Bolivian armed forces withdrew from the presidential palace in La Paz on Wednesday night and a general was arrested after President Luis Arce denounced an attempted “coup” against the government and called for international support.
Earlier that day, military units led by General Juan José Zúñiga, recently stripped of his military command, had gathered in the central Plaza Murillo, home of the presidential palace and Congress. TO Reuters A witness saw an armored vehicle crash into the gate of the presidential palace and soldiers ran inside.
“Today the country faces an attempted coup d'état. Today the country once again faces interests so that democracy in Bolivia is truncated,” Arce said in statements from the presidential palace, with armed soldiers outside.
“The Bolivian people are summoned today. We need the Bolivian people to organize and mobilize against the coup d'état in favor of democracy.”
A few hours later, a Reuters A witness saw the soldiers withdraw from the square and the police took control of the square. Bolivian authorities arrested Zúñiga and took him away, although his fate was unclear.
Inside the presidential palace, Arce swore in José Wilson Sánchez as military commander, Zúñiga's previous position. He called for calm and order to be restored.
“I order that all personnel mobilized on the streets return to their units,” Sánchez said. “We ask that the blood of our soldiers not be spilled.”
The United States said it was closely monitoring the situation and urged calm and restraint.
Tensions have been rising in Bolivia ahead of the 2025 general election, with leftist former president Evo Morales planning to run against his former ally Arce, creating a major rift in the ruling socialist party and wider political uncertainty.
Many do not want the return of Morales, who governed from 2006 to 2019, when he was overthrown amid widespread protests and replaced by an interim conservative government. Arce won the elections in 2020.
Zúñiga recently said that Morales should not be allowed to return as president and threatened to block him if he tried, prompting Arce to remove Zúñiga from office.
Before the attack on the presidential palace, Zúñiga addressed reporters in the square and cited growing anger in the landlocked country, which has been battling an economic crisis with depleted central bank reserves and pressure on the Bolivian currency as Gas exports have dried up.
“The three heads of the armed forces have come to express our dismay,” Zúñiga told a local television station, calling for a new cabinet of ministers.
“Stop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army,” he said, dressed in uniform and flanked by soldiers, insisting that the action being taken had public support.
Zúñiga told reporters later Wednesday that Arce had asked him on Sunday to “pose something” to increase his popularity, without offering evidence.
Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo later said that Zúñiga was seeking to gain popular support and that the nine people injured in the attempt showed that “this was not a drill.”
'Strongest condemnation'
Morales, leader of the ruling socialist MAS party, said his followers would rally in support of democracy.
“We will not allow the Armed Forces to violate democracy and intimidate the people,” Morales said.
Bolivia's prosecutor's office said it would launch a criminal investigation against Zúñiga and others involved in the coup attempt.
Public support for Arce and Bolivia's democracy has come from regional leaders and elsewhere.
“We express the strongest condemnation of the attempted coup d'état in Bolivia. Our total support and support for President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora,” said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in X.
Even conservative political opponents of the Bolivian government condemned the military action, including former president Jeanine Áñez, who was imprisoned in 2022 amid political turmoil.
“I categorically reject the mobilization of the military in Plaza Murillo trying to destroy the constitutional order,” he wrote in X. “The MAS with Arce and Evo must leave through the 2025 elections. We Bolivians will defend democracy.”
