Two Bolivian army leaders have been arrested after soldiers and tanks took up position in front of government buildings on Wednesday in what President Luis Arce called an attempted coup.
The troops and tanks entered Plaza Murillo, a historic square where the presidency and Congress are situated, in the afternoon, prompting global condemnation of an attack on democracy.
One of the tanks tried to break down a metal door of the presidential palace.
Surrounded by soldiers and eight tanks, the now-dismissed army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga said the “armed forces intend to restructure democracy, to make it a true democracy and not one run by the same few people for 30, 40 years”.
Shortly thereafter, AFP reporters saw soldiers and tanks pulling back from the square. The uprising lasted about five hours.
Later Wednesday, Zuniga was captured and forced into a police car as he addressed reporters outside a military barracks, footage on state television showed. “General, you are under arrest,” Deputy Interior Minister Jhonny Aguilera told Zuniga.
“No one can take away the democracy we have won,” Arce said from a balcony of the government palace in front of hundreds of supporters.
A second senior military officer Juan Arnez Salvador, who was head of the Bolivian navy, was also arrested on Wednesday night.
Salvador’s arrest was announced by Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo, who said that Zuniga and Arnez are “two military coup leaders who tried to destroy democracy and the institutionality of our country and failed.”—AFP
Earlier Arce had urged “the Bolivian people to organise and mobilise against the coup d’etat in favour of democracy”, in a televised message to the country alongside his ministers inside the presidential palace.
He fired Zuniga and Salvador and swore in a new set of military leaders.
Right before he was arrested, Zuniga told reporters that it was actually the president who told him to stage an uprising, thus triggering a crackdown that would make him look strong and boost his sagging approval rating.
At a meeting Sunday, the general said, Zuniga asked Arce “So we bring out armored vehicles?” He said the president answered, “Bring them out.”
Arce’s instructions were to “stage something to raise his popularity”, the general said.
Former president Evo Morales wrote on X that “a coup d’etat is brewing” and also urged a “national mobilisation to defend democracy”.—AFP
