Prominent Bolivian opposition leader to be transferred from jail to house arrest

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho won his release to house arrest Wednesday after two years and eight months of pretrial detention, a surprise move that empowered his supporters who long criticized his prosecution as unjust and disheartened his detractors who complained of political pressures overriding procedural tradition.

Wednesday’s court order applied to the last of two cases that landed Camacho, the conservative governor of Bolivia’s easternmost province of Santa Cruz, behind bars pending a trial. He had already been ordered freed to house arrest on Tuesday in the most explosive case, alleging his involvement in violent unrest over the disputed 2019 reelection of socialist former President Evo Morales.

The ruling on a different but related case Wednesday confirmed that the suspended governor would be transferred out of jail to house arrest with work-release privileges, which allow him to resume his duties as governor of Santa Cruz for the first time since his 2022 arrest.

His transfer does not mean acquittal. Camacho still faces trial in these two cases and charges in other investigations.

But his release from prison to a much milder form of incarceration injects a potentially volatile new element into Bolivia's politics after a general election earlier this month signaled the end of nearly 20 years of dominance by Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS party.

The firebrand Christian leader of a powerful Santa Cruz business association, Camacho gained prominence while leading protests against Morales in 2019 that ultimately forced Bolivia’s first Indigenous leader to resign under pressure from the military and flee to exile.

The order did not specify when the transfer would take place but Camacho's lawyer said it could happen as early as Friday.

The judiciary’s sudden moves in long-stalled cases come as Bolivia’s right-wing opposition prepares to return to power for the first time in decades. A presidential runoff in October will pit centrist Sen. Rodrigo Paz against right-wing former President Jorge Quiroga.

Quiroga in particular has called for the release of his jailed allies, including Camacho as well as caretaker interim President Jeanine Añez, who assumed the presidency in 2019 in what Morales' supporters call a coup.

Both Añez and Camacho are divisive figures.

Although Añez vowed to steer Bolivia to new elections in which she wouldn't run following her 2019 takeover, she swiftly cemented her hold on power, transforming the country's policies, violently cracking down on protests and provoking Morales’ Indigenous supporters.

After elections in 2020 vaulted Morales' handpicked successor, President Luis Arce, to the nation's top job, the same judicial system that Añez wielded against Morales and his followers sentenced her to 10 years in prison on charges of sedition and terrorism stemming from her takeover.

Camacho was scooped up on the same charges over his pivotal role in pressuring Morales to quit the presidency in 2019. At the time, he called on all MAS lawmakers to resign and even proposed that an unconstitutional junta take power before ultimately backing Áñez’s government.

Unlike Áñez, Camacho was never tried.

Arrested in 2022 as he led a 36-day strike against Arce’s government in Santa Cruz that shut down Bolivia’s most populous and economically vital region, Camacho faced separate charges of criminal association and illegal use of public property.

Every time he maxed out the legal detention period, a prosecutor extended his jailing in a widely criticized tactic that Bolivia’s judiciary often deploys in high-profile political cases.

Judges on Tuesday and Wednesday weighing the 2019 upheaval case and 2022 strike case against Camacho determined that keeping him in jail exceeded the legal limits for a detainee awaiting trial.

It comes after Bolivia’s Supreme Court last week issued a rare ruling ordering all judges to review the legality of pretrial detention in the cases against Añez and Camacho, as well as in the case of Marco Antonio Pumari, another opposition leader held over his role in the 2019 crisis.

As news broke of the judge's ruling late Tuesday, crowds of Camacho's supporters in central Santa Cruz erupted in cheers.

The court also ordered the unconditional release of Pumari, a former civic leader in Bolivia's southern town of Potosí and Camacho’s running mate in the 2020 elections, who has been detained since 2021.

Quiroga hailed the release orders for Camacho and Pumari, writing on social media that “justice cannot be an instrument of revenge.”

On Monday, a Bolivian court annulled the trial against Áñez over her involvement in the killing of dozens of protesters in 2019, ruling that she is entitled to a special judicial process for former heads of state handled by Congress, not an ordinary court. A separate hearing in the case was pushed to Friday.

Outside the courthouse in Bolivia's capital of La Paz, protesters — incensed by the release of Camacho, who they consider indirectly responsible for the killing of 37 people following Morales’ 2019 ouster — chanted “Justice for the victims” and “Without justice there is no democracy.”

“Justice must be impartial, whoever must pay, must pay, but justice has to be done,” Gloria Quisbert, a representative of the victims, told local TV channels. She condemned the dismissal of Áñez’s trial as bringing “new pain” to the victims.

Revelers — thrilled by the long-awaited release of the most prominent symbol of opposition to MAS rule — shouted “Freedom for Camacho" and tried to touch and take selfies with the governor as he emerged in handcuffs and his governor’s sash. Many flew or took 16-hour bus rides from Santa Cruz to attend the hearing in La Paz.

Security forces in riot gear struggled to contain the competing rallies.

“This is the first step toward freedom,” Camacho said after the court decision. “The elected representatives of justice today begin to restore the rule of law.”

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Former governor of Santa Cruz Luis Fernando Camacho is escorted by police as he leaves a court hearing regarding the length of his pretrial detention stemming from the crisis over the 2019 ouster of former President Evo Morales, in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Suspended governor of Santa Cruz Luis Fernando Camacho is escorted by police out of court after a hearing on his arrest over charges of sedition and terrorism, in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

A protester holds a sign that reads in Spanish, "30 years in prison for the coup plotters" as suspended governor of Santa Cruz Luis Fernando Camacho attends a court hearing regarding the length of his pretrial detention stemming from the crisis over the 2019 ouster of former President Evo Morales, in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

A supporter of suspended Santa Cruz Governor Luis Fernando Camacho blocks an anti-Camacho demonstrator, right, during a court hearing regarding the length of Camacho's pretrial detention stemming from the crisis over the 2019 ouster of former President Evo Morales, in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Former governor of Santa Cruz Luis Fernando Camacho is escorted by police as he leaves a court hearing regarding the length of his pretrial detention stemming from the crisis over the 2019 ouster of former President Evo Morales, in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Federal immigration agents deployed to Minneapolis have used aggressive crowd-control tactics that have become a dominant concern in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of a woman in her car last week.

They have pointed rifles at demonstrators and deployed chemical irritants early in confrontations. They have broken vehicle windows and pulled occupants from cars. They have scuffled with protesters and shoved them to the ground.

The government says the actions are necessary to protect officers from violent attacks. The encounters in turn have riled up protesters even more, especially as videos of the incidents are shared widely on social media.

What is unfolding in Minneapolis reflects a broader shift in how the federal government is asserting its authority during protests, relying on immigration agents and investigators to perform crowd-management roles traditionally handled by local police who often have more training in public order tactics and de-escalating large crowds.

Experts warn the approach runs counter to de-escalation standards and risks turning volatile demonstrations into deadly encounters.

The confrontations come amid a major immigration enforcement surge ordered by the Trump administration in early December, which sent more than 2,000 officers from across the Department of Homeland Security into the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Many of the officers involved are typically tasked with arrests, deportations and criminal investigations, not managing volatile public demonstrations.

Tensions escalated after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman killed by an immigration agent last week, an incident federal officials have defended as self-defense after they say Good weaponized her vehicle.

The killing has intensified protests and scrutiny of the federal response.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota asked a federal judge to intervene, filing a lawsuit on behalf of six residents seeking an emergency injunction to limit how federal agents operate during protests, including restrictions on the use of chemical agents, the pointing of firearms at non-threatening individuals and interference with lawful video recording.

“There’s so much about what’s happening now that is not a traditional approach to immigration apprehensions,” said former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña.

Saldaña, who left the post at the beginning of 2017 as President Donald Trump's first term began, said she can't speak to how the agency currently trains its officers. When she was director, she said officers received training on how to interact with people who might be observing an apprehension or filming officers, but agents rarely had to deal with crowds or protests.

“This is different. You would hope that the agency would be responsive given the evolution of what’s happening — brought on, mind you, by the aggressive approach that has been taken coming from the top,” she said.

Ian Adams, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said the majority of crowd-management or protest training in policing happens at the local level — usually at larger police departments that have public order units.

“It’s highly unlikely that your typical ICE agent has a great deal of experience with public order tactics or control,” Adams said.

DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a written statement that ICE officer candidates receive extensive training over eight weeks in courses that include conflict management and de-escalation. She said many of the candidates are military veterans and about 85% have previous law enforcement experience.

“All ICE candidates are subject to months of rigorous training and selection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where they are trained in everything from de-escalation tactics to firearms to driving training. Homeland Security Investigations candidates receive more than 100 days of specialized training," she said.

Ed Maguire, a criminology professor at Arizona State University, has written extensively about crowd-management and protest- related law enforcement training. He said while he hasn't seen the current training curriculum for ICE officers, he has reviewed recent training materials for federal officers and called it “horrifying.”

Maguire said what he's seeing in Minneapolis feels like a perfect storm for bad consequences.

“You can't even say this doesn't meet best practices. That's too high a bar. These don't seem to meet generally accepted practices,” he said.

“We’re seeing routinely substandard law enforcement practices that would just never be accepted at the local level,” he added. “Then there seems to be just an absence of standard accountability practices.”

Adams noted that police department practices have "evolved to understand that the sort of 1950s and 1960s instinct to meet every protest with force, has blowback effects that actually make the disorder worse.”

He said police departments now try to open communication with organizers, set boundaries and sometimes even show deference within reason. There's an understanding that inside of a crowd, using unnecessary force can have a domino effect that might cause escalation from protesters and from officers.

Despite training for officers responding to civil unrest dramatically shifting over the last four decades, there is no nationwide standard of best practices. For example, some departments bar officers from spraying pepper spray directly into the face of people exercising Constitutional speech. Others bar the use of tear gas or other chemical agents in residential neighborhoods.

Regardless of the specifics, experts recommend that departments have written policies they review regularly.

“Organizations and agencies aren’t always familiar with what their own policies are,” said Humberto Cardounel, senior director of training and technical assistance at the National Policing Institute.

“They go through it once in basic training then expect (officers) to know how to comport themselves two years later, five years later," he said. "We encourage them to understand and know their training, but also to simulate their training.”

Adams said part of the reason local officers are the best option for performing public order tasks is they have a compact with the community.

“I think at the heart of this is the challenge of calling what ICE is doing even policing,” he said.

"Police agencies have a relationship with their community that extends before and after any incidents. Officers know we will be here no matter what happens, and the community knows regardless of what happens today, these officers will be here tomorrow.”

Saldaña noted that both sides have increased their aggression.

“You cannot put yourself in front of an armed officer, you cannot put your hands on them certainly. That is impeding law enforcement actions,” she said.

“At this point, I’m getting concerned on both sides — the aggression from law enforcement and the increasingly aggressive behavior from protesters.”

Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People cover tear gas deployed by federal immigration officers outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A man is pushed to the ground as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A woman covers her face from tear gas as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)