Bolivian President Luis Arce on Thursday denied conspiring with his former army chief, who was arrested after deploying troops and tanks to the heart of the capital La Paz, where they tried to break down a door of the presidential palace.
Fourteen civilians who opposed the coup were wounded by gunfire, according to the authorities. Some had to be hospitalized and operated on, Luis Arce told the press.
Authorities paraded handcuffed detainees in front of the media on Thursday, announcing 17 arrests including ex-army chief Juan Jose Zuniga, and riot police kept close watch over government buildings a day after the botched coup.“How could one order or plan a coup on one’s self?” Arce told reporters.
Flanked by soldiers and tanks outside the presidency, Zuniga said that “the armed forces intend to restructure democracy, to make it a true democracy and not one run by the same few people for 30, 40 years.”Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo announced a total of 17 arrests, including active and retired military personnel and civilians, in connection with the attempted coup. Other suspects are still being sought.Zuniga replied with a blunt “No,” but left the presidential palace a few minutes later.
“We are going to defend democracy and the will of the Bolivian people, whatever the cost!” the 60-year-old Arce wrote on social media platform X. He has since sworn in new military leaders.Russia “strongly” condemned the attempted military coup, its foreign ministry said Thursday, warning against “destructive foreign interference” in the South American country.
UN chief Antonio Guterres “welcomes the peaceful resolution of the situation,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, having earlier expressed alarm over the abortive coup.Bolivia, which has a long history of military coups, has in recent weeks been rocked by an economic crisis due to a drop in natural gas production, its main source of foreign currency until 2023.
The country has had to reduce fuel imports and there is a shortage of dollars, which has triggered protests by powerful unions of merchants and freight transporters.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of government at Cornell University in New York state, told AFP the failed coup was “a symptom of a significant and broad discontent” in the country.