Bolivian President Luis Arce has announced three new leaders for the country’s armed forces following the failed coup attempt, in which military forces used armored vehicles to storm the doors of the Bolivian government building and arrest an army general believed to be responsible.
News of the new leaders of the Army, Navy and Air Force was announced amid cheers from supporters.
“The country is facing an attempted coup. We stand firm in Casa Grande and will fight any coup attempt. We need the unity of the Bolivian people,” President Arce said in a video message.
Video footage showed troops setting up a blockade outside the government palace, and President Arce said the rebel troops were “desecrating the army’s uniform.”
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Bolivian President Luis Arce (Photo: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
“I am ordering all those who have been mobilized to return to their units,” said the newly appointed Army commander, Gen. Jose Wilson Sanchez. “We do not want to see the kind of scenes we see on our streets.”
Soon after, troops began to withdraw from the presidential palace.
Bolivian television footage showed Arce confronting Army Gen. Juan Jose Zuniga, a man recently removed from command of the military who is believed to be leading the rebellion, in a palace corridor. Zuniga was later arrested after the attorney general opened an investigation. Charges were not immediately clear.
Zúñiga said President Arce had asked him to storm the palace as a political move.
“The president told me: ‘The situation is very bad, very critical. I need to prepare something to increase my popularity,'” Zuniga told reporters.
Army commander Gen. Juan Jose Zuniga sits inside an armored vehicle at Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, on Wednesday after the vehicle rammed into the doors of Bolivia’s government building as President Luis Arce said the country was facing an attempted coup. (AP Photo/Juan Kalita)
Zuniga said he asked Arce if they should remove the armored vehicles, to which Arce replied, “Remove them.”
“I am your commander and I order my soldiers to withdraw. We will not tolerate this kind of insubordination,” he said.
Regarding X, Arce called for “respect for democracy.”
The United States is closely monitoring the situation and urged calm and restraint.
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LA PAZ, BOLIVIA – JUNE 26, 2024: Military police walk through tear gas outside the presidential palace at Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia. Bolivian President Luis Arce has warned of erratic movements of military forces and raised alarm over a possible coup. (Photo by Gaston Brito Miserocchi/Getty Images)
Bolivia, a country of 12 million people, has seen intensifying protests in recent months over a steep economic decline that has turned the country from one of the continent’s fastest-growing countries two decades ago into one of its most vulnerable.
Cracks are also visible at the highest levels of the ruling party, with Arce and his one-time ally, former president and leftist icon Morales, fighting over the future of the splintering Bolivian Socialist Movement (MAS), known by its Spanish acronym, ahead of 2025 elections.
The leadership of Bolivia’s largest trade union condemned the action and declared an indefinite strike of social and labor organizations in La Paz in defence of the government.
The incident sparked outrage from other regional leaders, including the Organization of American States, President Gabriel Boric of neighboring Chile, the leader of Honduras and a former leader of Bolivia.
La Paz, Bolivia, June 26, 2024: Supporters of Bolivian President Arce hold a pro-democracy rally near the government palace during the attempted coup. (Photo by Radoslav Czajkovski/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The continent’s most recent attempted coup occurred in December 2022, when Peruvian President Pedro Castillo was arrested on the same day he attempted to dissolve parliament, declare a state of emergency and amend the constitution. Castillo was ultimately impeached and removed from office.
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“Brazil’s position is clear: I love democracy and want it to prevail throughout Latin America. We condemn any form of coup in Bolivia and reaffirm our commitment to the people and democracy of our sister country,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
