Socialist Bolivia Seeks to Imprison Top Conservative Leaders in Nation for 20 Years

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bolivia presented charges on Tuesday against the right-wing governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, and former President Jeanine Áñez for their alleged participation in a “coup” against former socialist President Evo Morales in 2019.

Omar Mejillones, the prosecutor leading the “coup” case, is requesting a 20-year prison sentence for Camacho, Áñez, and six other men accused of plotting to “depose” Morales.

In reality, Morales was not the target of a coup but chose voluntarily to resign in late 2019 after the Organization of American States (OAS) found evidence of fraud in his unconstitutional fourth electoral victory. Morales fled the country to Mexico along with nearly his entire cabinet, leaving Áñez, then a senator, the top person in the line of succession in the country. She became interim president for a year before fulfilling her constitutional duty to organize elections as soon as possible. Bolivia is currently governed by Morales’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) Party.

Bolivian interim President Jeanine Anez speaks during the ceremony in La Paz on November 25, 2019, in which Bolivian Salvador Romero Ballivian was sworn in as member of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), ahead of new elections at the Quemado Palace . She signed off on new elections Sunday in a key step towards ending weeks of unrest and turning the page on Latin American leftist icon Evo Morales. (JORGE BERNAL/AFP via Getty)

Camacho, 45, is being accused alongside former Defense Minister Luis Fernando López, former military chief Williams Kaliman, and former police chief Yuri Calderón of being the “authors” of the alleged plot. 

Áñez stands accused of being an “accomplice” alongside activist Marco Antonio Pumari, former Armed Forces inspector Jorge Fernández, and military chief Carlos Orellana.

“It has been possible to identify that his [Camacho’s] conduct fits the commission of the crimes of financing terrorism, active bribery, seduction of troops, public incitement to commit a crime, criminal association,” Mejillones said at a press conference.

The prosecutor claimed that there are “133 pieces of documentary evidence” and “131 testimonial evidence” pieces in the indictment, including Camacho’s bank statements with which, Mejillones said, he was able to “prove” Camacho’s alleged role in moving people to the capital city of La Paz to protest against Morales in 2019.

Prosecutor Mejillones explained that the request would be forwarded to a criminal judge who would take the necessary steps to open the process against all eight accused.

Camacho’s lawyer, Martín Camacho, told the Argentine news outlet Infobae on Wednesday that the governor’s legal team has not yet been formally notified of the accusation and that they would wait for the official notification. Martín Camacho added that he told local media on Tuesday he believes the government is merely seeking to “perpetuate the detention” of the governor.

Bolivia’s leftist government claims that Morales, a socialist strongman who ruled Bolivia between 2006 and 2019, was the victim of a “coup” in 2019. Camacho, a conservative governor and a longstanding critic of Bolivia’s socialist government, was arrested in December 2022 and accused of “terrorism” for allegedly having “staged a coup” by protesting Morales.

In reality, Morales sought to cling to power and continue ruling Bolivia after three consecutive presidential terms, first, by unsuccessfully attempting to amend the Bolivian constitution via a referendum in 2016 to remove presidential term limits and then by forcing the nation’s top court to issue a ruling in 2017 that allowed Morales to run a fourth time. The court claimed that presidential term limits were a “violation” of Morales’s human rights.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019. International election monitors expressed concern over Bolivia’s presidential election process Tuesday after an oddly delayed official quick count showed President Morales near an outright first-round victory — even as a more formal tally tended to show him heading for a risky runoff. (Juan Karita/AP)

Morales was “elected” president for a fourth time in October 2019 in a highly fraudulent election. The Organization of American States (OAS) presented evidence of massive voter fraud favoring Morales shortly after the nation’s electoral authorities declared him the winner. Morales subsequently resigned in November 2019, fleeing to Mexico alongside his cabinet of ministers.

Camacho traveled to La Paz at the time to personally deliver a letter requesting Morales’ resignation amidst the evidence of fraud and protests that had erupted. Camacho proclaimed that he would arrive in La Paz holding the “letter in my left hand and the Bible in my right hand,” having reportedly arrived to the Bolivian capital after Morales had already resigned.

Áñez, a conservative senator, was at the time the second vice-president of the Bolivian Chamber of Senators and the highest ranking member in the Bolivian presidential line of succession who was still in the country. She was sworn in as president but chose not to be on the ballot in the 2020 election, which resulted in MAS’s return to power and the election of socialist Luis Arce as Bolivia’s current president. The Bolivian government would go on to arrest Áñez in 2022 and sentence her to ten years in prison for having assumed the presidency.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.