Bolivia: Camacho Sentenced to 4 Months in Pretrial Detention

On Friday, La Paz Criminal Judge Sergio Pacheco ordered four months of preventive detention for Santa Cruz Governor Luis Fernando Camacho for the "Coup d'état I" case.

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This sentence arose after nine hours of deliberation in a hearing in which Camacho's defense attorneys demanded the immediate release of the Santa Cruz governor alleging that the Bolivian authorities committed excesses during his detention.

The hearing was held virtually since Camacho is detained at the headquarters of the Special Force to Fight Crime (FELCC) in the city of La Paz.

Prosecutor Omar Mejillones denied Camacho's lawyers' accusations and showed that the defendant knew about his summons to appear to testify and did not do so in a timely manner. Therefore, the authorities proceeded to carry out an operation to capture him.

Given that Camacho is a far-right politician whose followers have staged acts of violence, Mejillones asked Judge Pacheco that the Santa Cruz governor be preventively confined in the high-security Chonchocoro prison in El Alto City.

His preventive detention is due to the "Coup I" case, which refers to the violent actions deployed during the coup d'état against President Evo Morales in 2019. At that time, Camacho was president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, a right-wing organization that has permanently attacked the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

In other legal proceedings, Camacho must face accusations related to breaches of duties, insults to national symbols, discrimination, racism, improper use of influences, attack against the President of the Republic, political violence against women, and attacks against the free provision of public services.