Luis Fernando Camacho Vaca (born February 15, 1979 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra) is a Bolivian businessman, lawyer, and politician. He has been the governor of the department of Santa Cruz since May 3, 2021.
Biography
Camacho was born on February 15, 1979 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He is descended from immigrants from the department of Cochabamba and is the son of Santa Cruz businessman José Luis Camacho Parada (born 1945), who previously served as president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee from 1981 to 1983. Camacho's father also became involved in business leadership, serving as President of the Santa Cruz Federation of Private Businesses from 1992 to 1994.
Camacho began his schooling in 1985 and graduated from high school in 1996 in his hometown. He studied law at the Private University of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (UPSA), earning a law degree in 2003. He also completed postgraduate studies at the University of Barcelona in Spain, earning a master's degree in Financial Law and Tax Law in 2005.
Business career
During his working life, Camacho served as an assistant to the First Court of Civil and Commercial Affairs in Santa Cruz and as an official of the Third Court of Family Affairs in Santa Cruz. He is currently the director of the law firm "Corporación Jurídica." He also became involved in business with his family, serving as legal advisor and shareholder of the National Investment Life Group from 2009 to 2015.
Personal life
Before becoming publicly famous in 2019, Camacho had previously had two partners from which he had separated but it should be noted that in those past relationships he had 3 children, which are as follows: María Fernanda Camacho (born in 1997), Luis Fernando Camacho (born in 1999) and José Luis Camacho (born in 2009). Already being the president of the Pro Santa Cruz Civic Committee and at the age of 40, Luis Fernando Camacho decides for the third time to marry again with his new partner Gabriela Antelo Miranda (born in 1981) who worked as a public relations officer with whom he had started dating since the beginning of 2019. But it would not be long before in June 2020, and without even having been married for a year, Camacho decides to divorce his wife Antelo again after a media scandal of domestic violence in the media.
Later that same year of 2020, Luis Fernando Camacho makes public his new relationship but this time with the Queen of the 2019 Santa Cruz Carnival and model Fátima Jordán Bravo, who is a dentist (born in 1992) being 13 years younger than Camacho.
Civic-political career
In 2002, Camacho joined the political party Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, this being his first foray into politics. 18 Camacho became at the age of 23 the vice president of the civic organization Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (UJC) remaining in office from 2002 to 2004.19 Between 2008 and 2009, this organization would be identified by the International Federation for Human Rights as a paramilitary group.2021
From 2004, Camacho retired for a time from civic and political activism returning almost a decade later serving from 2013 to 2015 as the secretary general of the Provincial Civic Committees of Cruceñidad. 18 In 2015, Camacho entered the Comité Cívico Pro Santa Cruz serving as the second vice president of the Committee until 2017.22 That same year, Camacho assumes this time the position of first vice president of the Civic Committee until 2019.22 In February 2019, amid accusations of pressures and arrangements for them to vote for him, he was elected and sworn in as the new president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee for the period 2019-2021, replacing the former president Fernando Cuéllar Núñez.2324. He presented his resignation as president of the Santa Cruz civic committee to run as a candidate for the presidency of Bolivia. After stating: "I am not and will not be a candidate" and "I am disgusted to see personal interests above a nation!", which caused many criticisms of his consistency as a person.
Presidential nomination
On January 24, 2020, at an event held at the Europa Hotel in the city of La Paz, Camacho and Potosí's Marco Antonio Pumari presented their political alliance called "Creemos", which participated in that year's general election, a coalition made up of Civic Unity and the Christian Democratic Party, usually right-wing.
Political positions
His ideology has been described as fundamental Christian and ultra-Catholic.
He is placed on the extreme right. He has also been accused by feminists of being "misogynistic". His statements have been described as "violent" due to his alleged apology for drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, when he said "saving the differences, it was to take the agenda like Pablo Escobar did, but only to write down the names of the traitors of this people, because we want them to go to prison tomorrow, but not out of hatred and resentment, but for justice".
However, Camacho has thanked the support that he says has been offered by union movements, miners, police, armed forces, and social organizations in demonstrations.
Controversies
Federalism (2021)
On November 22, 2021, the governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, announced the socialization and consultation to implement the federal model of Bolivia. This caused mixed opinions from many sectors and mayors. The Bolivian Workers' Central (COB) accused the governor of Santa Cruz of "wanting to divide Bolivia" and the mayor of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, stated that federalism would be "the best thing" that would happen to Bolivia but it is not yet time to discuss it before the current conflicts are resolved. The mayor of Santa Cruz, Jhonny Fernández, saw "something strange" in the federalism proposal and that "there is a set of work that we have to do to consolidate the autonomies".
Link with Panama Papers
Then-Minister of Communications of Bolivia, Manuel Canelas, denounced Camacho to the public, presenting a document from the Panama Papers case, in which Camacho is identified as an intermediary in the offshore scheme, which could have favored the hiding of fortunes, tax evasion, and money laundering. Canelas responds that the document does not accuse anyone, and that Camacho is mentioned along with other people.
Nadia Beller
On November 26, 2019, Luis Fernando Camacho and Marco Antonio Pumari were seen walking in the city of Potosí with the Santa Cruz lawyer Nadia Beller, who belonged to the ranks of MAS and was a plurinomial candidate for deputy for MAS-IPSP in the 2019 national elections. Both received numerous criticisms from the Bolivian population for this contact. In turn, Camacho denied any connection with the MASist Nadia Beller. In October 2020, a video circulated on social media in which Nadia Beller appeared making statements in favor of Camacho. In response, Camacho stated that he had "no relationship" with Beller and that the video was part of a "dirty campaign" against him.
Filtración de audio de Marco Pumari in 2019
An audio leak revealed that Marco Pumari requested 250,000 dollars and control of two customs offices from Luis Fernando Camacho in exchange for being his running mate in the general elections.5354 Later, during an interview with Fernando del Rincón on CNN en español, it was demonstrated that Luis Fernando Camacho deliberately leaked the audio in which Pumari's request was revealed,55 but this did not prevent Pumari from joining Luis Fernando Camacho in the nomination for the general elections.
Filtración de video en reunión privada con la prensa 2019
On December 28, 2019, a leaked video shows Luis Fernando Camacho meeting with trusted men and some representatives of the Bolivian press and media; "It was my father who closed with the military, so they wouldn't come out; for that reason, the person who went to talk to them and coordinate everything was Fernando López, current Minister of Defense, that's why he's a minister, to fulfill the commitments"; in the same video, Camacho urges the press representatives to collaborate with the mobilizations, not showing news and information that could affect the 21-day mobilization, referring to the violent events that occurred in places like Sacaba and Senkata
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