On Wednesday, August 27, 2025, a Bolivian court set off a political earthquake by ordering the release of Luis Fernando Camacho, the influential governor of Santa Cruz and a key opposition leader, after nearly three years in pretrial detention. The decision, which grants Camacho house arrest with work-release privileges, comes at a pivotal moment for Bolivia—just weeks after voters delivered a stinging rebuke to the long-ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) party in the August 17 general election.
Camacho’s release marks a dramatic turn in Bolivia’s turbulent political saga, which has been dominated for nearly two decades by MAS and its figurehead, former President Evo Morales. The sudden judicial move, following years of legal stasis, has energized Camacho’s supporters and left his detractors fuming, with both sides flooding the streets of La Paz and Santa Cruz in protest and celebration.
Camacho, a firebrand Christian and business leader, first shot to national prominence during the 2019 political crisis. According to Reuters, he led demonstrations demanding Morales’ resignation amid allegations of electoral fraud—protests that ultimately forced Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, to step down and flee the country. Camacho’s role in those events landed him in hot water: he was arrested in 2022 on charges of terrorism tied to the 2019 crisis, as well as separate charges related to a 36-day strike he led that year against President Luis Arce’s MAS government.
The legal process that followed was, to put it mildly, contentious. Camacho’s detention, which dragged on for two years and eight months without a conviction, became a lightning rod for criticism from human rights groups and political observers. The Associated Press reported that every time Camacho’s legal detention period was set to expire, prosecutors extended his stay behind bars—a tactic widely condemned as a means of keeping high-profile opposition figures out of the political arena.
But the tide began to turn last week, when Bolivia’s Supreme Court of Justice issued a rare order instructing judges to review the legality of pretrial detention in the cases of Camacho, former interim President Jeanine Añez, and Marco Antonio Pumari, another opposition leader. The court emphasized that pretrial detention in Bolivia cannot exceed six months, a standard that had long since lapsed in these cases. This order set the stage for a flurry of judicial activity and, ultimately, Camacho’s release to house arrest.
Camacho’s transfer from jail does not mean he’s off the hook. As the AP noted, he still faces trial in the two main cases against him, as well as in other ongoing investigations. Nevertheless, the shift from prison to house arrest—with the added benefit of work-release privileges—will allow Camacho to resume his duties as governor of Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s most populous and economically vital region, for the first time since his 2022 arrest.
The timing of Camacho’s release is hard to ignore. It comes just days after the MAS party suffered a crushing defeat at the polls, with its official candidate managing just over 3% of the vote, according to Reuters. The upcoming October 19 runoff will pit centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz against conservative former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga—signaling a possible rightward shift in Bolivian politics and the first real chance for the opposition to return to power in decades.
The ripple effects of the court’s decision extend beyond Camacho. Marco Pumari, a former civic leader from the lithium-rich region of Potosí and Camacho’s 2020 election running mate, was unconditionally released by court order on Tuesday, August 26. Meanwhile, former interim President Jeanine Añez—who assumed office after Morales’ ouster and was later sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of sedition and terrorism—saw her trial over the 2019 protest killings annulled on Monday, August 25. The court ruled that Añez is entitled to a special judicial process for former heads of state, handled by Congress rather than an ordinary court, and a separate hearing in her case was pushed to Friday.
As news of Camacho’s release broke late Tuesday, crowds of his supporters erupted in cheers in central Santa Cruz. Many traveled hours, even days, to witness the moment, waving flags and chanting “Freedom for Camacho!” Some tried to touch or snap selfies with the governor as he emerged in handcuffs and his signature green-and-white sash. “This is the first step toward freedom,” Camacho declared to the crowd, according to the AP. “The elected representatives of justice today begin to restore the rule of law.”
But not everyone was celebrating. Outside the courthouse in La Paz, protesters—many of them relatives of the 37 people killed during the 2019 unrest—demanded justice. “Justice must be impartial, whoever must pay, must pay, but justice has to be done,” said Gloria Quisbert, a representative of the victims, as quoted by AP. She condemned the dismissal of Añez’s trial as bringing “new pain” to those who lost loved ones in the violence. Security forces in riot gear struggled to contain the dueling rallies, a vivid illustration of Bolivia’s deep political divisions.
President Luis Arce, who succeeded Morales and has led MAS since 2020, weighed in on Tuesday, August 26, criticizing the judiciary for its lack of progress on cases stemming from the 2019 crisis. “We call on the judiciary to let its work be guided by truth and objectivity,” Arce wrote on social media, referencing the bloody aftermath of Morales’ ouster, which left at least 36 dead and 800 injured, according to Reuters.
The sudden judicial reversals have sparked debate over whether Bolivia’s justice system is finally regaining its independence, or simply responding to shifting political winds. Camacho’s team struck an optimistic note on social media: “There is hope. Bolivia is regaining the independence of its justice system and democratic values.” Meanwhile, former president Quiroga, now a candidate in the October runoff, hailed the release orders for Camacho and Pumari, stating on social media that “justice cannot be an instrument of revenge.”
Yet, for many Bolivians, the wounds of the past six years remain raw. The cycle of political prosecutions—first wielded by Añez’s interim government against MAS supporters, then by Arce’s administration against opposition leaders—has left citizens wary of promises of impartial justice. The question now is whether the country’s institutions can rise to the challenge of fairness and transparency, or whether the pendulum will simply swing back again with the next change in power.
As Camacho prepares to return to Santa Cruz, with his lawyer anticipating the transfer as early as Friday, August 29, all eyes are on Bolivia’s fraught political landscape. With a pivotal presidential runoff looming and the fate of other high-profile detainees hanging in the balance, the nation stands at a crossroads—caught between demands for accountability, the hope for reconciliation, and the ever-present specter of political score-settling.
