La Paz, Bolivia– The man behind the coup attempt that has shaken Bolivia remains a mystery for much of the country.
Little known before storming the Bolivian presidential palace followed by tanks and armored vehicles. Juan José Zúñiga He served as commanding general of the country’s armed forces from 2022 until his dramatic dismissal and arrest on Wednesday. Zúñiga, a career military man, owes his position to the same president he tried to overthrow in his coup attempt.
President Luis Arce promoted Zúñiga to general and then tapped him as army chief two years ago, elevating the low-ranking, mediocre intelligence official who had scored in the lowest mental categories of his entrance tests to the highest ranks. top of the army. The abrupt promotion infuriated military officials and baffled analysts, who interpreted Arce’s move as a reward for the general’s loyalty.
Even when Arce reshuffled other senior military officials, most recently in January, Zúñiga remained in his position.
“Zúñiga was Arce’s man,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a research group based in Bolivia. “He’s not a brain… he’s rather dumb, but he’s perceived as completely loyal to Arce.”
Wednesday was not the first time that Zúñiga has found himself at the center of controversy. In 2013, the general faced a storm of accusations that he embezzled the equivalent of nearly $400,000 in Army funds intended to support children and seniors. The military sent him to prison for seven days for embezzling money and traveling abroad without permission.
Zúñiga denied any wrongdoing and explained that the sanction was the result of an internal, not criminal, military investigation that concluded that he had failed to control his subordinates.
“He is a military man but without the capacity to lead the armed forces,” said retired army officer and security analyst Jorge Santiesteban, describing Zúñiga’s appointment as “irregular.”
Despite his flaws, Zúñiga is strategic and well connected, Santiesteban said. Bolivian media reported that he forged close contacts with the country’s powerful unions. He has personal ties to President Arce: A recent photograph circulating on social media shows the two men as basketball teammates, drenched in sweat and smiling on the court.
His ties with former Bolivian president Evo Morales have been much more strained. When Arce elevated Zúñiga to army chief, Morales intervened, bringing up old allegations of embezzlement and accusing the general of conspiring with other intelligence officials to surveil and “persecute” him and other politicians and activists.
Now that Morales is back in the national spotlight, vying with Arce for control of Bolivia’s ruling party, the leftist icon has revived his condemnations of Zúñiga in recent weeks, saying the general is determined to destroy him.
Zúñiga responded to Morales’ accusations in a television interview on Monday, threatening to arrest Morales if he ran against Arce in the long-awaited 2025 elections.
“The military must enforce the constitution,” Zúñiga said, referring to a court order last fall that barred Morales from running for an unconstitutional third term.
Morales’ presidential candidacy has sparked an unprecedented rift with his former ally, Arce, who, like Zúñiga, has denied the legitimacy of his campaign.
But a long-standing rule prevents Bolivian military officers from intervening in domestic politics, and Zúñiga’s threats provoked an immediate reaction. Morales responded that such comments from a military officer “never occurred in a democracy.”
It was then that Arce summoned Zúñiga to teach him a lesson in a private meeting, according to Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo. Less than 12 hours later, Zúñiga’s forces invaded the Arce presidential palace.
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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
