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Protesters across Bolivia demand release of key opposition figure

Photo: AIZAR RALDES / AFP

January 11 | By AFP |

Thousands of people marched Tuesday in cities around Bolivia to demand the release of a prominent opponent to President Luis Arce.

Luis Fernando Camacho, the conservative governor of the country’s economic powerhouse region of Santa Cruz, was arrested in late December on terrorism charges, including for an alleged role in the resignation of leftist president Evo Morales in 2019.

TV footage on Tuesday showed that Camacho supporters rallied in La Paz, Santa Cruz, Sucre and four other big cities.

Camacho, 43, leads Bolivia’s second-largest opposition bloc in congress and came in third in presidential elections in October 2020 that were won by President Luis Arce, a Morales protege.

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In Santa Cruz, Romulo Calvo, the president of a civil society and business group that convened the protests, said Arce is stifling dissent in Bolivia.

“We are like Venezuela and Nicaragua now, under repression and abuse of power,” Calvo said, alluding to two Latin American countries ruled by leftist governments with spotty records on respecting democratic norms.

Camacho was arrested on December 28 and transferred to La Paz, where a judge quickly ordered him held for four months in pre-trial detention.

He had been under investigation for his role in the strikes and sometimes violent protests in 2019, prompted by Morales’s disputed election to a fourth term. 

Morales ultimately resigned under pressure after losing the support of the military.

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Camacho has repeatedly denied having fomented a coup against Morales.

In Tuesday’s march in La Paz, anti-government protesters clashed with Arce supporters who threw rocks and firecrackers at them. No injuries were reported.

International

Bolsonaro diagnosed with skin cancer amid coup conviction

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been diagnosed with skin cancer while serving a historic sentence for attempting a coup d’état. His medical team confirmed that the lesions have been removed and that, for now, he does not require further procedures, though he will need regular monitoring.

On Wednesday, September 17, Bolsonaro’s doctors confirmed the diagnosis. The announcement comes shortly after the former leader was convicted of orchestrating an attempted coup.

According to his physician, Claudio Birolini, Bolsonaro has “squamous cell carcinoma, which is neither the most benign nor the most aggressive form — it is intermediate.” Birolini warned, however, that this type of skin cancer “can carry more serious consequences.”

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International

Milei praises Paraguay’s growth, calls Argentina’s last 20 years a ‘decline’

Argentine President Javier Milei praised Paraguay’s economic growth over the past two decades during a speech before the Paraguayan Congress on Wednesday (Sept. 17, 2025), crediting it to incentives that favored capitalism. At the same time, he contrasted that progress with what he described as Argentina’s deepening “decline” during the same period.

“If we compare the last 20 years of Paraguay with those of the Argentine Republic, we will find almost diametrically opposite results,” Milei told lawmakers during a special session of Parliament on the second and final day of his official visit to Asunción.

“While you have not stopped growing, we have deepened our decline. If we understand incentives as the engine of capitalism, Paraguay focused on preserving and strengthening them, while Argentina dedicated itself to chaining, directing, and suffocating them,” the right-wing leader stated.

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International

Trump administration launches large-scale immigration operation in Chicago

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump intensified a large-scale immigration operation in the Chicago area with the arrival of additional Border Patrol agents on Tuesday and the presence of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem during a raid.

Noem posted a video on her X account showing the immigration operation, in which DHS reportedly removed “violent criminals” from the streets. The footage shows Noem observing the arrest of a man taken into custody at his home early Tuesday morning at an undisclosed location.

“I was in Chicago today to make it clear that we will not back down,” the secretary wrote. “Our work is just beginning,” she added.

The warning from Noem was echoed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Gregory Bovino, who posted a video on X Tuesday showing multiple Border Patrol vehicles arriving in the city with the caption: “Chicago, we are here!”

Bovino, who led the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles implemented since last June, said the team will remain in Chicago to continue the mission they started in California.

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Operation “Midway Blitz” is currently focused on the Chicago metropolitan area and its suburbs. Activists and residents have reported sightings of masked agents and unmarked vehicles in predominantly Latino neighborhoods.

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