LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Armored vehicles slammed into the doors of Bolivia's government building on Wednesday in what appeared to be an attempted coup against President Luis Arce, who vowed to act decisively, appointed a new military commander and ordered the army to withdraw.
The soldiers then withdrew as supporters of President Arce cheered and waved Bolivian flags in the central square.
In a video clip of President Arce surrounded by his ministers at the palace, the Bolivian leader said: “We remain firm in Casa Grande and will fight any coup attempt. We need the unity of the Bolivian people.”
Military police gather outside the main entrance as an armored vehicle crashes into the doors of the presidential palace in Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (Photo by AP/Juan Calita)
Bolivian television footage showed Arce confronting Juan Jose Zuniga, the army commander believed to be leading the rebels, in a palace corridor. “I am your commander. I order my soldiers to withdraw. We will not tolerate this insubordination,” Arce said.
“A new cabinet will be formed soon. Our country, our country cannot continue like this,” Zúñiga told reporters in the plaza before entering the government building, but he said he recognised Arce as commander in chief “for now.”
FILE – Bolivian President Luis Arce takes part in an indigenous ceremony before delivering his annual state of the country address at the presidential palace in La Paz, Bolivia, Jan. 22, 2024. An armored vehicle crashes into the doors of the Bolivian government palace as government officials warn of an attempted coup, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)
President Zuniga did not explicitly say he was leading a coup but said at the palace, with explosions ringing out behind him, that the military were trying to “restoring democracy and releasing political prisoners”.
In a message to his X account, Arce called for “respect for democracy,” shortly after Bolivian television showed two tanks and several men in military uniforms in front of the government palace.
“We cannot tolerate another coup attempt to take the lives of Bolivian people,” the president said in a video message to media from inside the palace, surrounded by government officials.
An hour later, President Arce announced the new heads of the army, navy and air force to cheers from supporters, and video showed the military setting up a blockade outside the government palace.
“I am ordering all those who have been mobilized to return to their units,” said the new Army commander, Gen. Jose Wilson Sanchez. “Nobody wants what we are seeing on the streets.”
Soon after, troops and armored vehicles began to withdraw from Bolivia's presidential palace.
The leadership of Bolivia's largest trade union condemned the action and declared an indefinite strike of social and labor organizations in La Paz in defence of the government.
The incident sparked outrage from other regional leaders, including the Organization of American States, President Gabriel Boric of neighboring Chile, the leader of Honduras and a former leader of Bolivia.
Bolivia, a country of 12 million people, has seen intensifying protests in recent months over a steep economic decline that has turned the country from one of the continent's fastest-growing countries two decades ago into one of its most vulnerable.
Cracks are also stark at the highest levels of the ruling party, with Arce and his one-time ally, leftist icon and former president Evo Morales, fighting over the future of the splintering Bolivian Socialist Movement (MAS), known by its Spanish acronym, ahead of 2025 elections.
