An aborted attempt at a military coup confronted Bolivian President Luis Arce on Thursday in La Paz with his worst crisis since taking office in 2020, in an already incendiary context: a country strangled by rising prices and shortages of liquidity.
The institutional storm lasted only a few hours, but enough to reveal the flaws of a country in serious economic decline, plunged into a succession battle at the highest level with the 2025 presidential election in focus.
The motivations of army chief Juan José Zuniga, who had stationed men and armoured vehicles in Murillo Square, opposite parliament and the presidential palace, remain unclear.
Before his arrest by the police, and then that of the head of the Navy Juan Arnez Salvador – both men are being prosecuted for “armed uprising and terrorism” and face up to 20 years in prison – General Zuniga had stated that he wanted to “restructure democracy, to make it a real democracy (…) Not that of a few, not that of a few masters who have ruled the country for 30 or 40 years.”
He also told journalists that he had acted on the orders of the head of state, who had asked him on Sunday to “stage something to increase his popularity” in the midst of a “messy” situation in the country, without giving further details.
President Arce, demoting General Zuniga and swearing in a new command of the armed forces on Wednesday, affirmed on the contrary that it is an “attempted coup d’état by soldiers who soil the uniform.”
His Minister of Government (Interior), Eduardo Del Castillo, castigated “two putschist soldiers who wanted to destroy democracy”.
– “It’s an order” –
There remain strong images. That of a door to the presidential palace being forced by an armored vehicle and the entry into the crowd of General Zuniga, the securing of the square and the firing of tear gas by the soldiers leaving eight injured, and the images of the conversation between MM. Arce and Zuniga, distributed by the presidency.
“I am your captain (…) bring all the military police back to their barracks (…) withdraw all these forces now. This is a general order, you are not going to listen to me?”, then reprimands the President Arce.
The general looks at him and responds with a categorical “no”.
After the withdrawal of the military from Murillo Square, President Arce appeared on the balcony of the presidential palace to greet the crowd that had gathered. “No one can take away the democracy we have won,” he chanted.
Later in the evening on X he said he was ready to “defend democracy and the will of the Bolivian people, whatever the cost” and thanked the countries “that condemned and spoke out in favor of Bolivian democracy in the face of the attempted coup against our government.”
Condemnations of General Zuniga’s actions have poured in from Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Russia and Spain, which have called for respect for democracy.
Also condemning, the United States said Thursday that “the events (…) clearly show that democracy remains fragile in our hemisphere.”
France called for “respect for constitutional order”.
– Economic crisis and political quarrels –
But for Gustavo Flores-Macias, of Cornell University in the United States, “the fact that the coup failed does not mean that the situation in Bolivia is resolved, on the contrary: it was a symptom of a very significant discontent which exists in large sectors”.
Because this episode occurs in a context of strong economic turbulence caused by the fall in income due to low gas production, its main source of foreign currency until 2023, a surge in prices and a scarcity of dollars causing the anger of traders of all kinds, while a fuel shortage stretches queues in front of service stations.
And above all in the background is the conflict between Mr. Arce and his political mentor, former president Evo Morales (2006-2019), both eager to run on behalf of the ruling party, the Movement Towards Socialism ( MAS), in the 2025 presidential election.
General Zuniga had expressed his firm opposition to a possible return to power of Mr. Morales, the first president of indigenous origin in Latin America who enjoys strong support throughout the country but who according to a decision of the Constitutional Court cannot compete.
