The Bolivian region of Santa Cruz, paralyzed after the arrest of Governor Luis Fernando Camacho

An avenue in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, paralyzed by neighborhood protests. LESLY MOYANO (REUTERS)

The Bolivian region of Santa Cruz is paralyzed this Friday by decision of its Civic Committee, a neighborhood platform that centralizes all local organizations in the department.

The people of Santa Cruz protest with a 24-hour strike against the arrest, on December 28, of their governor, Luis Fernando Camacho.

The ultra-Catholic politician has been accused of having conspired to overthrow Evo Morales and replace him with a "civic-military government" in November 2019. A judge for precautionary measures issued a four-month "preventive detention" against him.

Camacho will remain in a high-security prison in La Paz, Bolivia's political capital, where he was sent immediately after his capture in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

What happened has sown concern throughout the country.

According to a survey, 60% of Bolivians disapprove of detention.

Compulsive buying and long lines at gas pumps have been reported in several cities amid the possibility of a wave of protests.

“I am never going to give up;

We, Cruceños, have been fighting for many years against the abuse of Masismo.

This is a fight for democracy and freedom, a fight for Bolivia.

To the Bolivians who listen to me: let's not let the masismo impose a dictatorship like in Venezuela and Cuba," Camacho declared in the judicial act.

He was alluding to the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), the official party that has raised the accusation against him, and that has been in power in Bolivia since 2006, with an interval in 2020.

In November 2019, Morales fell into the midst of a political crisis that some interpret as a coup and others as a popular revolt against fraud in the elections that had just taken place that year.

For the former, Camacho not only led the blockades of streets with

, thin ropes, which stopped the operation of the country to achieve the resignation of the president, but is guilty of coordinating with members of the police the riot that broke out in this institution and which determined the fate of Morales.

The main pieces of the accusation are two statements by Camacho.

In one, he affirms that his father, an important businessman, was the one who "arranged with the police" their support for the uprising against Morales.

In another, issued immediately after the leftist president's resignation, he called for him to be replaced by a "civic-military junta."

At that time, he was the president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, so he planned to participate in such a government.

For the governor's defenders, most of whom live in Santa Cruz, he courageously expressed the people's anger against electoral fraud, became legendary by defeating a president as strong and determined as Morales, and is now the legitimate spokesman for the Cruceña identity, which is clearly different from other national identities.

The latter has prevented him from extending the solid electoral support he enjoys in his region (whose governorship he won in March 2021 with 55% of the vote) to the rest of the country, where the opposition electorate prefers less regionalist leaders. .

At this moment, all the forces opposed to the MAS are aligned behind the demand that Camacho be released.

The police detained 28 people in two cities due to the violent reactions that followed the spectacular arrest of the governor, who was intercepted by the police while he was traveling in a car with his security team.

That day, two airports were temporarily taken over by groups of Camacho supporters.

The buildings of the Santa Cruz and Cochabamba prosecutor's offices were attacked.

The first was burned;

the same thing happened with about 30 vehicles that were parked in front of it.

The flames also destroyed the facade of the house of a Santa Cruz minister from Luis Arce's Cabinet.

Other public institutions suffered damage.

The Santa Cruz Civic Committee considers the fires “self-arranged”, that is, instructed by the security services to discredit the civic movement and justify more arrests.

Indignation and bellicosity have set the tone in the streets of the eastern Bolivian city, the most populous and richest in the country, in recent days.

That is why it is expected that, after this strike, Camacho's faithful will intensify the pressure to try to obtain his release.

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