The fall from grace of Luis Fernando Camacho, a Bolivian opponent who governs Santa Cruz from prison

The opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho He has been incarcerated since December 30, 2022 in the Chonchocoro maximum security prison, in the highlands of Los Bolivian Andes. From there, who is considered the main political rival of President Luis Arce governs Santa Cruz, the most populous region and economic locomotive of Bolivia.

LOOK: Bolivia: Medical report indicates that the life of the detained opposition governor is “at risk”

Camacho, a 44-year-old businessman, is in pretrial detention after being accused of promoting an alleged coup against former leftist president Evo Morales, Arce’s political godfather, in 2019. The accusation is part of the violent protests that broke out at the end of that year, when the right-wing opposition took to the streets to denounce an alleged fraud by Morales in the elections held in October.

Since the end of last year Camacho has remained in prison, but ruling Santa Cruz with the help of his lieutenant governor. In April, a judge ordered the extension of preventive detention against him from four to eight months, in response to requests from the Ministry of the Interior, the Prosecutor’s Office and the government’s Attorney General’s Office.

According to the Government, the protests after the frustrated 2019 elections were a “coup d’état” against Morales and the justice system has accused Camacho of terrorism and other crimes for his relationship in that case.

Rafael Archondo, a Bolivian journalist and political analyst, points out that Camacho’s ordeal began unexpectedly, when he was arrested in the middle of a holiday period for the country.

Opposition leader from the Santa Cruz region, Luis Fernando Camacho, prepares to board a plane bound for La Paz, at the Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz, on November 6, 2019. (Photo by DANIEL WALKER / AFP) (DANIEL WALKER/)

“It happened when nobody was very aware of anything. At that moment, what is done is to transfer him to the city of La Paz, that is, move him away from the place where Camacho has support and a political party that supports him. In a way it is a kind of confinement because the prisoner is being removed from the place where his family is and his usual life. That is the hardest moment for him”, he tells El Comercio.

For the Bolivian opposition it is clear that behind Camacho’s arrest there is a political motivation. His arrest occurred just after he led a movement of discontent for more than 30 days as governor, with which the department of Santa Cruz demanded that the government carry out a population and housing census, something that it finally achieved.

Archondo explains that the purpose of Santa Cruz was for the census to be completed before the 2025 elections, in order to use the data and statistical information to draft the call for elections. “A census eventually implies a redistribution of seats and a series of modifications in the distribution of income and transfers from the central State to the regions. It was a victory for Santa Cruz that was somehow led by Camacho”, says the analyst.

At this point, Camacho continues to have the support of the department of Santa Cruz. He maintains, according to the surveys, the levels of acceptance. Archondo points out that the region has a relatively cohesive identity and that, since Bolivia began to elect these authorities, all the governors of Santa Cruz have been strong candidates who have won by a wide margin of votes and have been supported by the civic, social, union and neighborhood organizations.

“Camacho at this moment is a kind of heir to all that tradition”, says the expert, who adds that, although he is in pretrial detention, the politician “is an elected authority, a governor elected by a large majority of votes.

“He has a mandate. We are facing a case in which he is accused of terrorism, of having participated in an alleged coup d’état and while the case does not progress in his prosecution, since his situation becomes an indefinite prison while his mandate continues to advance and the duties and obligations that has as authority have to be fulfilled from jail”, he adds.

Demonstrators from Santa Cruz protest at the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University demanding the release of Governor Luis Fernando Camacho. (Photo by RODRIGO URZAGASTI / AFP) (RODRIGO URZAGASTI /)

In fact, the Santa Cruz region demands his release and gave Arce a deadline to approve an amnesty law, and that, if it is not given, then they will promote the revocation of his mandate.

But Camacho’s prolonged detention is leaving consequences that are already visible. The first is of a political nature and is the debate that has been opened in Santa Cruz on whether he should continue to govern from prison or whether it is time to designate a successor.

“Inevitably, this anomalous situation in which an authority governs from prison and from a department that is not his own generates internal problems in administrative management, but also in party management. There are sectors in Santa Cruz that say it is time to renew leadership. The lieutenant governor fulfills Camacho’s functions, but the idea of ​​replacing Camacho has arisen. It is a first political consequence that has been an effect sought by the central government because in the end it is an opposition organization”, considers Archondo.

The situation in which Camacho is returned to the debate this week when his lawyer Martín Camacho affirmed that a private medical report established that the life of his client “is at risk.”

The lawyer pointed out that four specialists, who participated in a medical board together with several doctors from the penitentiary regime, indicated that the governor of Santa Cruz is in a place without “sanitary” conditions, which has aggravated the underlying diseases that ” affect your immune system.

Luis Fernando Camacho, a key opposition figure in Bolivia and governor of Santa Cruz, is escorted up a staircase as he arrives at the headquarters of the Special Forces to Fight Crime (FELCC) in La Paz, following his arrest on 28 December 2022. (AFP). (LUIS GANDARILLAS /)

The EFE agency recalls that Camacho suffers from Churg-Strauss syndrome, an illness that causes inflammation of the blood vessels and that can cause permanent damage to the organs, for which he needs special medication and constant medical evaluations, and also suffers from arterial hypertension.

According to the defense, it is also harmful that Camacho is at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, and his “admission” to a health center is recommended “for medical examinations.”

Archondo adds that, in addition to his clinical situation, Camacho is subjected to solitary confinement in the prison and climatic and topographical conditions alien to his biography since he comes from the plain.

“It is a fact that any situation that results in a permanent injury and even in the death of Camacho would mean a serious blow to the region, but above all to the national unity of Bolivia because it will imply the reproach that an authority has been killed or of that is being pushed towards deathsays Archondo.

Remember that in Bolivia there is a strong gap between the east and the west of the country, which is at one of its most critical moments since the last century and has increased since the heyday of Santa Cruz.

“And if, in addition, the census comes to show that Santa Cruz is the most populous department in Bolivia, then we are talking about a reinforcement of that regional gap that is the central problem of Bolivia and that obviously has political overtones.”, concludes the expert.

Source: Elcomercio