At least four times, Luis Fernando Camacho resisted court summons for his masterminding of the 2019 coup in Bolivia that deposed leftist president Evo Morales. Camacho is governor of Santa Cruz, a corporate lawyer, and a very wealthy businessman. More important, he is a far-right ideologue from a traditional fascist family intent on breaking the power of socialist presidents.

On Wednesday, December 28, he was arrested for obstructing justice and helicoptered out of his right-wing stronghold in Santa Cruz. His followers in that city set the four-story building of the public prosecutor on fire and trashed the National Tax Institute, among other government properties. They destroyed the home of a high-level socialist politician. Paramilitaries tried but failed to take over the central police installations in the city of two million.

In addition, about one hundred Camacho loyalists shut down two airports by placing their bodies in front of the wheels of airplanes. They cleared planes of passengers in their search for Camacho and emptied the airport of its workers, including security personnel, who were assaulted and retreated to de-escalate the situation.