Jose Orlando Peralta
@Latinoamérica21
Based on the false thesis of the coup d’état (political crisis of 2019), former president Jeanine Áñez was arrested and imprisoned in March 2021. Almost two years later, and based on the same thesis, he has been apprehended (state kidnapping) and preventively detained for four months, Luis Fernando Camacho, governor of the autonomous department with the greatest economic power in Bolivia. He is accused of terrorism.
This act, committed by police officers on December 28, has revealed the dictatorial drift of the Luis Arce government and provoked a citizen reaction in Santa Cruz by blocking streets, burning public institutions (Prosecutor’s Office, police command and judicial power , national taxes, among others) and the house of a State minister and clashes with the police.
How to understand the dictatorial drift of the Bolivian president that has been revealed through the apprehension of an autonomous governor, elected by citizen vote?
The apprehension of the governor from Santa Cruz is understood as an indicative fact of the dictatorial drift of the Bolivian Government, since his political rights have been suppressed, not only restricted. In other words, from the apex of the pyramid, the central power has decided on the political freedom of an autonomous governor, but without mediation or institutional counterweights that limit or restrict the abuses of the State’s monopoly of violence.
To understand this high-impact event that reflects the institutional weakness of democracy in Bolivia, it is pertinent to recognize four factors that make it up: legal, political-partisan, polarization, and citizen self-organization.
According to experts in the legal area, five illegalities were committed with the apprehension of Luis Fernando Camacho. Kidnapping: your right to defense and prior notice was violated; excessive violence was used and he did not have a formal accusation, in addition to the fact that he is in the middle of a judicial vacation; there was no criminal offense, since the alleged crime of terrorism is vague and ambiguous; he was transferred to La Paz, when he resides in Santa Cruz; and there was a forced disappearance, since their rights to physical liberty, personal integrity, psychological-moral integrity, and the right to health were violated.
The internal struggle in the MAS between the radical wing of Evo Morales and the renewal wing of Luis Arce has deepened to the point of bringing to light complaints about corruption and drug trafficking in the management of both leaderships of the party that has governed since 2006. However, the false idea of the coup in 2019 is commonplace in both wings and leaderships. Therefore, Camacho’s arrest can be translated into a political trophy for the president that symbolizes, within the framework of his fallacious thesis, the fall of the “right-wing oligarch coup leader” and, therefore, a breath of fresh air with the masses.
From the affective perspective, polarization is a process of permanent conflict between us versus them. In other words, a scenario in which the ruling elites decide for confrontation and leave cooperation aside, question the legitimacy of certain public institutions and cause conflicts between citizens through issues that divide and mobilize, because, strategically, fragmentation is more favorable than consensus. Starting from this conceptual framework, it is clear that the state kidnapping of the governor of Santa Cruz fuels polarization, since it grants benefits to the MAS as a party in government that, by the way, is suffering from the constant evolution of an internal division.
The permanent conflict of “us” versus “them”, encouraged by the ruling elite, has been a favorable circumstance for citizen self-organization in Santa Cruz and their political protest against the abuses of the central power of the State. Between October 22 and November 25, 2022, there was a stoppage of public and private activities with blockades of streets and highways in the department to request the rescheduling of the population and housing census before 2025 (year of the general elections). , which achieved its goal.
With the arrest and preventive detention of Camacho, the Arce government has touched a vein with a strong ideological and identity sensitivity because it has not respected the investiture of a political representative who won the elections with more than 50% of the votes and embodies cultural values. region of. That is to say, it has ideologically strengthened the historical border between Santa Cruz and the central State directed from La Paz.
In conclusion, based on the false idea of the coup, which was actually a political crisis, due to the resignation and flight of Evo Morales after committing electoral fraud, democratic institutions are more weakened than ever by the behavior politician of the current national government. The dictatorial drift of Luis Arce, manifested in the state kidnapping of Luis Fernando Camacho (autonomous governor) and the theft of his political freedom, is a terrible political sign for the hope of democratic coexistence and respect for ideological differences in Bolivia. A dark signal that Latin America must take seriously to set limits. (EITHER)
José Orlando Peralta Beltrán is a political scientist. He is a member of the Political Research Center of the Law School of the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (Santa Cruz de la Sierra). He published the essay “Rebellion and pandemic. Political-electoral process in Bolivia 2019-2020″, which was edited by Plural.
Source: Eluniverso
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