Bolivia’s government on Thursday announced that a total of 17 people have been arrested over their alleged involvement in the attempted coup that shook the economically troubled country the day before.

The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock and bewilderment Wednesday as military forces appeared to turn on the government of President Luis Arce, seizing control of the capital’s main square with armoured vehicles, crashing a tank into the presidential palace and unleashing tear gas on protesters. In the following hours, the army general who led the attempted coup, Juan José Zúñiga, and an alleged co-conspirator, former navy Vice Adm. Juan Arnez Salvador, were both arrested and remain in custody.

Senior Cabinet member Eduardo del Castillo did not elaborate on the other 15 people who have been arrested. He said one was a civilian identified as Aníbal Aguilar Gómez, whom he called the “mastermind” of the thwarted coup.

Del Castillo said the government was pursuing more suspects and that the alleged conspirators began plotting in May.

Supporters of Bolivia’s president rallied outside his palace on Thursday, giving some political breathing room to the embattled leader as they chanted pro-democracy slogans.

Riot police guarded the palace doors and Arce — who has struggled to manage the country’s shortages of foreign currency and fuel — condemned Zúñiga.

Analysts say that the surge of public support for Arce, even if fleeting, provides him with a much-needed reprieve from the country’s economic quagmire and political turmoil. The president is locked in a deepening rivalry with the popular former President Evo Morales, his erstwhile ally who has threatened to challenge Arce in 2025 primaries.

“The president’s management has been very bad, there are no dollars, there is no petrol,” said La Paz-based political analyst Paul Coca. “Yesterday’s military move is going to help his image a bit, but it’s no solution.” Some protesters gathered outside the police station where the former army general was being detained, shouting that he should go to jail. “It’s a shame what Zúñiga did,” said 47-year-old Dora Quispe, one of the demonstrators. “We are in a democracy, not a dictatorship.” Before his arrest late Wednesday, Zúñiga alleged without providing evidence that Arce had ordered the general to carry out the coup attempt in a ruse to boost the president’s popularity. That fueled a frenzy of speculation about what really happened, and opposition senators and government critics echoed the accusations, calling the mutiny a “self-coup” — a claim strongly denied by Arce’s government.

In La Paz’s main Plaza Murillo, supporters addressed Arce, yelling “Lucho, you are not alone!” as fireworks exploded overhead. Lucho, a common nickname for Luis, also means “fight” in Spanish.

Some Bolivians said they believed Gen. Zúñiga’s allegations on national TV that the coup attempt was a hoax.

“They are playing with the intelligence of the people, because nobody believes that it was a real coup,” said 48-year-old lawyer Evaristo Mamani.

Lawmakers and former officials also bolstered the allegations. “This has been a setup,” said Carlos Romero, a former official in the Morales government. “Zúñiga followed the script as he was ordered.” Soon after the military action was underway, it became clear that any attempted takeover had no meaningful political support. The rebellion ended bloodlessly by the end of the business day. Arce named a new army commander, who immediately ordered troops to retreat.

“Here we are, firm, in the presidential palace, to confront any coup attempt,” Arce said after facing down Zúñiga. Hundreds of the president’s supporters surged into streets surrounding the palace Wednesday night, singing the national anthem and cheering for Arce.

Authorities swiftly arrested Zúñiga as his soldiers retreated from central La Paz.

The U.S. deputy secretary of state for management, Rich Verma, condemned Zuniga’s actions and speaking in Paraguay on Thursday noted that “democracy remains fragile in our hemisphere.” The short-lived mutiny followed months of mounting tensions between Arce and ex-President Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president. Morales has staged a dramatic political comeback since mass protests and a deadly crackdown prompted him to resign and flee in 2019 — a military-backed ouster that his supporters decry as a coup.

Morales has vowed to run against Arce in 2025 elections despite a constitutional court ruling that said he was ineligible because he had already served. The possibility of Morales running again has rattled Arce, whose popularity has plunged as the country’s foreign currency reserves dwindle, its natural gas exports plummet and its currency peg to the U.S. dollar collapses.

The cash crunch has ramped up pressure on Arce to scrap food and fuel subsidies that have put a strain on state finances, a combustible move ahead of elections.

Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo said Wednesday’s turmoil had its roots in a private meeting Tuesday in which Arce dismissed Zuñiga over the army chief’s threats to arrest Morales if he proceeded to join the 2025 race. Arce has also denied the legitimacy of Morales’ presidential bid.

In their meeting, Zuñiga gave officials no indication he was preparing to seize power, Novillo said.

“He admitted that he had committed some excesses,” he said of Zuñiga. “We said goodbye in the most friendly way, with hugs. Zuñiga said that he would always be at the side of the president.” Mere hours later, panic gripped the capital of La Paz. Tailed by armored vehicles and supporters, Zuñiga burst into government headquarters and declared the armed forces sought “to restore Bolivia’s democracy.” The influx of soldiers sent Bolivians into a frenzy, thronging ATMs, queuing outside gas stations and ransacking grocery stores. By one count, Bolivia has had more than 190 coup attempts and revolutions since its 1825 independence.

The country’s fragmented opposition rejected the coup before it was clear it had failed. Former interim President Jeanine Áñez, detained for her role in Morales’ 2019 ouster, said that soldiers sought to “destroy the constitutional order,” but appealed to both Arce and Morales not to run in the 2025 elections.

Santa Cruz Gov. Luis Fernando Camacho, also detained for allegedly orchestrating a coup in 2019, demanded answers from Arce’s government on Thursday.

“Was it a media spectacle put on by the government itself, as General Zúñiga says? Was it just some military madness? Was it simply another example of lack of control?” he wrote on social media platform X.

Zúñiga’s answer came as a shock, telling reporters that Arce had asked him directly to storm the palace and bring armored vehicles into downtown La Paz.

“The president told me: The situation is very screwed up, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity,’” Zúñiga alleged the Bolivian leader told him.

Bolivian officials have denied Zúñiga’s claims, insisting the general was lying to justify his actions. Prosecutors said they’d seek the maximum sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison for Zúñiga on charges of “attacking the constitution.” Political experts struggling to comprehend the reasons behind Wednesday’s turmoil.

“This is the weirdest coup attempt I have ever seen,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based research group. “Bolivia’s democracy remains very fragile, and definitely a great deal more fragile today than it was yesterday.” (AP) GSP

La Paz:

Bolivian authorities arrested General Juan Jose Zuniga on Wednesday afternoon, a Reuters witness saw, hours after troops stormed into the presidential palace amid a military coup attempt.

Bolivia’s government and international leaders denounced

Bolivian armed forces pulled back from the presidential palace in La Paz on Wednesday evening and a general was arrested after President Luis Arce slammed a “coup” attempt against the government and called for international support.

Earlier in the day, military units led by General Juan Jose Zuniga, recently stripped of his military command, had gathered in the central Plaza Murillo square, home to the presidential palace and Congress. A Reuters witness saw an armored vehicle ram a door of the presidential palace and soldiers rush in.

“Today the country is facing an attempted coup d’état. Today the country faces once again interests so that democracy in Bolivia is cut short,” Arce said in comments from the presidential palace, with armed soldiers outside.

“The Bolivian people are summoned today. We need the Bolivian people to organize and mobilize against the coup d’état in favor of democracy.”

A few hours later, a Reuters witness saw soldiers withdraw from the square and police take control of the plaza. Bolivian authorities arrested Zuniga and took him away, though their destination was unclear.

Inside the presidential palace, Arce swore in José Wilson Sanchez as the military commander, Zuniga’s former role. He called for calm and order to be restored.

“I order that all personnel mobilized on the streets return to their units,” Sanchez said. “We entreat that the blood of our soldiers not be spilled.”

The United States said it was closely monitoring the situation and urged calm and restraint.

Tensions have been building in Bolivia ahead of general elections in 2025, with leftist ex-President Evo Morales planning to run against former ally Arce, creating a major rift in the ruling socialist party and wider political uncertainty.

Many do not want a return of Morales, who governed from 2006-2019 when he was ousted amid widespread protests and replaced by an interim conservative government. Arce then won election in 2020.

Zuniga said recently that Morales should not be able to return as president and threatened to block him if he attempted to, which led Arce to remove Zuniga from his post.

Ahead of the attack on the presidential palace, Zuniga had addressed reporters in the square and cited growing anger in the landlocked country, which has been battling an economic slump with depleted central bank reserves and pressure on the boliviano currency as gas exports have dried up.

“The three chiefs of the armed forces have come to express our dismay,” Zuniga told a local TV station, calling for a new cabinet of ministers.

“Stop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army,” he said in full uniform, flanked by soldiers, insisting the action being taken was supported by the public.

‘STRONGEST CONDEMNATION’

Morales, head of the ruling MAS socialist party, said that his supporters would mobilize in support of democracy.

“We will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate people,” Morales said.

Bolivia’s public prosecutor’s office said it would launch a criminal investigation against Zuniga and others involved in the attempted coup.

Public support for Arce and Bolivia’s democracy has poured in from regional leaders and beyond.

“We express the strongest condemnation of the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia. Our total support and support for President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on X.

Even conservative political opponents of the government in Bolivia condemned the military action, including ex-President Jeanine Anez, who was imprisoned in 2022 amid political turmoil.

“I fully reject of the mobilization of the military in the Plaza Murillo attempting to destroy constitutional order,” she wrote on X. “The MAS with Arce and Evo must be got out through the vote in 2025. We Bolivians will defend democracy.”

the attempted coup. It is unclear where Zuniga is being taken.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Minister of the Presidency Maria Nela Prada also announced the country was sending humanitarian aid to Gaza

November 01, 2023 05:47 pm | Updated 06:38 pm IST – La Paz

The government of leftist Luis Arce is the first in Latin America to cut ties with Israel since the divisive conflict erupted with the Hamas attacks on October 7, which Israeli authorities say killed more than 1,400 people.

Israel responded on Wednesday by slamming Bolivia’s move as “a surrender to terrorism.”

“By taking this step, the Bolivian government is aligning itself with the Hamas terrorist organisation,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said in a statement.

Bolivia only announced it was restoring ties with Israel in 2019, a decade after they were cut over previous attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas hailed Bolivia’s decision on Tuesday, saying it “holds it in high esteem” while urging Arab countries who have normalised their relations with Israel to do the same.

The leaders of both Colombia and Chile also spoke out Tuesday against the Israeli offensive on Hamas, which the Hamas-controlled health ministry says has now killed more than 8,500 Palestinians — two-thirds of them women and children.

“I have decided to recall our ambassador to Israel (Margarita Manjarrez) for consultation. If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people, we cannot be there,” Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Chile, which has the largest Palestinian population outside the Arab world, said Tuesday it was recalling its ambassador to Israel in protest against Israel’s “unacceptable violations of international humanitarian law.”

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, has urged a ceasefire.

He said the “terrorist attack” by Palestinian militants against Israel did not justify killing “millions of innocents” in Gaza.

“Just because Hamas committed a terrorist attack against Israel doesn’t mean Israel has to kill millions of innocents,” he said in a live address on social media.