Bolivians ask for international help after government arrests opposition governor

The Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, an entity that brings together representatives of the largest Bolivian region and the country’s economic engine, accused this Sunday the government of President Luis Arce, an ally of Evo Morales, of installing a “regime of state terrorism” against the protests that demand the release of opposition governor Luis Fernando Camacho.

The citizen organization issued a statement addressed to the international community in which it denounces that the left-wing government has caused “legal insecurity through political persecution and criminalization of the exercise of dissent, protest and freedom of expression.”

Santa Cruz, in the east of the country, is the center of protests demanding the release of its governor, arrested last Wednesday by security forces and taken to La Paz, in the west of the country, where a judge imposed four months of preventive detention for alleged “terrorism crimes”, related to events of the 2019 political crisis.

On the eve, clashes between demonstrators and police lasted until the early hours of today and left considerable damage to public buildings such as the Santa Cruz city hall.

With information from Gazeta do Povo