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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Luis-Fernando-Camacho-Bolivias-Bolsonaro-Leading-the-Coup-20191111-0015.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Luis-Fernando-Camacho-Bolivias-Bolsonaro-Leading-the-Coup-20191111-0015.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Luis Fernando Camacho, Bolivia's
‘Bolsonaro’ Leading the Coup</h1>
November 11, 2019</div>
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<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>RELATED:<br>
<a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Evo-Morales-Slams-Coup-Plotters-for-Keeping-up-Violence-20191111-0001.html"
target="_blank">Evo Morales Slams Coup Plotters
for Keeping up Violence</a></strong></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Camacho’s family has constantly been related to
secessionist and far-right anti-democratic movements in
the country.</p>
<p>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. </p>
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<blockquote data-conversation="none">
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<p>Bolivia's right-wing opposition coup leaders
like Luis Fernando Camacho have been conspiring
with the US-appointed Venezuelan coup leaders.</p>
<p> They are all part of the same network of elite
right-wingers, supported by the US and backed by
rich capitalists<a
href="https://t.co/7342a7WayS">https://t.co/7342a7WayS</a></p>
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— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) <a
href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1193646713044639744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November
10, 2019</a> </blockquote>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<h3>The Bolivian Bolsonaro</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
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<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">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. <a
href="https://t.co/cVoI2GfvoZ">pic.twitter.com/cVoI2GfvoZ</a></p>
— Camila (@camilateleSUR) <a
href="https://twitter.com/camilateleSUR/status/1193631037760442369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November
10, 2019</a> </blockquote>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3>The Camacho Family: The Money Behind it All</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
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