Bolivian authorities paraded handcuffed detainees in front of the media on Thursday, announcing 17 arrests in the wake of the failed coup in a country gripped by a serious economic crisis.
The institutional storm lasted only a few hours, but enough to reveal the country’s fragilities as appetites sharpened in view of the 2025 presidential election.
The motivations of army chief Juan José Zuniga, who had installed men and armored vehicles in Murillo Square, opposite the 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 said 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 claimed to have acted on the orders of the head of state who asked him to “stage something to increase his popularity”.
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 military coup plotters who wanted to destroy democracy”.
On Thursday, he presented to the media 15 other people arrested, handcuffed, surrounded by police. “This operation had been planned since May,” he said, adding that three other suspects were being sought.
According to Mr. del Castillo, the plan to overthrow Mr. Arce “was led” by Mr. Zuniga and Mr. Arnez.”
The United Nations on Thursday called for “a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations of violence.”
– “It’s an order” –
Although the institutional order has only slightly wavered, strong images remain. 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.
Condemnations of General Zuniga’s actions have poured in from all South American countries, as well as from Spain, France and the United States.
Russia, which had received Mr. Arce, a rare visit by a foreign head of state to the country since the outbreak of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022, stressed on Thursday its “solidarity with Bolivia, a brother country and a reliable and strategic partner”, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, warned against any foreign “interference” in Bolivia’s internal affairs.
– 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, who enjoys strong support throughout the country but who according to a decision of the Constitutional Court cannot compete.
