The Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office reported on Thursday (01.05.2023) economic losses of more than five million dollars, due to the burning of that institution in the midst of protests in Santa Cruz, in rejection of the detention of the opposition governor.
The departmental prosecutor of Santa Cruz, Roger Mariaca, said that the burning of the infrastructure of the Prosecutor’s Office in that department, the economic engine of the country, has generated damages of 37 million Bolivians (5.3 million dollars).
Mariaca pointed out that the four-story building was destroyed, all the furniture, computer equipment and vehicles that were in the departmental Prosecutor’s Office were also burned. He regretted that in the Santa Cruz Prosecutor’s Office there was a “Gesell camera” that is used so that minor victims of violence can give their testimony in a safe space, but that it is burned, as well as documentation of the cases.
The prosecutor commented that there is an open investigation into the burning of this institution and that there are apprehended and people in preventive detention while the case is being investigated.
Last week there were clashes between the people who went out to protest demanding the release of Governor Luis Fernando Camacho and the Police, in the midst of this situation the burning of the Prosecutor’s Office and other public entities was recorded. Camacho was transferred to La Paz and is now preventively detained in the Chonchocoro maximum security prison and is being investigated for the alleged crime of terrorism in the framework of the case called “coup d’état I” which is related to the social and political crisis of 2019. The ruling party points out that in 2019 there was a “coup” against President Evo Morales, but the opposition maintains that the protests that led to the resignation of the president were due to fraud in his favor in the annulled elections of that year .
The Ministry of the Interior reported that 76 people have proceedings for the destruction of state facilities in that department, of which 24 have been sentenced, 22 are awaiting the hearing of precautionary measures, 14 have preventive detention and 16 have substitute measures.
This Thursday, the Justice denied the governor’s freedom action, but pointed out that in an emergency due to his underlying illnesses he can be transferred to a medical center.
The Bolivian civic movements called for a national day of protest on January 10 for the imprisonment of opposition leaders such as Camacho.
