A top general and allied members of the military tried to storm the presidential palace in Bolivia on Wednesday afternoon before quickly retreating in an apparently failed coup attempt.
Hours later, the general was taken into custody on live television.
Video on Bolivian television showed security forces in riot gear occupying the central square of the administrative capital La Paz, a camouflaged military vehicle banging on the palace door and soldiers trying to enter the palace.
Then, just as quickly as they appeared, General Juan José Zúñiga disappeared and his backers in the armed forces withdrew and were replaced by police who supported the country’s democratically elected president, Luis Arce.
Mr Arce took to the square after calling on Bolivians to “organise and mobilize against the coup and in favor of democracy”.
“Long live the people of Bolivia!” he shouted at a television address. “Long live democracy!”
In all, the attempted afternoon invasion of the palace lasted just three hours. As time passed, it became clear that General Zuñiga’s plan had little support.
Shortly before his arrest, General Zuñiga claimed, without providing evidence, that Mr. Arce had asked him to organize the coup attempt.
“The president told me,” Mr. Zuñiga said as TV cameras rolled, “the situation is really confusing, this week will be critical — so it is necessary to prepare something that will increase my popularity.”
Moments later, the police pulled the general away in a white police van.
A spokesman for Mr. Arce’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The attorney general’s office announced Wednesday afternoon that it had opened an investigation into General Zuñiga “and all other participants” in the day’s events, adding that it would seek “the maximum punishment” for those responsible.
Local news agencies previously reported that General Zuñiga was fired from his post this week, which some in the country believe is related to comments he made about former President Evo Morales, Mr Arce’s mentor.
The coup attempt came at a tense time for Bolivia, a South American landmass of 12 million people. Mr Arce, a leftist and the chosen successor to Mr Morales – the country’s first indigenous president and a towering figure in Bolivian politics – is fighting with Mr Morales over control of their party and who will be his running mate. in a race in 2025.
Bolivia’s economy is struggling and Mr. Arce has been accused of moves that his critics call undemocratic, including the detention of opposition figure Luis Fernando Camacho and former president Jeanine Áñez.
During the attempt to seize the palace, General Zuñiga briefly entered the building, according to local journalists, before coming out and giving a speech surrounded by masked members of the security forces. He criticized Mr Arce’s government and said the army was trying to install “a true democracy, not one for the few”.
He also called for the release of several imprisoned politicians and members of the military, including Ms Áñez and Mr Camacho.
“Enough of the power of the few,” said the general. “Look where that got us! Our children have no future, our people have no future and the army has the balls to fight for the future of our children.”
Shortly after, Mr. Arce confirmed that he was replacing General Zuñiga, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as well as the chiefs of the air force and navy.
In a televised statement, the new commanding general, Jose Wilson Sanchez Velazquez, urged General Zuñiga “not to spill the blood of our soldiers.”
The military’s initial move into the palace was immediately criticized by some leaders in the region, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. “Coups have never worked,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has long expressed admiration for Mr Arce and Mr Morales, also condemned the coup attempt, calling Mr Arce Bolivia’s “authentic democratic authority”.
Under López Obrador’s administration, Mexico first granted a landing spot and asylum to Mr Morales after he resigned in 2019 amid violent protests sparked by disputed elections.
Bolivia is no stranger to political turmoil. The deeply polarized country has had 190 coups in its 200-year history. And much of the military’s displeasure, analysts say, stems from a sense that they end up standing up for the established order, only to be punished politically or in prison for following that mandate once a new government takes over.
However, Carlos Saavedra, a Bolivian political analyst, said he saw little support in the country for this short-lived invasion, calling it “the adventure of a small group of soldiers”.
“There is no mobilization in any other part of the country,” he said. “It seems that it was Zúñiga’s intimate group that wanted to attach itself to the army general’s command.”
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed to the report.
