it seems the same.
