La Paz, Bolivia– Armored vehicles crashed into the gates of Bolivia’s government palace on Wednesday as President Luis Arce said the country was facing a coup attempt, insisted he stood 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, firm in Casa Grande, to confront any coup attempt. “We need the Bolivian people to organize.”
Arce confronted Army Commander General Juan José Zúñiga, who appeared to lead the rebellion, in the palace hallway, as shown in a Bolivian television video. “I am his captain and I order him to withdraw his soldiers and I will not allow this insubordination,” Arce said.
Before entering the government building, Zúñiga told reporters in the square: “Surely there will soon 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, but in the palace, with explosions 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 called to “respect democracy.” It occurred while Bolivian television showed two tanks and several men in military uniforms in front of the government palace.
“We cannot allow, once again, coup attempts to take the lives of Bolivians,” he said from inside the palace, surrounded by government officials, in a video message sent to the media.
Former President Evo Morales, also in a message on
María Nela Prada, minister of the presidency and senior Bolivian official, described it as an “attempted coup d’état.”
“The people are on alert to defend democracy,” he told local television station Red Uno.
The leadership of Bolivia’s largest union condemned what it called an attempted coup d’état and declared an indefinite strike of social and labor organizations in La Paz in defense of the government.
The incident was met with a wave of outrage from 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 inhabitants, has seen protests intensify in recent months over the precipitous decline of its economy, which two decades ago went from being one of the fastest growing on the continent to one of the most affected by the crisis.
The country has also seen a high-profile rift 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 towards Socialism, known by its Spanish acronym MAS, ahead of the 2025 elections.
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