“If you (the accused) are innocent, prove it, but do not say that you are little angels or acted crazy,” said the Minister of Public Works, Édgar Montaño, to the promoters of the strike in the department of Santa Cruz demanding a “Population Census in 2023 by all means.”
The accused are the former president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, Rómulo Calvo, the rector of the Autonomous University Gabriel René Moreno, Vicente Cuéllar; the vice-rector Reinero Vargas; the legal advisor of the so-called Interinstitutional Committee, José Luis Santistevan; and the governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, who has been detained since the end of December in the maximum security prison of Chonchocoro, department of La Paz, for the Coup d’état I case.
The accused are under investigation for the crimes of terrorism, resolutions contrary to the Constitution, racism, discrimination, attacks on freedom of work, criminal association and disturbances.
Camacho will appear for the plot that forced the resignation of former constitutional president Evo Morales in November 2019, imposed a “de facto” government headed by Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020), and gave rise to the massacres of El Pedregal, Sacaba and Senkata with a balance of 38 dead, hundreds of wounded and thousands of prisoners.
Cuéllar called a press conference on Thursday in which he argued that the accusation is a political persecution, and warned that his witnesses will include the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce. He added that he and the other defendants only demanded a Population and Housing Census.
However, in the 36 days of strike, the paramilitary detachments under the command of the accused, caused monetary losses to the country in excess of 1.2 billion dollars. Added to this was the violation of the constitutional right of millions of Santa Cruz residents to work and have free mobility.
In those 36 days, acts of vandalism were also recorded, such as the occupation and burning of union headquarters and the departmental Prosecutor’s Office, acts of racial discrimination, four deaths, hundreds of injuries, a complaint of group rape against a woman, and the bankruptcy of businesses of many union members, drivers, and motorcycle taxi drivers.
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