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(CNN Spanish) - In the middle of a square crowded by thousands of people in Santa Cruz, at the foot of the Redeemer Christ, Luis Fernando Camacho gave an ultimatum to the president of Bolivia Evo Morales, calling him "tyrant" and telling him he had "48 hours to quit. ” (MS: 15548617)
This happened on November 2, in the middle of a massive mobilization in which Camacho, who is president of the Pro-Santa Cruz Civic Committee, demanded the immediate resignation of Morales.
In recent weeks, with the political tensions generated after the presidential elections, Camacho has become a visible face in the fight against President Evo Morales, whom the opposition accuses of electoral fraud in the elections of October 20, something that the President has consistently denied.
Hours after Camacho's request, early on Sunday, President Morales said he called for "an emergency meeting with union leaders", nationals to deal with this attack, the president said in an interview with a Bolivian media. "I depend on the people, the social forces," Morales added.
“The people were confused, there was fraud they said, now what do they say? out Evo; It is no longer a matter of fraud, it is a matter of coup, ”said the president.
Opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho during an event in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on November 4, 2019. (Credit: DANIEL WALKER / AFP via Getty Images)
Who is Camacho?
Luis Fernando Camacho was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in 1979. He is a lawyer, university professor and entrepreneur who has served as president of the Pro Santa Cruz Committee since 2017. The Committee presiding over Camacho seeks to enforce the right to citizen vote and democracy , and has been doing so with other organizations, citizen platforms and organizations in defense of democracy, since February 2016 when the referendum was not respected, which with 51.3% said no to a new reelection of Morales.
Camacho "has an active and constant civic and institutional participation since his early youth," says the page of the Civil Committee. His concern, he says, is to defend democracy.
"We are interested that the whole world knows that here we Bolivians are mobilized, we are worried about our democratic system," Camacho told Fernando del Rincón of CNN in Spanish. "The only blow that was given to this country was he, [who] did not respect the vote of February 2016."
In 2016, Morales held a referendum to present himself as a presidential candidate for the fourth time and the Constitutional Court, invoking a human right, gave Morales the reason in 2017 despite the popular vote he had voted against a new nomination. Still Morales launched the presidency in 2019.
That is why Camacho says that it was Morales himself who did not respect the people's vote and that is why he is a dictator: “The coup d'etat was given by the ruling of the Constitutional Court in 2017,” said the civic leader at CNN in Spanish.
Weeks before, from the Committee for Santa Cruz, Camacho also promoted a citizen declaration of national disaster by the fires in the Chiquitanía of September of this year. Camacho said that the Government of Evo Morales did not "timely" assume the actions to mitigate the fires that would put down the fires and called for international collaboration to receive logistical support and receive humanitarian aid.
Civic Unemployment Leader
After the elections of October 20, the president of the Pro Santa Cruz Civic Committee called for a civic strike in Santa Cruz to protest the election results.
Since last October 23 that unemployment has been maintained and this Monday Camacho radicalized the measure and said that the strike will be indefinite. The measure, he said, is in coordination with other national civic movements, the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy, CONADE, and other platforms nationwide.
This radicalization includes the paralysis of all state institutions, and the borders of Bolivia, after the 48 hours that Morales had given for his resignation. Only international airports, essential basic services and medical emergency institutions will be operational.
"I am addressing President Morales to tell him the following: The Bolivian people will protect the State institutions as of today," Camacho said in Santa Cruz on Monday. “You had the opportunity to resign when you were the first servant of the nation, now your resignation will be without a State what to govern because it is already good that you continue killing and repressing our people with the people's money, now you will not have income from not a single weight of the State and thus it will not kill our people. ”
- Look: Civic organizations perform unemployment in Santa Cruz and other regions of Bolivia
They block Camacho in La Paz
The civic leader wrote a letter containing the "resignation" of Morales. Camacho read the letter in its entirety in front of a crowd this Monday and said that "personally" he will take the letter to the president on Tuesday.
This is how the government operates so as not to let us in La Paz! Fear? late ... I'm already arriving at my house in La Paz! pic.twitter.com/aJymGJOaqR
- Luis Fernando Camacho (@LuisFerCamachoV) November 5, 2019
But Camacho could not reach the meeting with Morales, because when he arrived at 11 pm to peace, he was arrested at the International Airport, by orders of the government, as reported by his team.
But Bolivia's Interior Minister Carlos Romero said he had a police operation to protect his security due to a "protest" over the presence of his delegation in La Paz, so the airport departures were blocked.
Followers of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party protested outside the La Paz International Airport on November 5, 2019 to prevent leader Luis Fernando Camacho from leaving the venue, when he planned to carry a resignation letter to be signed by the President Evo Morales. (Credit: AIZAR RALDES / AFP via Getty Images)
"By 8 am the police were exceeded, [the protesters] entered the airport and despite the fact that Mr. Camacho had been told hours before, we had to guarantee his safety," Romero said.
On Monday night Camacho said on Twitter that the airport was taken by violent groups that did not allow the departure or entry of passengers and that security was not guaranteed.
Romero said Tuesday that in the morning the Camacho entourage was returned to Santa Cruz in an Air Force plane "absolutely safe and sound."
Upon his return to Santa Cruz, around 2:30 p.m. local time, Luis Fernando Camacho said he will return to La Paz every day until he can see President Evo Morales.
The former president of Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga, said he will accompany Camacho on his trip to La Paz
