General Juan José Zúñiga was arrested after occupying the area around the presidential palace with his men for several hours.
Before his arrest, the army chief, in a statement to the press, claimed that the armed forces were trying to “to restructure democracy, to make it a real democracy. Not that of a few, not that of a few masters who have been running the country for thirty or forty years.”
The left-wing president, Luis Arce, democratically elected in 2020, immediately reacted by calling for the mobilization of Bolivians to thwart this coup attempt.
“No one can take away the democracy we have won.”launched Luis Arce on the balcony of his palace, in front of his supporters gathered by the hundreds in Murillo Square to give him their support.
The Bolivian workers’ center described, for its part, the action of the military “of a terrorist and seditious act against national democracy” and decreed ” an immediate unlimited general strike.
Details on the failed coup in Bolivia
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Wave of convictions
In addition to General Juan José Zúñiga, several other officers, including the head of the Navy, Juan Arnez Salvador, were arrested.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the coup attempt. The United States said it was closely monitoring the situation and called for calm.
Spain has called for respect for democracy and the rule of law in Bolivia.
The leaders of Chile, Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil sent a similar message. Russia, which has very good relations with the Bolivian government, also condemned this attempted coup.
An attempt which takes place while the ruling party, the Movement towards Socialism, is deeply divided between the current head of state, Luis Arce, elected in 2020, and his predecessor, Evo Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019 and who intends to run for a new term in 2025, even though the Constitutional Court considers that he cannot do so.
The putschist soldiers had affirmed that they would arrest Evo Morales if he persisted in wanting to run again in the next presidential election.
This attempted military coup comes as Bolivia is also facing a serious economic and social crisis.
This Thursday afternoon, the Bolivian Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, affirmed that the leader of the putschists had admitted that he had not been able to “achieve the objectives of the uprising” because the reinforcements “were slow in arriving” .
