IPeace, Bolivia (AP) — Armored vehicles pounded on the doors of Bolivia’s government palace on Wednesday as President Luis Arce said the country was facing a coup attempt, insisted he remained firm and urged people to mobilize .
In a video of Arce surrounded by ministers in the palace, he said: “The country is facing an attempted coup d’état. Here we are, firmly in Casa Grande, to face any coup attempt. We need the Bolivian people to organize.”
Arce confronted the general commander of the Army – Juan José Zúñiga, who appeared to be leading the rebellion – in the palace corridor, as shown in video on Bolivian television. “I am your captain and I order you to withdraw your soldiers and I will not allow this insubordination,” Arce said.
Before entering the government building, Zúñiga told journalists in the square: “Surely soon there will be a new Cabinet of Ministers; our country, our state cannot continue like this.” Zúñiga said that “for now” he recognizes Arce as commander in chief.
Zúñiga did not explicitly say he was leading a coup d’état, but in the palace, with booms echoing behind him, he said the army was trying to “restore democracy and free our political prisoners.”
In a message on his X account, Arce asked that “democracy be respected”. The news came as Bolivian television showed two tanks and several men in military uniform in front of the government palace.
“We cannot allow, once again, coup attempts that take the lives of Bolivians,” he said from inside the palace, surrounded by government representatives, in a video message sent to the media.
Former president Evo Morales, also in a message on X, denounced the military movement in Murillo square, in front of the palace, calling it a coup “in the making”.
María Nela Prada, Minister of the Presidency and high-ranking Bolivian official, called it an “attempted coup d’état”.
“The people are on alert to defend democracy,” she told local television station Red Uno.
The leadership of Bolivia’s largest union condemned what it called an attempted coup and declared an indefinite strike by social and labor organizations in La Paz in defense of the government.
The incident was met with a wave of outrage by other regional leaders, including the Organization of American States; Gabriel Boric, president of neighboring Chile; the leader of Honduras and former Bolivian leaders.
Bolivia, a country of 12 million people, has seen increasingly intense protests in recent months due to the economy’s precipitous decline, from one of the continent’s fastest-growing countries two decades ago to one of the hardest-hit countries. by the crisis.
The country has also seen a high-profile rupture at the highest levels of the ruling party. Arce and his former ally, leftist icon and former president Morales, have been fighting for the future of Bolivia’s fragmented Movement for Socialism, known by its Spanish acronym MAS, ahead of the 2025 elections.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
