- Title: Drone views of queues of trucks crippling Bolivian farm region
- Date: 5th January 2023
- Summary: SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA (JANUARY 5, 2023) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRUCK DRIVERS WAVING SANTA CRUZ FLAG TRUCK DRIVER INSIDE TRUCK CABIN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRUCK DRIVER, HERNAN, SAYING: “We can’t stop for much time because this is my job. This is my second house. I live here, I eat here. Here is the bed I sleep on.†SIGN READING (Spanish): “Heavy transport firmly with Luis Fernando Camacho†PERSON WITH SANTA CRUZ FLAG AROUND HIS SHOULDERS LOOKING AT TRUCKS BLOCKADE
- Embargoed: 19th January 2023 20:33
- Keywords: Blockades Bolivia Detention Drone Government Governor Protest Santa Cruz Trucks
- Location: SANTA CRUZ & LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
- City: SANTA CRUZ & LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
- Country: Bolivia
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,South America / Central America,Civil Unrest
- Reuters ID: LVA003070105012023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: There was a kilometres-long queue of trucks in the Bolivian farm region of Santa Cruz on Thursday (January 5) as residents demonstrated their anger at the local governor's detention last week.
Over 500 trucks blocked a ring road around the city of Santa Cruz to demand the release of the province’s governor, Luis Fernando Camacho, truck driver Juan Yujra told Reuters.
Locals lined the streets in support of the protest as some waved Bolivian and Santa Cruz flags.
Police arrested Luis Camacho, the right-wing governor of the opposition stronghold and farming province, on December 28 on terrorism charges related to what authorities call a coup in 2019 against leftist leader Evo Morales.
Camacho denies the charges.
Camacho's arrest has sparked a weeklong protest by his supporters, whose ongoing highway blockades could snarl the movement of food and grains.
As a civic leader in 2019, Camacho, a staunch opponent of Morales’ socialist MAS party, led protests against the then-president, whose party is now back in power under Luis Arce.
Morales had clinched a fourth term in defiance of term limits and a referendum vote against him being allowed to run.
Bolivia's government says Camacho must face justice for what it calls a coup against Morales, who resigned under pressure as the 2019 protests spread, the police mutinied, and union groups and finally the military urged him to step down.
(Production: Monica Machicao, Sergio Limachi, Agustin Marcarian, Juan Pablo Blacutt, Anna Portella) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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