 Hello and welcome to Daily Debrief brought to you by People's Dispatch. I'm Pragya. Luis Fernando Camacho, who played a key role in the 2019 coup in Bolivia, has been arrested. However, his right-wing supporters are on the warpath in his stronghold, Santa Cruz. After appointing ambassadors in each other's countries, Colombia and Venezuela have reopened a border road to commercial and private traffic. And finally, Japan's relations with Russia soured last year after it imposed sanctions on the latter once the war in Ukraine began. Now, a top Russian official has said Japan's fast-tracked militarization is bad news. All this and more in today's episode. The latest reports from Bolivia, Santa Cruz province say right-wing leader Luis Camacho's supporters have located many parts of Santa Cruz. There were violent crashes after Camacho, who is from Santa Cruz and its governor, was arrested and sent to four months of pre-trial detention. The Luis Arque government has been trying to ensure accountability for a 2019 coup attempt in which over three dozen people died. Last year, right-wing former President Janine Anais was sentenced to 10 years for her role in toppling the Evo Morales government. We spoke to Zoe from People's Dispatch, who has been following the developments. Okay, Zoe, thanks for joining us. You've been jet-sitting around and we're catching you, I think, when you're still a bit jet-lagged. Zoe, about Luis Fernando Camacho, now so much violence happening because of his arrest. Can you give us a little bit of the background, the context, and also why it's happening in Santa Cruz? Definitely. So on December 28th, a far-right leader and governor of the Santa Cruz province in Bolivia, Luis Fernando Camacho, was arrested as part of an ongoing investigation by Bolivian prosecutors about the Culeta-1 case. And so, essentially, what's going on is that following the restoration of democracy that happened in October-November of 2020, when Luis Arque and the movement towards socialism party won the elections and defeating, really, the coup government that was led by Jeanine Agnes, a process began to essentially bring those to justice who had carried out this coup against the democratically elected government of Evo Morales, to bring those to justice who carried out this coup, who really instigated this coup, and then later on actually participated in a lot of the violence against the civilian population, just to remind people that 38 people, according to human rights organizations in the country, 38 people were killed in the violence by security forces who, against protesters who were demanding the return of Evo and demanding return to democracy. So it's a really harrowing situation that happened there. And people have been demanding, of course, that at the time we're demanding return to democracy. Now that democracy has been restored, there's been a very strong movement, especially amongst the victims, to demand that people be brought to justice for these crimes that were carried out. So in this context, we have to understand the arrest of Luis Fernando Camacho, and to understand that the Santa Cruz department province was really one of the most active in this violence that really brought about the coup d'etat. It's an area where there's a lot of far-right groups who are very active and organized, organized with a lot of the business owners. It's an area that has a lot of industrial development and a really strong right wing. It has to be said, a strong right wing that is organized that does not like the socialist government, despite the fact that they even themselves have seen economic growth under these governments of the mass party. And Luis Fernando Camacho is really the leader of these different groups. And so the fact that after two years since democracy was restored, he's finally arrested was actually celebrated by most people because they saw the destructive role that he had played in this process, calling for mobilizations against AVO, saying that the elections that happened in 2019 were fraudulent, calling on AVO to resign. And so for many, this was a welcome arrest. But of course, in Santa Cruz where I said there are these organized right groups where he is seen as the leader, and of course, he was elected as governor has to be said. People were very angry. And it really responds to their general anger that of course, their coup d'etat was unsuccessful. It was successful for one year, but since then they have been defeated at the polls by the people. But they want to continue this balance. They want to destabilize the government. And so since December 28th, when he was arrested, and then of course, two days later, he was sentenced to four months in prison in preventative detention. There has been mass riots, violent riots really in Santa Cruz. Public buildings have been burned. People have been attacked. There's been a violent unrest that's been unfolding, demanding for him to be released, saying that he's been kidnapped. And it's quite worrying because the situation is as of now contained to Santa Cruz, but they're causing massive property damage to different institutions of the state. They're attacking police officers. So it's quite worrying. And it's unclear now that he's been sentenced for four months, do they plan to continue for the four months? As of now, they have been mobilizing continuously. As we know, in the end of last year as well, they carried out a national strike against the census. So they're mobilized. They're continuing to destabilize. And that's that's kind of the update on that situation. Right. So, you know, we also read some reports here where people have started saying that, look, you know, this kind of unrest is terrible for business. It's terrible for whatever work we have to do, etc. How is the case against Comarcio likely to proceed in the coming weeks? What do you see happening next? Well, I think we can maybe look at the two case in which Jeanine Agnes has been convicted and sentenced to prison. There's a lot of clear evidence that implicates all of these different individuals in the acts that they carried out. I think the fact that they waited, you know, two years, they've been collecting evidence against Luis Fernando Comarcio. They actually summoned him to come to La Paz to give a testimony four different times. And he evaded these summons, which of course is what actually led to his arrest. And so I think we're in the next couple of months, they're going to continue collecting evidence, continue building the case. Eventually, when it goes to trial, I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be convicted because there's, you know, video evidence. A lot of people have seen this where he called for violence against against different people of the mass party. He also admitted that they colluded to bring about this coup. There's so much different evidence against him. So the most likely is that he does get convicted of this crime. How this will impact these mobilizations, it's unclear. I think they're likely to continue mobilizing. And of course, a conviction in trial would definitely bring about more unrest. But I think the Bolivian justice system is committed to giving justice to the victims, to recognizing, and to punishing those who were responsible for this horrible subversion of democracy and what led to so many different human rights violations. Right, Zoe. And thanks a lot for that very detailed update. Thanks a lot. A road reopened in September. And now after years, a shared border route has also reopened. Ever since Colombia's Gustavo Petro came to power, ties with Venezuela have been improving steadily. This is big news for a region where Colombia was used as a proxy for conflict with Venezuela all these years. What is its significance? We go back to Zoe. Zoe, Colombia and Venezuela opening up this border road. This was announced earlier. Now it's happened. Can you talk about the relevance, why it's happening now, and what could be the benefits from this road? Well, this is a huge advancement in Colombian and Venezuelan bilateral relations. It might sound like a small thing that this road has opened up. But I think if we look at the history of this region, of this border region over the past decade, it's been a region where there's been a lot of unrest, where it's been kind of the flash point of worsening tensions between the two countries. As we know, Colombia during the past, well, of course, six decades has been ruled by conservative leaders. But in the past decade, during this attack from the United States on Venezuela, Colombia has been a sort of willing partner in that its own detriment and its own, you know, not benefit because it is a country that has very, very close relations to Venezuela. At one point, there were four million Colombian refugees in Venezuela, you know, internally just people who were displaced from the armed conflict in Colombia have fled to Venezuela. So there's a very, very intimate links between the two countries, many different regions that really, you know, are continuation of one another. These countries used to be one. So the fact that during the U.S.-induced crisis in Venezuela in many ways, Colombia started to take a very hostile position against Venezuela. This led to the border closing between the two countries. And essentially, no cars had actually passed between this border since 2015 completely closed. The only way to get from one place to another was really by plane or crossing the border illegally. And this is ridiculous given the fact, again, that they're neighbors. So now with the opening up of relations that we've seen with the government of Gustavo Petro in Colombia is such an advance. They've made so many different advances in many areas in retaking commercial ties in cultural exchanges happening between the two countries. Concessions by Colombia, for example, businesses that had been usurped by the fake government of Juan Guaidó have been given back to the rightful and constitutional government of Venezuela. And now this opening of the border is really something that will help the people of the two countries. The crossing between Norte Santander and Tachira is just a natural crossing where people maybe go to work, go shopping in two areas, have family on both sides of the border. This is, of course, a huge, huge advance in humanitarian means. And hopefully, it marks the continuation of bettering of relations between the two countries that, of course, are intrinsically linked. And I think it's a really good sign in the fact that both Colombia and Venezuela are making good on this commitment to bettering their relationship and to making life a lot easier for those people who live in that border area. Right. So a little bit more detail would be really great on how it's going to improve tries in the region. Definitely. This, of course, is taking place at a moment where the regional map politically is, of course, towards progressive leaders. We saw, of course, with the victory of Gustavo Petro in Colombia in June that a country that had been ruled, as I said, for six decades by conservative governments, anti-people governments. This was reversed with the election of Gustavo Petro. And now in October with the victory of Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party is another huge step forward for the region. Now we can say that the majority of the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is ruled by progressive leaders. This means, for example, I think if we're looking at 2017, when Venezuela was in its most critical point with the harshest sanctions being imposed, massive decline in their GDP, it was surrounded by enemies. It was surrounded by countries that said that it did not have a right to exist, that it was an illegitimate government, that drastic, drastic measures had to be taken against the country. And now we're seeing that Venezuela is actually given a little more space to breathe, which is why it can't be understated the fact that Petro's government has retaken diplomatic commercial relationships with Venezuela, recognizing the rifle government Nicolás Maduro. And now Lula da Silva was sworn in on January 1st. And he also has made a commitment to retaking the relationship with the constitutional government of Nicolás Maduro. There was a very emotional ceremony that took place at the Venezuelan embassy in Brasilia. And just to remind people that during the attempt to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro, many embassies across the world of Venezuela were under attack. And one of those was the embassy in Brasilia of Venezuela. This was constantly under attack by fascist forces who wanted to take over the embassy. And it was the movements of Brazil that actually defended this embassy and made sure that they did not actually gain control of the embassy. And so now with the return of Lula da Silva, there was a visit by the Venezuelan government delegation to visit it to thank the Brazilian social movements for actually having protected this embassy and to mark that there's a new moment in the relationship between the two countries, that they will be resuming their diplomatic and commercial ties. And again, neighboring countries that have so much in common where there's just natural interaction that has to happen. And so I think we can see definitely with this new progressive wave, it definitely marks a new moment for Venezuela, a moment where it can actually have normal relationships with its neighbors, where it's not one of antagonism and one of attacks. Right, Zoe. Thanks a lot for joining us with that update. Thanks so much for having me. Relations between Japan and Russia have worsened since the start of the Ukraine war last year. Japan is one of the few countries which joined the West in imposing sanctions on Russia. Now Russia's deputy foreign minister for Asian affairs has told the state-owned TASS news agency it will take countermeasures to Japan abandoning peaceful development. A peace treaty has become impossible to discuss, Andrei Rudenko said. Anish from People's Dispatch has been following the developments. Let's go over to him. Hi Anish, good to have you back on the show. So Anish, can we talk about Andrei Rudenko's statements? What is the context for them and also why this discussion on a peace treaty? Yes, so the immediate context is obviously recent defense documents and the defense budget that Japan has unveiled last month, which actually expands the entire budget to about 2% of the national GDP or more than nearly 40% of the national budget by the end of 2027, a five-year plan of sorts. And this has been widely condemned not just by Russia, but also other neighbors of Japan, including China and South Korea for not only pushing for militarization, but also for, you know, adding and reinforcing its claims over disputed territories, which are yet to be settled with countries like South Korea and also Russia. Now, this is where we need to talk also about peace treaty. So Russia and Japan had declared cessation of state of war in 1956 with a joint agreement. And with that, they had begun a peace talks for peace treaty, negotiation for peace treaty that has yet to, you know, come to a conclusion. And this is important because we are also talking about territory, not only territory in disputes, but also about crimes committed by Japan and how the Soviet Union then and its successor now, Russia, considers these, you know, historical events or, you know, historical crimes that Japan had committed in the region itself. And so in that, the biggest blockade has been the Kuril Islands or the southern Kuril Islands, very specifically, with Japan claims as its northern territories. And that has always been the biggest contention. Obviously, the dispute is more than a century old. But obviously, Japan right now reinforcing its claims on these islands, along with other disputed territories in the region, shows that there is a certain tendency within the Japanese government right now that is not looking for negotiations. And that and while the peace treaty itself, the talks for the peace treaty kind of has been in limbo since last year in March, when Japan imposed sanctions on Russia. The fact that Russia is now saying that it is impossible to even have any kind of talks right now shows that there is it has reached a point of no return at this point, where Japanese and the Russian delegates cannot come together, sit and talk and resolve these issues, these are outstanding issues between the two countries. Right, Anish. Anish is actually a very surprising development. The last few months have seen a fair number of like exchanges between the two countries. Can you just give us an idea of how this could pan out perhaps in the future and the immediate future? Well, obviously, the immediate future or like what is happening even right now, we are looking at realignment or alignment, so to say, of certain forces, kind of like drawing out the battle lines in many ways. Because along with the statement that Rudenko made about, you know, impossibility of not having any kind of peace treaty with Japan, it also goes along with another statement that he made, which is the reinforcing of Russian recognition of Chinese China's, you know, the one China policy, but also Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. Now, obviously, we have also talked about this multiple times, but Russia is one of those countries that along with more than 190 countries around the world that actually recognize Chinese sovereignty, at least on paper on Taiwan. This makes it, you know, this comes at a time when anti-China aggression is now at its zenith right now with Japan and South Korea lining up along with Taiwan and the United States to go against China in many ways. And that is obviously this shows that there is sort of like a sort of battle line, if diplomatic battle lines at least being drawn up between two forces right now. And so, obviously, that is one part of the issue. The other factor is the, you know, any kind of tensions between Russia or any kind of tensions that could include Russia can only have problems in the near future, because obviously, bringing up the whole Correlations dispute can become a bigger problem. We are talking about a dispute that should have been settled decades ago, decades, more than three quarters of a century ago, actually. But this is not something that the Russian and Japanese governments right now need another dispute in a region that is not known for an armed conflict in the law, you know, since the Second World War. So, definitely, we need to be more concerned about these developments where a spouser European or a Eurasian, another Eurasian power is being dragged into a dispute where the United States is trying to make hay out of the situation right now. So, obviously, these factors will collide over the next couple of months, maybe over the year, over this year, we can actually see bigger tensions, more provocations from all sides. And that is only a more concerning part of this, because we're talking about some of the biggest armies and economies in the world right now being in tensions with each other. And that is not a good news for anybody. Right, Anisha, and thanks a lot for joining us. And that's all we have for you today. Thank you for watching Daily Brief. Do come back to us tomorrow for more such stories, visit our website, peoplesdispatch.org and you can look up our regular updates on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.