Bolivian soldiers storm plaza; former general accused of coup attempt

LA PAZ, Bolivia – Bolivian soldiers filled the main plaza in La Paz and an armored vehicle breached a government palace on Wednesday afternoon before withdrawing in what government officials warned was a coup attempt by elements of the military.

“Today the country faces, once again, interests in toppling Bolivian democracy,” President Luis Arce, surrounded by his cabinet, said in a video statement. He said his government would stand “firm” against any coup attempt and called on the Bolivian people to mobilize “in favor of democracy.”

News videos showed former Gen. Juan Jose Zuñiga, who was fired this week as commander of the Bolivian Army, entering the Palacio Quemado, confronting Arce face-to-face and rejecting the president’s order that he withdraw the troops.

As the chaos unfolded, Arce named new commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force, who ordered all personnel to return to their units. In less than two hours, they had retreated from the government palace.

Zuñiga was arrested as he left a military command center. He told reporters as he was detained that Arce had instructed him to “bring out the armored vehicles.”

Arce is expected to seek re-election next year.

“The president told me that the situation is messed up. This week will be critical,” Zuñiga said. “It is necessary to prepare something that will raise my popularity.”

Prosecutors said they were opening a criminal investigation against Zuñiga for alleged terrorism and engaging in an armed uprising.

With the plaza cleared of soldiers and armored vehicles, Arce addressed a cheering crowd from a balcony in Casa Grande, an annex to the government palace. Carrying a Bolivian flag, he thanked the Bolivian people, police and the members of the military who remained true to the constitution. He celebrated his government’s reaction in “pushing back this attempted coup.”

“We have remained here in Casa Grande, where you put us,” he told the crowd. “The only ones who can remove us from here are you.”

The crowd chanted their support, using Arce’s nickname: “Lucho is not alone!”

But Plaza Murillo began to divide between groups who back Arce and others who accuse him of a “self-coup.” “Lucho tricked us!” critics shouted. They accused him of staging a show of force in an effort to strengthen his position in a party now divided between him and his former boss, Evo Morales. Arce served as Morales’s finance minister when the leftist icon was president.

Arce has struggled to respond to an economic crisis and shortage of dollars in the country. Anger has grown over the rising cost of living.

Foreign leaders on both the left and right condemned the coup attempt. The U.S. National Security Council said officials were following events closely and urged calm.

Before the breach, Arce denounced the “irregular” troop movements in the plaza and said “democracy must be respected.” Heavily armed soldiers launched gas and pellets at the crowds, injuring at least one person.

Morales called for a national mobilization to “defend democracy against the coup d’état.”

Zuñiga was dismissed from his post on Tuesday after saying in televised remarks that Morales, Bolivia’s president from 2006 to 2019, could not be allowed to run for president again, Bolivian media reported.

Arce served in Morales’s cabinet before his election in 2020.

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Schmidt reported from Bogotá, Colombia. John Hudson in Washington and Ana Herrero in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.