The commander of the Bolivian Army, Juan José Zúñiga, He lost his position on Tuesday after a series of threats against former President Evo Morales.
Zúñiga is a high-ranking military man, general commander in Boliviawho opposes Evo Morales’ candidacy in 2025. Due to his statements, he was removed from office, but decided to revolt against the Executive.
Coup d’état in Bolivia: who is Juan José Zuñiga
Juan José Zúñiga Macías He held the position of general commander of the Bolivian Army since 2022.
The commander said this Wednesday that the Armed Forces took Murillo Plaza in La Paz out of “annoyance” and asserted that a new Cabinet of ministers will be formed.
He noted that Luis Arce is president of Bolivia “for the moment.”
In statements to television on Monday, the military man had said that Morales “can no longer be president of this country.”
After 4:50 p.m. this Wednesday, Argentine time, Zúñiga and those accompanying him entered the Presidential Palace, in front of Plaza Murillo, in the center of La Paz.
“If necessary,” he had added, he would not allow “the Constitution to be trampled, to disobey the mandate of the people.”
In a high tone, he noted that the Armed Forces They are “the armed arm of the people, the armed arm of the country.”.
This Wednesday Zúñiga led an uprising in Plaza Murillo.
“We are going to recover this country”launched Colonel Zúñiga, in statements to the media from Murillo Square, after military troops took it, this Wednesday afternoon.
“Enough of impoverishing our country, enough of humiliating the military. “We have come to express our annoyance.”Zúñiga stated later.
What Evo Morales said
Former President Morales responded on X, formerly Twitter, that these “types of threats never occurred in democracy.” “If they are not disavowed by the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Minister of Defense, President and Captain General of the Armed Forces, it will be proven that what they are really authorizing is a self-coup,” he wrote.
The exchange is part of a long exchange of attacks between the former president and the current one, Luis Arce, once allies and today enemies. Arce has indicated in speeches before various state security forces, such as the presidential escort regiment and the Bolivian Police, that a “soft coup” is underway to shorten his mandate, of which he implicitly accuses Morales. “Behind apparently legitimate demands, there is actually a plan to shorten terms, which hides a greater danger: the destruction of the Plurinational State, of our productive community social economic model and of the dreams of Bolivian men and women,” said the president. , former Minister of Economy during the Morales Government.
Evo Morales was disqualified last year from participating in the 2025 elections by the Plurinational Constitutional Court.
According to the ruling, no Bolivian can be elected to the same public office more than twice in his or her life. In his statements, General Zúñiga confused this ruling with the Constitution itself: it only prohibits more than one continuous reelection and says nothing about discontinuous reelections.
“Mr. Morales has already been president for three, four terms, re, re, re-elected. “He is legally disqualified,” the soldier exploded before the cameras.
