Bolivia Urges Brazil To Extradite Former Minister Of Defence For Possibly Plotting To Assassinate Pr
Bolivia Urges Brazil To Extradite Former Minister Of Defence For Possibly Plotting To Assassinate President Luis Arce
By Manuel Rueda | AP
November 1, 2022 at 7:50 p.m. EDT
Bolivia has requested the extradition of former Minister of Defense, Luis Fernando Lopez Julio, from Brazil for his involvement in the attempted assassination of President Luis Arce. Lopez was said to have fled to Brazil in 2020 around the same time as Arce’s inauguration after his plot had failed.
According to Kawsachunn News, Interior Minister, Eduardo Del Castillo said that Bolivia had filed a complaint to Brazil a few months back, which has now gained much attention when the details of the complaint were expanded by his ministry to include the assassination plot. Castillo continued that the end goal of the complaint was the extradition of Lopez from Brazil so that Bolivian justice may be rendered.
Del Castillo revealed further details of the assassination attempt on Monday citing that Lopez had contracted third parties to bring mercenaries and paramilitaries into Bolivia to kill Arce, who was running for candidacy at the time. The goal was to prevent Arce from being sworn in if he were to win the election. Information provided by The Intercept said Lopez had poured in hundreds of mercenaries from the United States to see his plan fulfilled.
In a leaked recording, a person who was identified as Lopez said he was working to “avoid the annihilation of my country”. He continued calling on the armed forces as well as the Bolivian people to “rise up” and prevent the accession of the Arce administration. Disagreement between ministers and divisions within the armed forces was strained further by Arce’s convincing electoral victory on Oct 18, 2020. The plot was never executed and several officials including Lopez either fled the country or were arrested by authorities on charges of corruption and alleged involvement in a coup in 2019.
The Intercept also said one of the hired group mercenaries that entered Bolivia had lodged at a hotel nearby government offices. The group was later arrested in Haiti for another assassination plot that saw the death of former President Jovenel Moise.
More:
https://www.latintimes.com/bolivia-urges-brazil-extradite-former-minister-defence-possibly-plotting-assassinate-531454
Jeanine Áñez, coup-installed president, and Luis Fernando López Julio
Luis Fernando Lopez Julio and illegitimate
president, backed by Trump, Jeanine Áñez.
Luis Fernando López Julio (born 15 October 1964) is a Bolivian businessman, retired military officer, and politician who served as minister of defense from 2019 to 2020. Appointed in the tail end of the 2019 political crisis, López, along with Minister of Government Arturo Murillo, quickly became characterized as the "strong men" of the Jeanine Áñez administration and were implicated in the deadly events at Senkata and Sacaba. López was called to hearings by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly but failed to present himself three consecutive times, ultimately resulting in his censure by the legislature. As per the terms of the Constitution, he was dismissed as minister but, exploiting a loophole in the document's text, he was reappointed just a day later. Soon after, reports revealed his participation in the tear gas case, which accused the ministries of government and defense of irregularly purchasing non-lethal weapons at inflated prices.
After the 2020 general election, López entered contact with American ex-army soldiers, seeking to facilitate the transport of mercenaries and paramilitaries to Bolivia in order to launch a preemptive coup d'état that would prevent President-elect Luis Arce from coming to office. After that endeavor proved unfruitful, he, along with Murillo, fled the country just three days prior to Arce's inauguration. He remains in hiding in Brazil as the Bolivian government seeks his extradition for crimes of breach of duties, among others.
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Coup d'état plot
On 17 June 2021, journalists from The Intercept broke the story that in the few weeks after Luis Arce's victory in the 2020 general election López had attempted to facilitate a coup d'état to prevent his assumption to office. Leaked phone recordings and emails revealed that López had been in contact with Joe Pereira, a former civilian administrator with the U.S. Army. In the audio logs, López indicated that "military high command is already in preliminary talks" and promised that "the commander of the armed forces [Sergio Orellana] is working on all of this" and that "we have a united armed forces". López continued by stating that he was "focused on avoiding the annihilation of my country".[38] Among the concerns within the armed forces were fears that the Movement for Socialism intended to replace them with civilian militias along Venezuelan lines. During his ministerial administration, López had echoed such concerns, stating in January 2020 that "[Evo Morales] indicates that there is a serious intention to eliminate the Armed Forces and the Police so that there is a foreign militia in our country".[39] Bolivian political scientist Eduardo Gamarra also suggested that the armed forces "were rightly concerned there was going to be a major purge. The MAS was going to be furious".[38]
In different call logs, Pereira assured that he could "get up to 10,000 men with no problem", outlining a plan to pick up personnel in Homestead Air Reserve Base in Miami using Bolivian-owned C-130s, of which the Ministry of Defense had one. The mercenaries would be placed under shell contracts to disguise the purpose of their presence. Pereira's claims were later characterized as exaggerated with his assurance of 10,000 men being called "absurd". The coup plot ultimately never came to fruition, largely due to disagreements between López and Murillo, whose capacity as minister of government gave him singular control of police.[38]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Fernando_L%C3%B3pez
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Añez confesses that Camacho appointed Fernando López as Minister of Defense
published June 9, 2021
By Carlos Corz / LA RAZON.- In her tax statement, former president Jeanine Áñez confirmed that the excivic and governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, suggested Fernando López for Minister of Defense and that the decrees that made the purchase of gases viable tear gas were approved on the fast track with the participation of the entire cabinet.
Áñez testified on Monday before the Prosecutor's Office for the tear gas case, whose main defendants are former ministers López and the Government Arturo Murillo. Murillo is detained in the United States, precisely, for the complaint of overpricing in the purchase of non-lethal material.
In his statement, he explained that he named Murillo because he was part of his circle of fellow legislators and López at the suggestion of Camacho, who in November 2019 led the protests and civic mobilizations that, along with other events, led to the resignation of former President Evo Morales.
. . .
Camacho himself revealed in 2019 that he put López in the Áñez cabinet so that he fulfills the commitments that his father, Luis, made with the military so that they do not come out in defense of the Morales government.
More:
https://plurinacional.info/2021/06/09/anez-confiesa-que-camacho-puso-de-ministro-de-defensa-a-fernando-lopez/
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Google translation:
Despite the clear protagonism that women's movements are generating in the Latin American region, or as a kind of mockery of fate to this social expression, the most virulent opposition to the government of Evo Morales in Bolivia emerges embodied in a man they call " The male". By Nodal
Who is Luis Fernando Camacho, the man who leads the coup in Bolivia
The story of the "Macho"
He was born and raised in Santa Cruz, one of the richest and most powerful areas of Bolivia and the department in which the majority of the country's white population of European descent historically lives. After graduating as a lawyer from the Private University of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, he completed postgraduate studies at the University of Barcelona where he completed a master's degree in Financial and Tax Law.
His activism began when he was 23 years old as vice president of the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista civic organization , which although it defines itself as "civic" was described by the International Federation for Human Rights as "a kind of paramilitary group" that carries out acts of racism and discrimination. against indigenous inhabitants and institutions of the area.
Already in 2015, he joined the Pro Santa Cruz Civic Committee -where his father was president between 1981 and 1983-, first as second vice president and then as first vice president. Since February 2019, Luis Fernando Camacho has chaired this organization that brings together business, neighborhood and labor entities in the region where most of the opposition to the transformation process led by Evo Morales since he became president in 2006 meets. In fact, He earned the nickname “macho” precisely because of the “courage” with which he leads the campaign against Morales, whom he accuses of being a “tyrant” and a “dictator”, although throughout his public life he demonstrated on several occasions that Morales nickname of "dictator" also suits him for his macho behavior and his patriarchal violence that his followers reply.
Along with his public life, Camacho is a university professor and businessman, and together with his family he is part of the Grupo Empresarial de Inversiones Nacional Vida SA The companies belonging to this corporation operate in the insurance, gas and services sectors. There are versions that indicate that one of the main causes of his staunch opposition to the Morales government is due to debts and million-dollar losses related to the gas business in Santa Cruz .
On the other hand, there are local media that link him to the Panama Papers as an intermediary, from the creation of three companies (Medis Overseas Corp., Navi International Holding and Positive Real Estates) to "help people and companies hide their fortunes in offshore entities, launder money and establish tax evasion schemes”.
More:
https://www.anred.org/2019/11/10/quien-es-luis-fernando-camacho-el-hombre-que-encabeza-el-golpe-de-estado-en-bolivia/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Bolivia coup led by Christian fascist paramilitary leader and millionaire–with foreign support
By Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton (Posted Nov 19, 2019)
Originally published: The Grayzone on November 11, 2019 (more by The Grayzone) |
When Luis Fernando Camacho stormed into Bolivia’s abandoned presidential palace in the hours after President Evo Morales’s sudden November 10 resignation, he revealed to the world a side of the country that stood at stark odds with the plurinational spirit its deposed socialist and Indigenous leader had put forward.
With a Bible in one hand and a national flag in the other, Camacho bowed his head in prayer above the presidential seal, fulfilling his vow to purge his country’s Native heritage from government and “return God to the burned palace.”
“Pachamama will never return to the palace,” declared the pastor to his side, referring to the Andean Mother Earth spirit. “Bolivia belongs to Christ.”
Bolivia’s extreme right-wing opposition had overthrown leftist President Evo Morales that day, following demands by the country’s military leadership that he step down.
Virtually unknown outside his country, where he had never won a democratic election, Camacho stepped into the void. He is a powerful multi-millionaire named in the Panama Papers, and an ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalist groomed by a fascist paramilitary notorious for its racist violence, with a base in Bolivia’s wealthy separatist region of Santa Cruz.
More:
https://mronline.org/2019/11/19/bolivia-coup-led-by-christian-fascist-paramilitary-leader-and-millionaire-with-foreign-support/