LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Supporters of Bolivia’s president rallied outside his palace on Thursday, giving the embattled leader some political breathing space as authorities made more arrests in a failed coup attempt that has shaken the country. economically troubled country 1 day ago.
The Bolivian government said 17 people had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in an attempted takeover of the government, including army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga and former navy deputy chief Juan Arnaiz Salvador, who were detained the day before.
The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock and bewilderment on Wednesday as military forces appeared to turn against the government of President Luis Arce, taking control of the capital’s main square with armored vehicles and repeatedly firing a small tank into the palace. Presidential Council fired tear gas at the demonstrators.
Cabinet member Eduardo del Castillo did not provide details about the other 15 people arrested, other than to identify one civilian, Aníbal Aguilar Gómez, as a key “ideologist” of the foiled coup. He added that the alleged plotters began plotting in May.
Riot police guarded the palace doors, and Arce – who is struggling to manage the country’s foreign currency and fuel shortages – appeared on the presidential balcony while his supporters took to the streets, singing the national anthem and cheering as fireworks exploded overhead. “No one can take away democracy from us,” he shouted.
The Bolivians responded by chanting: “Lucho, you are not alone!” Lucho, a common nickname for Luis, also means “to fight” as a Spanish verb.
Shortly after the Bolivian government declared the brief attack on the presidential palace a coup attempt, army and navy leaders were arrested and presented as the top officers in Wednesday’s mutiny.
Analysts say the surge in popular support for Arsi, even if fleeting, provides him a respite from the country’s economic quagmire and political turmoil. The president is locked in a deep rivalry with popular former President Evo Morales, his former ally who has threatened to challenge Arce in 2025.
“The president’s administration has been very bad. There are no dollars and no gasoline,” said Paul Coca, a political analyst based in La Paz. “Yesterday’s military action will help his image a little, but it is not a solution.”
Some demonstrators gathered outside the police station where the former general was being held, chanting demands that he be sent to prison. Dora Quispe, 47, one of the demonstrators, said: “It is shameful what Zuniga did. We are in a democratic country, not a dictatorship.”
Before his arrest late Wednesday, Zuniga alleged without evidence that Arce ordered the general to carry out the coup attempt as a ploy to boost the president’s popularity. That has sparked speculation about what really happened. Opposition senators and government critics have joined the chorus, calling the rebellion a “self-inflicted coup” — a claim Arce’s government has vehemently denied.
Some Bolivians said they believed General Zuniga’s claims.
“They are playing with the intelligence of the people, because no one believes that what happened was a real coup,” said 48-year-old lawyer Evaristo Mamani.
Lawmakers and former officials, especially those allied with Morales, echoed these allegations. “This was a set-up,” said Carlos Romero, a former Morales government official. “Zuniga followed the script as he was instructed.”
Soon after the military maneuver began, it became clear that any attempt to seize power did not have meaningful political support. The uprising ended without bloodshed at the end of the working day. In an unusual scene, Arce violently quarreled with Zuniga and his allies face-to-face in the square outside the palace before returning inside to name a new army commander.
In a statement in Paraguay on Thursday, US Under Secretary of State for Management Rich Verma Zuniga condemned the killing, saying that “democracy remains fragile in our hemisphere.”
The short-lived rebellion came after months of escalating tensions between Arce and Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president. Morales has made a dramatic political comeback since mass protests and deadly crackdowns led him to resign and flee in 2019 — an army-backed overthrow that his supporters condemned as a coup.
Morales has pledged to run against Arce in 2025, a prospect that has rattled Arce, whose popularity has slumped as the country’s foreign exchange reserves have dwindled, its natural gas exports have fallen and its currency’s peg to the U.S. dollar has collapsed.
Morales’ allies in Congress have made it almost impossible for Arce to govern the country. The cash crisis has intensified pressure on Arce to eliminate food and fuel subsidies that have drained the country’s finances.
Defense Minister Edmundo Novello told reporters that Zuniga’s coup attempt had its roots in a special meeting on Tuesday in which he fired Arce Zuniga over the army chief’s threats on national television to arrest Morales if he joined the 2025 race.
Novello said Zuniga has given officials no indication that he is preparing to seize power.
“He admitted to committing some transgressions,” he said of Zuniga. “We said goodbye to him in a very friendly way, with hugs. He will always be by the president’s side,” he said of Zuniga.
Hours later, panic swept through the capital, La Paz. Followed by armored vehicles and supporters, Zuniga stormed the government headquarters, driving the Bolivians mad. Crowds swarmed ATM machines, lined up outside gas stations and looted grocery stores.
The country’s divided opposition rejected the coup even before it became clear it had failed. Former interim President Jeanine Anez, who is in custody for her role in Morales’ 2019 ouster, said the soldiers sought to “destroy the constitutional order,” but she urged both Arce and Morales not to run in the 2025 election.
In his speech after the palace storming, Zúñiga called for the release of political prisoners, including Áñez and powerful Santa Cruz Governor Luis Fernando Camacho, who is also being held on charges of orchestrating a coup in 2019.
Before his arrest, Zuniga told reporters that Arce directly asked him to storm the palace and bring armored vehicles to downtown La Paz.
“The president told me: The situation is very deteriorating and very critical, and it is necessary that I prepare to raise my popularity,” Zuniga added.
Even if proven false, the accusations of Arce’s involvement have sparked confusion and threatened further chaos.
“Was it just a media spectacle put on by the government itself, as General Zúñiga says? Was it just military madness? Was it just another example of the lack of control?” Camacho wrote on the social media platform X.
Bolivian officials insisted that the general was lying to justify his actions. Prosecutors said they would seek a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years for Zuniga on charges of “attacking the Constitution.”
Political experts and Bolivians alike have struggled to understand Wednesday’s unrest.
“This is the most bizarre coup attempt I have ever seen,” said Catherine Ledebour, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based research group. “Democracy in Bolivia is still very fragile, and it is certainly more fragile today than it was yesterday.”
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De Bree reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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