A top general and allied members of the military tried to storm the presidential palace in Bolivia Wednesday, before quickly retreating in an apparently failed attempt at a coup. Hours later, the general was taken into custody on live TV. Video on Bolivian TV showed security forces in riot gear occupying the main square in the administrative capital, La Paz, a camouflaged military vehicle ramming a palace door and soldiers trying to make their way into the building.Then, just as quickly as they had appeared, the general, Juan Jose Zuniga disappeared, and his supporters in the armed forces pulled back and were replaced by police officers supporting the country’s democratically elected president, Luis Arce. Arce ventured onto the plaza after calling on Bolivians “to organise and mobilise against the coup and in favour of democracy.” “Long live the Bolivian people!” he shouted in a televised address. “Long live democracy!”
In all, the attempted afternoon incursion into the palace lasted just three hours. As time wore on, it became clear that Zuniga’s plan had little support. Just before his arrest, Zuniga claimed, without providing evidence, that Arce had asked him to stage the coup attempt. “The prez told me,” Zuniga said as TV cameras rolled, “‘the situation is really messed up, this week is going to be critical – so it’s necessary to prepare something that will raise my popularity’.” Moments later, the police whisked the general away in a truck. Afterward, a key minister in Arce’s govt, Eduardo del Castillo, responded to the accusation by saying that Zuniga had “lost all credibility.” Del Castillo added that nine people had suffered firearm injuries amid the chaos.
The office of Bolivia’s attorney general said it had opened an investigation, adding that it would seek “the maximum punishment” for those responsible. Local news outlets previously reported that Zuniga was dismissed from his position this week, which some believed to be related to remarks he made about ex-prez Evo Morales, a mentor of Arce.
The coup bid came at a tense moment for Bolivia, a landlocked nation of 12 million people in South America. Bolivia’s economy is struggling, and Arce has been accused of moves his critics call undemocratic, including the detention of opposition figure Luis Fernando Camacho and ex-prez Jeanine Anez ahead of 2025 elections.
Bolivia, a deeply polarised country, has had 190 coups throughout its 200 years of history. And much of the discontent among members of the military, analysts say, stems from the feeling that they end up defending the established order, only to be punished politically, or with jail time, for standing by that order once a new govt takes over.
In all, the attempted afternoon incursion into the palace lasted just three hours. As time wore on, it became clear that Zuniga’s plan had little support. Just before his arrest, Zuniga claimed, without providing evidence, that Arce had asked him to stage the coup attempt. “The prez told me,” Zuniga said as TV cameras rolled, “‘the situation is really messed up, this week is going to be critical – so it’s necessary to prepare something that will raise my popularity’.” Moments later, the police whisked the general away in a truck. Afterward, a key minister in Arce’s govt, Eduardo del Castillo, responded to the accusation by saying that Zuniga had “lost all credibility.” Del Castillo added that nine people had suffered firearm injuries amid the chaos.
The office of Bolivia’s attorney general said it had opened an investigation, adding that it would seek “the maximum punishment” for those responsible. Local news outlets previously reported that Zuniga was dismissed from his position this week, which some believed to be related to remarks he made about ex-prez Evo Morales, a mentor of Arce.
The coup bid came at a tense moment for Bolivia, a landlocked nation of 12 million people in South America. Bolivia’s economy is struggling, and Arce has been accused of moves his critics call undemocratic, including the detention of opposition figure Luis Fernando Camacho and ex-prez Jeanine Anez ahead of 2025 elections.
Bolivia, a deeply polarised country, has had 190 coups throughout its 200 years of history. And much of the discontent among members of the military, analysts say, stems from the feeling that they end up defending the established order, only to be punished politically, or with jail time, for standing by that order once a new govt takes over.
