Bolivia: 20 years in prison requested against opposition politician Luis Fernando Camacho

In Bolivia, the legal cases concerning the fall of former president Evo Morales in 2019 do not stop. This week, a prosecutor asked for 20 years in prison for Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the country's leading political opponents. He is accused of terrorism for his role in the events of 2019.

Bolivian opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho, pictured here in 2019. He was charged in December 2022 with "terrorism". © AP/Juan Karita

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Luis Fernando Camacho has been in pre-trial detention in a high-security prison in La Paz for a year. Yet it was only this week that the prosecutor presented a formal charge against him. The 45-year-old businessman and governor of Santa Cruz, a stronghold of the right-wing opposition, was arrested on December 28, 2022, after being accused of promoting a so-called "coup" against Evo Morales, Bolivia's president from 2006 to 2019.

In the 2019 presidential election, President Evo Morales claimed victory in the first round. Demonstrations denouncing electoral fraud took place in several cities across the country, followed by police mutinies. Eventually, the army chief of staff publicly recommended that Evo Morales resign, after accusing him of encouraging electoral fraud that year in order to stay in power until 2025. Feeling threatened, Evo Morales went into exile in Mexico.

Up to twenty years in prison

On Tuesday 26 December, the court accused the governor of the Santa Cruz region and main opposition figure of having coordinated with the military and police to bring down President Evo Morales. In particular, he is said to have moved nearly half a million euros at the time of the demonstrations, allegedly to bribe military and police authorities.

Read alsoBolivia: despite prison, opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho is not forgotten

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It has been possible to identify that his [Camacho's] behavior corresponds to the commission of the crimes of financing terrorism, active corruption, seduction of troops, public incitement to commit a crime, criminal association Prosecutor Omar Mejillones said at a press conference. Luis Fernando Camacho, the governor's son and his active spokesman, stressed that "we all know that the reasons (for the prosecutor's request) are political in order to maintain my father's illegal detention."

Camacho faces up to twenty years in prison. A sentence that was also demanded against former president Jeanine Añez, accused of being an accomplice in the attempt to force Evo Morales to resign as president in 2019. She has already been sentenced to <> years in prison for taking power irregularly after Morales' resignation.

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• Bolivia
• Justice
• Evo Morales