The governor of the department of Santa Cruz was detained after ignoring a court summons for the coup d'état case I. | Photo: EFE

La Paz, December 30 (RHC)-- The Bolivian Justice has ordered four months of preventive detention for the governor of Santa Cruz and opposition leader, Luis Fernando Camacho, in the maximum security prison of Chonchocoro in the city of La Paz, for the alleged commission of the crime of terrorism in the framework of the coup d'état I case.

The precautionary hearing against Governor Camacho lasted more than nine hours, in which the Prosecutor's Office requested six months of preventive detention for the governor, whom it accuses of the crime of terrorism. 

The judge of the 8th Criminal Investigation Court of La Paz, Sergio Pacheco, started the hearing virtually after determining that the arrest of the opposition leader was legal.  According to teleSUR's correspondent in Bolivia, Freddy Rosales indicated that the lawyers of the governor of Santa Cruz, Martin Camacho and Juan Carlos Camacho, have prevented the hearing from developing normally and have demanded the release of their client, because according to the defense, excesses had been committed in his detention.

After hearing the arguments of Luis Fernando Camacho's defense lawyers, Judge Sergio Pacheco began the hearing against the governor, which is being held virtually despite the fact that Camacho is being held at the headquarters of the Special Force for the Fight Against Crime (Felcc) in the city of La Paz.

TeleSUR's correspondent pointed out that the prosecutors in the case have denied the accusations and demonstrated before Judge Pacheco that Luis Fernando Camacho knew of his summons to appear to testify and did not do so in a timely manner, which is why the operation for his arrest was carried out.

The Bolivian prosecutor, Omar Mejillones, requested that the Santa Cruz governor be preventively detained in the Chonchocoro Penitentiary Center in El Alto, during the preparatory stage.

During a press conference, Prosecutor Mejillones informed that Governor Camacho has five open judicial processes, among which are crimes of breach of duties, against health and insult to symbols, discrimination and racism, resolution contrary to the Constitution and improper use of influence.

He is also charged with anti-economic conduct, attacks against the president and high dignitaries of the State, political violence against women, racism, attacks against the freedom of public services.

The former Bolivian president, Evo Morales, called for firmness in the decision to prosecute the governor of Santa Cruz for his participation in the 2019 coup d'état.  "Finally after 3 years, Luis Fernando Camacho will answer for the coup d'état that derived in robberies, persecutions, detentions and massacres of the de facto government. We are confident that this decision will be sustained with the firmness demanded by the people's clamor for justice," Morales wrote on his Twitter account.

The former president said that justice should prosecute Luis Fernando Camacho out of respect for the memory of the victims of the massacres of Sacaba and Senkata and the dignity of those who were persecuted, detained and tortured during the de facto government of Jeanine Añez.

The coup d'état I case refers to the November 2019 coup against former president Evo Morales, at that time Luis Fernando Camacho was president of the Civic Committee of Santa Cruz.