On December 28, Luis Fernando ‘El Macho’ Camacho, governor of Bolivia’s wealthy Santa Cruz Lowlands Department, was arrested and flown to La Paz, where a judge detained him. He will remain in Chonchocolo prison until trial for his role in the October 2019 coup that saw Janine Agnes become president despite Evo Morales winning the election. Spend four months. The Catholic Church called his arrest a “kidnapping” and insisted there was no coup in 2019.
On December 30, Jair Bolsonaro was the last to board the Brazilian presidential plane en route to Orlando, Florida. He apologized to his supporters who had gathered outside military barracks across Brazil to plead for military intervention to overturn the election results that returned Lula to president on October 30, speaking live on television. I cried. George Washington Sousa, one of Bolsonaro’s followers, has been arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up a Brasilia airport to delay Lula’s inauguration.
Brazilian support was essential to the success of Bolivia’s (short-lived) coup. Camacho narrowly missed a meeting with Bolsonaro, who met with Bolsonaro’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo before the overthrow of Morales’ government. When Agnes was imprisoned, Bolsonaro claimed to have met with her on live television, but she quickly denied it. Losing to Lula, he remained silent, but he was probably worried about going to jail. (His sons applied for citizenship in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy, but to no avail.)
Once upon a time, Bolsonaro’s timing seemed opportune.The United States does not recognize Brazilian jurisdiction, and indeed does not recognize other jurisdictions, and is unlikely to extradite him. , there are already quite a few clubs with potential dictatorships, including former Bolivian strongman Carlos Sanchez Belzain. The far right in Brazil is now leaderless and leaderless. Lula’s new justice minister, Flavio Dino, promised tougher gun laws and said there was no place for “political terrorism” in Brazil. , which is an amazing reversal.
Camacho’s arrest in Bolivia is equally notable given the deep divisions in Morales’ socialist movement, which returned to power in October 2020. It is the Coca Growers Association of the Chapare Lowlands and will operate again. Vice President David Choquehuanca, meanwhile, has widespread personal support in the densely populated Aymara province of the Western Altiplano, an electorally decisive location for the MAS.
With the streets of Santa Cruz on fire, the MAS must unite to put down separatist violence and fascist resilience. Police facing demonstrators have so far shown no signs of splitting up or defecting. An attempt to overthrow Morales in 2008 erupted in an orgy of racist violence against Beni’s MAS supporters. In response, the MAS joined some of its Lowland enemies into its governing coalition. A sort of insurance that lasted until the 2019 coup, Santa Cruz’s dominant economic interests decided to overthrow La Paz’s political order.
Right-wing separatists in the Eastern Lowlands are calling for Camacho’s immediate release while calling for dictatorship. Their goal, presumably, is to render the country ungovernable. can they achieve it? They set up a road block but it seems to be only half working. A government employee who went to investigate the arson damage to the Santa Cruz tax office building was kidnapped and released after his money, laptop, passwords, rings and shoes were stolen. It was the work of Unión Juvenil Cruceña.
For setting fire to the attorney general’s office and 50 cars in Santa Cruz on December 28 (five are wanted for similar actions in Cochabamba) and for refusing to admit emergency services. , the police have nine people wanted.
Arson and clashes with police continued until New Year’s Day. A ministry building was set on fire, as was the Banco de la Union near Cristo Redentor, a few blocks from the police headquarters. Students from the Autonomous University of Gabriel Moreno and members of the Departmental Council headed by Zzonko Matkovic took to the streets with Romulo Calvo, leader of the Santa Cruz Civic Commission. Lieutenant Governor Mario Aguilera. and members of the Camacho family. Police fired tear gas into the crowd. MP Paola Aguirre was hit in the head with a gas canister.
Calvo said 32 people were arrested and 209 injured. Warns that Bolivia could become another Venezuela, he claims current government is run by “hordes of thieves”, Camacho promises to lead Santa Cruz to full autonomy from La Paz But without the support of Brazil and the United States, another right-wing coup in Bolivia is unlikely to succeed. Still, it would be unwise for leftists such as Bolivia and Brazil to let their guard down. Jailbreaking far-right leaders may reunite at Disney World.
