The authorities of Bolivia confirmed in the last few hours that they are already at least 17 arrested for the attempted coup d’état the day before, among them Juan Jose Zuniga -who led the uprising in the square- and Juan Arnez Salvador, former Navy commander, in addition to some civilians such as Aníbal Aguilar, a former vice minister in the 1980s who coordinated the drug crop eradication program. The figure was announced by the Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, and added that there is still an active search for three other soldiers on passive service.
In the morning, the Minister said that “There are a dozen soldiers detained for the coup attempt”something that was also replicated by the Ambassador to the OAS, Héctor Arce, although within a few hours the information had already been updated and the new captures had been added, arranged in an organizational chart that accompanied his words.
Del Castillo also assured that they are working together with the Prosecutor’s Office to identify the entire network that supported the episode in Plaza Murillo, in the center of La Paz, although the participation of the Air Force has already been ruled out. “We will stop this anti-democratic network, we will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice. It is time to get the coup plotters off the streets and put them behind bars”he promised.
It is still unknown who those arrested are although, according to the official, the first operations were activated in the “close environment” of the former Army General and he added that all of them face sentences of between 15 and 30 years in prison.
This Wednesday, around 3:00 p.m. local time, a group of soldiers gathered in the square in front of the Bolivian Executive headquarters and threatened to take control of the institution. With Zúñiga at the head, the group managed to break down the door of the building and entered the headquarters. From there, the former General targeted the Government – especially against Evo Moralesagainst whom he had been attacking in recent days – and said that “they want the Armed Forces to not exist, they want freedom in this country to do whatever they want (…) The Army is mobilized, in emergency, garrisoned… we respond to the cry of the people (…) Here are the Armed Forces for their people”.
Moments later, however, he withdrew and a few hours later the president Luis Arce He led the ceremony in which he formally removed him from office – after having done so verbally the night before, in a private meeting, which the affected person disregarded – and put an end to the revolt.
At night, police proceeded to arrest him and to initiate a case in the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate everything that happened. At the time of his arrest, the military man assured that Arce himself had requested the action because “this is a week that is going to be critical and it was necessary to prepare something to boost his popularity.” “The armored vehicles began to come down on Sunday night,” he added.
Later, authorities deprived another military leader, Juan Arnez Salvador, of his freedom, although the circumstances of his detention or his degree of participation were not specified. In any case, it was notified that both face charges for the crimes of terrorism and armed uprisings against the security and sovereignty of the State.
Although the investigation is still ongoing, it has been concluded that the coup attempt took just over three weeks of planning – since May – and therefore completely exceeded all the warnings that the Executive had received in the past. recently due to attempts at destabilization or “soft” blows. These actions, in turn, represented a serious failure by the officers to carry out the work of the institutions of which they are part, since “a soldier cannot deliberate on politics, he cannot deliberate on issues within the national territory,” Del concluded. Castle.
