A senior Bolivian general who attempted a coup was arrested and paraded before news cameras in handcuffs as the nation’s president urged his citizens to rise up against any further attempts to topple the government.
Forces led by army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga stormed the palace of President Luis Arce yesterday as they vowed to ‘restore democracy’ and rammed the presidential doors with armoured vehicles.
But the president pledged to stand firm and named a new army commander who immediately ordered the troops to stand down.
Receiving new orders, the soldiers soon pulled back along with their military vehicles and ended the rebellion after just three hours.
Meanwhile, security teams descended on the palace and arrested Zuniga, who was confronted directly by the president in a grand hallway in a moment that was captured by Bolivian cameras.
‘I am your captain, and I order you to withdraw your soldiers, and I will not allow this insubordination,’ the president declared.
Hundreds of Arce’s supporters rushed the square outside the palace, waving Bolivian flags, singing the national anthem and cheering as the coup attempt was brought to an end.
Bolivian General Juan Jose Zuniga is presented following his arrest by the authorities for a coup attempt in La Paz, Bolivia June 26, 2024
Dismissed Bolivian Army general commander Juan Jose Zuniga is presented at the premises of the Special Force Against Crime after his arrest for being part of a military takeover against the government
General Juan Jose Zuniga was arrested after the coup attempt and paraded in front of press
Bolivian President Luis Arce addresses crowd amid coup attempt in La Paz, Bolivia on June 26, 2024
Bolivian President Luis Arce (2nd L) waves a Bolivian flag at the balcony of the Government Palace in La Paz on June 26, 2024
Bolivian President Luis Arce addresses crowd amid coup attempt in La Paz, Bolivia on June 26, 2024
Demonstrators set a fire in the streets amid clashes with the military police at Plaza Murillo on June 26, 2024 in La Paz, Bolivia
Demonstrators face members of Bolivia’s military as Bolivia’s President Luis Arce ‘denounced the irregular mobilisation’ of some units of the country’s army in La Paz, Bolivia, June 26, 2024
Following Zuniga’s arrest, Arce made a defiant and impassioned speech to the nation.
Surrounded by ministers, president Arce motioned towards TV cameras and declared: ‘Here we are, standing firm in Casa Grande, to confront any coup attempt.
‘We need the Bolivian people to organise. We cannot allow, once again, coup attempts to take the lives of Bolivians.’
Less than an hour later, Arce announced new heads of the army, navy and air force amid the roar of supporters, and thanked the country’s police and regional allies for standing by him.
He said the troops who rose against him were ‘staining the uniform’ of the military.
‘I order all that are mobilised to return to their units,’ said the newly named army chief Jose Wilson Sanchez. ‘No one wants the images we’re seeing in the streets.’
Shortly after, the armoured vehicles drove out of the plaza, tailed by hundreds of military fighters as police in riot gear set up blockades outside the government palace.
The apparent coup attempt came after the nation of 12 million people faced months of tensions between Arce and his one-time ally, former leftist president Evo Morales, over control of the ruling party.
It also came amid a severe economic crisis.
The clashes have paralysed the government’s efforts to deal with the economic crisis.
Morales’s allies in Congress have consistently thwarted Arce’s attempts to take on debt to relieve some of the pressure.
Zuniga referenced that paralysis during the rebellion, telling reporters the military was tired of the infighting and was seeking ‘to restore democracy’.
‘We are listening to the cry of the people because for many years an elite has taken control of the country,’ he said, adding that politicians are ‘destroying the country: look at what situation we are in, what crisis they have left us in.
‘The armed forces intend to restore the democracy, to make it a true democracy.’
Bolivian authorities arrest a Former Army Commander General Juan Jose Zuniga
Bolivian Vice Admiral Juan Arnes Salvador is presented following his arrest by the authorities for a coup attempt in La Paz, Bolivia June 26, 2024
Military police line up in front of supporters of Bolivian President Luis Arce during a protest against military personnel trying to enter the government headquarters in La Paz, Bolivia, 26 June 2024
People help a man stunned by a flash grenade thrown by military police during a coup attempt against the government of Bolivian President Luis Arce by military units led by General Juan Jose Zuniga, in La Paz, Bolivia June 26, 2024
Armored vehicles rammed into the doors of Bolivia’s government palace Wednesday as a top government official warned of an attempted coup
Military police line up during the coup attempt on Wednesday
A soldier gestures for journalists to leave Plaza Murillo as soldiers gather outside the presidential palace in Plaza Murillo
The crisis began in the early afternoon as the streets of La Paz started filling with soldiers.
Arce tweeted that the troop deployment was irregular and soon he and other political figures warned of an attempted coup.
The apparent attempt to depose the sitting president seemed to lack any meaningful support, and even Arce’s rivals closed ranks to defend democracy and reject the uprising.
In a twist, Zuniga claimed in comments to journalists before his arrest that Arce himself had told the general to storm the palace in a political move.
‘The president told me, ”the situation is very screwed up, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity”,’ the general said.
Justice minister Ivan Lima denied Zuniga’s claims, saying the general was lying and trying to justify his actions, adding that he will face justice.
Prosecutors will seek the maximum sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison for Zuniga, Lima said, ‘for having attacked democracy and the Constitution’.
The country’s President Luis Arce said an ‘irregular’ deployment of troops was taking place in the capital La Paz as dramatic scenes emerged from the streets
A woman walks away from tear gas fired by military troops outside the Quemado Palace during the attempted coup
A soldier in a gas mask drives an armored vehicle towards the door of the presidential palace
Soldiers block the street in front of the presidential palace, right, and the Legislative Assembly, left, in Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Military Police stand amid tear gas they fired outside the presidential palace in Plaza Murillo
Government minister Eduardo del Castillo said former navy Vice Admiral Juan Arnez Salvador was also taken into custody.
‘What was this group’s goal? The goal was to overturn the democratically elected authority,’ del Castillo told journalists in announcing the arrests.
Late on Wednesday, defence minister Edmundo Novillo said ‘everything is now under control’, adding that Bolivia had seen a ‘failed coup’.
Bolivia has seen intensifying protests in recent months over the economy’s decline from one of the continent’s fastest-growing two decades ago to one of its most crisis-stricken.
Arce and Morales have been battling for the future of Bolivia’s splintering Movement for Socialism ahead of elections in 2025.
Bolivia has suffered more coup attempts than any other country since 1950 – though the most recent attempt prior to yesterday’s incident came in 1984.
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