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LA PAZ.- The government of Bolivia denounced this Wednesday a “coup” at the hands of military personnel led by the commander general of the Army, Juan José Zúñigathat They surrounded the central Plaza Murillo in La Paz for hours and advanced inside the Executive headquarters, the Burnt Palace. The crisis was quelled with the withdrawal of the rebel military, including Zúñiga, who was dismissed and detained.
The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, He called in a speech to end the “coup attempts” and urged all citizens to defend democracy. “We greet and express our most sincere gratitude to the social organizations and all the Bolivian people who They took to the streets expressing their rejection of the coup attempt”, he pointed. And he stressed that the Coup attempt “the only thing it does is damage the image of Bolivian democracy internationally and generate unnecessary uncertainty at a time when Bolivians need to work to move the country forward.” At the beginning of the crisis the successor of Evo Morales had denounced “irregular movements” of members of the Army in the vicinity of the presidential headquarters.
“We will respect the democracy won with the vote of the Bolivian people at the polls”said Arce, and rushed to name a new military leadership in an express ceremony, with Jose Sanchez Velasquez as the new commander of the Army.
“Mr. President: we are going to comply with what the norm says,” Sánchez said when taking the floor. “No one wants to see the images we are seeing now. “I order, I order, that all personnel who are on the streets must return to their units.”, he added.
Following the change of command, videos were seen showing soldiers and armored military vehicles that were in the square in front of the government headquarters leaving the area. Zúñiga left in a small tank, as he had arrived. The government activated an arrest warrant and an immigration alert against him, which culminated in the arrest of the rebel soldier, who said he had acted on the orders of President Arce to “raise his popularity.”
“The president told me: ‘The situation is very screwed, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity.’ I ask him: ‘Shall we take out the armored vehicles?’ He tells me: ‘Take out.’ Then, on Sunday night, the armored vehicles begin to descend: six Cascabeles, six Urutus, plus 14 Z of the Achacachi Regiment,” he manages to say before being taken away.
The security forces, on the other hand, reported that they detained the second military leader, the commander of the Navy, Juan Arnez Salvadoron whom the accusation by the prosecutor’s office weighs terrorism and armed uprising.
The Bolivian government minister, Eduardo del Castillo, stated that both Arnez and Zúñiga “are two military coup plotters who tried to destroy democracy and institutions and failed.” And he located both inside the military tank that tried to knock down the entrance doors to the Quemado Palace, seat of the government.
The crisis began to brew at noon when the former president Morales warned of a “quartering”. “For an hour now, division commanders have been instructing regiment commanders to immediately return to their barracks to await new dispositions (quartering). This raises many suspicions of the military movement in Bolivia,” he denounced.
Shortly after, tanks and military personnel were stationed around kilometer zero of the government headquarters, and Zúñiga was present aboard a tank and armed. “Zúñiga, you still have time,” the Government Minister shouted, Eduardo del Castillo, who came immediately to complain to the soldier for the mutiny.
the vice president David Choquehuanca He said minutes later that a coup was in progress. “We denounce before the international community that in Bolivia a coup d’état is taking place against our democratically elected government,” warned the number two in the government.
Troops responding to Zúñiga They then broke into the government building where President Arce himself was meeting with the entire cabinet. Live broadcast images showed an armored military vehicle forcing the main door of the building and the military leader entering the building accompanied by armed soldiers and with their faces covered.
Zúñiga commanded the attack after a statement in Plaza Murillo where he asked for the resignation of Arce and the entire government. Then the president himself confronted him at the government headquarters. “I am your captain and I order you to withdraw your soldiers and I will not allow this insubordination,” he threw at him. Minutes later, the soldier left the building.
“Look at what crisis they have left us in, the Armed Forces intend to structure democracy, to be a true democracy, not of a few. It is the immediate release of political prisoners. It cannot be that junior staff members are imprisoned for following an order. We are going to release all political prisoners,” Zúñiga said in relation to those detained due to the 2019 institutional crisis that led to Morales’ resignation. “We want to establish democracy,” he added.
The military mutiny was denounced almost simultaneously at the international level by the Bolivian ambassador to the OAS, Héctor Enrique Arce, who was informed of the incident in the middle of a session in Washington.
“We want to denounce that twenty minutes ago some units of the Armed Forces of the Army of the Plurinational State of Bolivia have broken into Plaza Murillo, headquarters of the Executive Branch of my country, we do not know their intentions, we do not know their desire, but it is ostensibly an act violent and unconstitutional. The commander of the Army would be behind this situation,” denounced the ambassador.
“We did not have coups d’état in Latin America more than 40 years ago, so I request that it be taken with due responsibility and seriousness by the OAS whose supreme goal must be democracy and the rule of law,” he added.
The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, also echoed the events. “The OAS condemns in the most forceful way the events in Bolivia. The Army must submit to the legitimately elected civil power. We send our solidarity to the president of #Bolivia Luis Arce Catacora, his Government and all the people,” he said in X.
According to local media, Commander Zúñiga had lost his position on Tuesday after a series of threats against Morales. In statements to television on Monday, the military man had said that Morales “can no longer be president of this country.” “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 are “the armed arm of the people, the armed arm of the country.”
Morales had accused Zúñiga of leading the Pachajcho military group, which supposedly executes a “black plan” against him. The last Sunday, The former president pointed out that he has videos and audios that show that the Army commander intends to eliminate him and his closest collaborators.
“This man He is a true mythomaniac, “He uses lies as a strategy to return to power,” Zúñiga replied on the television set. He then stated that the military would not allow Morales to return to power.
THE NATION
