[News] Luis Fernando Camacho, Bolivia's ‘Bolsonaro’ Leading the Coup

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Luis-Fernando-Camacho-Bolivias-Bolsonaro-Leading-the-Coup-20191111-0015.html 



  Luis Fernando Camacho, Bolivia's ‘Bolsonaro’ Leading the Coup

November 11, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virtually an unknown political actor outside Bolivia, in the last couple 
of weeks Luis Fernando Camacho has risen to the international spotlight 
as the main opposition figure leading the coup against President Evo 
Morales.

    /*RELATED:
    Evo Morales Slams Coup Plotters for Keeping up Violence
    <https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Evo-Morales-Slams-Coup-Plotters-for-Keeping-up-Violence-20191111-0001.html>*/

Under a racist, far-right discourse against the Indigenous leader and 
his legitimate government, the 40-year-old businessman from the 
resource-rich department of Santa Cruz represents the anti-thesis of the 
plurinational State of Bolivia built by Morales in the last 13 years.

Camacho’s family has constantly been related to secessionist and 
far-right anti-democratic movements in the country.

In 1981, Camacho’s father founded the Committee Pro-Santa Cruz and 
organized the first strike in the department demanding the government to 
halt a sugarcane project in the north of La Paz, alleging that Santa 
Cruz's production would be affected.

    Bolivia's right-wing opposition coup leaders like Luis Fernando
    Camacho have been conspiring with the US-appointed Venezuelan coup
    leaders.

    They are all part of the same network of elite right-wingers,
    supported by the US and backed by rich
    capitalistshttps://t.co/7342a7WayS

    — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 10, 2019
    <https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1193646713044639744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>


Luis Fernando Camacho himself began activism when he was 23 years old as 
vice president of the civic organization Cruceñista Youth Union (UJC), 
which has been described by the International Federation for Human 
Rights as “a kind of paramilitary group” that performs acts of racism 
and discrimination against indigenous inhabitants and institutions in 
the area.

These “civic” organizations played a key role during the secessionist 
attempt in 2008 lead by far-right Branko Marinković, a Bolivian leader 
of Croatian parents, and Eduardo Rózsa-Flores who organized and financed 
an armed paramilitary group with mercenaries from the Balkan wars to 
fight for the “independence” of the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, 
Pando and Tarija.

The Camachos were part of the attempt and closely related to Marinković, 
whose family is part of the directive board of Camacho’s stepbrother’s 
company.

Now it is Luis Fernando Camacho who leads the Committee Pro-Santa Cruz, 
under the same pretense of “defending” the department from considered 
threats. The organization brings together different neighborhood, zone, 
and business entities of workers from one of the richest areas in Bolivia.


      The Bolivian Bolsonaro

Known as “El Macho,” the opposition leader is openly racist, misogynist 
and unapologetically represents the interests of the elites in his 
department and the country. Using religion, especially evangelical 
belief, Camacho talks with a Bible in his hand and pulls on the 
Bolivians religious beliefs to argue that Morales is against them.

This has also been instrumentalized to push for political persecution 
under the name of God, repeatedly saying they will “punish” their 
political adversaries, going as far as tweeting on Oct. 30 that like 
former drug kingpin Pablo Escobar they will “write down the names of the 
treacherous people of this town," in order to carry out such punishment.

    Fascist coup leader Luis Fernando Camacho with the bible in hand,
    enters the hall of the old Presidential Palace⁠—the Palacio
    Quemado⁠—separate from the Casa Grande del Pueblo. They have left
    and are now in San Francisco square. pic.twitter.com/cVoI2GfvoZ
    <https://t.co/cVoI2GfvoZ>

    — Camila (@camilateleSUR) November 10, 2019
    <https://twitter.com/camilateleSUR/status/1193631037760442369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>


But the Camachos’ animosity towards Morales goes back to his first 
election in 2006 and is mostly related to the economic prosperity that 
the Indigenous leader promoted for all Bolivians instead of a small elite.

They have maintained that Santa Cruz has been affected by Morales’ 
government but since 2010, Santa Cruz's GDP growth rate has been higher 
than in Bolivia.

The southeastern department of Santa Cruz produces 70 percent of the 
country's food and has an enormous energy and hydrocarbon potential 
that, after the nationalization of Morales in 2016, is now in the hands 
of the State. The last president from that region being dictator Hugo 
Banzer Suarez.


      The Camacho Family: The Money Behind it All

In contrast with Morales humble beginnings, Camacho comes from a wealthy 
family, whose money came from the capitalization and contracts with the 
state made since 1989 linked to insurance companies and pension funds, 
been an active figure in the formation of the private Administrators of 
pension funds (AFP) in 1995, during neoliberal regimes.

Subsequently, Camacho’s father Jose Luis Camacho Parada founded the 
company SERGAS that signed an exclusivity agreement with the mayor of 
Santa Cruz in 2003 to make 5,000 gas connections in the city. While his 
stepbrother, Jose Luis Camacho Miserendino, leads a large corporation 
regarding life insurance and investments, with hundreds of accusations 
of defrauding clients.

The whole family, including Luis Fernando Camacho, has been involved in 
the Panama Papers scandal through the registry of three offshore 
companies: Medis Overseas Corp., Navi International Holding, and 
Positive Real Estates.

A 2017 Bolivia’s legislative committee that investigated the issue 
reported that the companies operated as an intermediary to "help people 
and companies hide their fortunes in offshore entities, wash money and 
establish tax evasion schemes."

After the Oct. 20 elections, in which Morales was reelected, President. 
Camacho quickly rallied up the “civic” committee and as his father 
before him began a violent crusade against the government.

Weeks of right-wing violence and a coup plan, Morales was forced to 
resign Sunday as senior army and police chiefs called on him to do so.

“I decided to resign from my position so that Carlos Mesa and Luis 
Camacho stop abusing and harming thousands of brothers ... I have the 
obligation to seek peace and it hurts a lot that we face Bolivians,” the 
former president of Bolivia said in a press statement.

Now Bolivia faces uncertainty as the is a power vacuum since all top 
officials from Morales’ government also resigned. Camacho and opposition 
presidential runnerup Carlos Mesa have continued to call for unrest and 
violence without a clear project or expected end in sight.

-- 
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