Murillo pleads guilty and Camacho conspires

by Roberto Morejon

By pleading guilty to several crimes, Bolivia's former de facto minister Arturo Murillo confirmed the moral character of many of the members of the team of self-proclaimed president Jeanine Áñez, occupant of power after the coup d'état against Evo Morales in 2019.  

Murillo was one of the key actors in the maneuver against the then constitutional president of Bolivia and at the head of the Ministry of Security confronted street protests with an iron fist.

Curiously, Murillo was arrested in May 2021 in the U.S. state of Florida, where he fled to in November 2020, cornered by corruption allegations.

The ruthless strongman of the now-imprisoned Mrs. Áñez pleaded guilty in Florida to nothing less than conspiracy to launder thousands of dollars in bribes paid to her by a U.S. company in exchange for favoring her in the sale of tear gas to Bolivia.  

Murillo, Áñez and other protagonists of the conspiracy against Evo exposed falsehoods to try to justify it, and presented themselves as bastions of integrity.

But Murillo is not the only one conspiring against democracy in the South American country, because next to him stood out the governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, involved in the plot joined by officers of the armed forces and the army.

It is not by chance that the leader of the region with the greatest economic prosperity in Bolivia is today involved in new activities against the established order.

Camacho and other Santa Cruz authorities forged a strike that they intend to extend to the nation to demand that the scheduled census in Bolivia be carried out in 2023 and not a year later.

The government of Luis Arce recommends it for 2024 with the solid argument of having all the technical assurances in place before that date.

The Movement Towards Socialism, social groups, workers and supporters of President Luis Arce coordinated efforts to neutralize the plans of Camacho and his cronies, eager to collapse the country's economy and hold the government responsible.

Senator William Torrez, of the Movement Towards Socialism, is right when he points out that the governor of Santa Cruz, Luiz Fernando Camacho, demonstrates what he described as a dictatorial mood, by demanding Bolivians to abide by the resolution of a town council, in order to bring the country to a strike.

Camacho, like Murillo, today in trouble with the justice system, are the visible heads of the chaos to which they wish to lead Bolivia.