Top generals and allied forces attempted to storm Bolivia’s presidential palace on Wednesday but quickly retreated in what appeared to be a failed coup attempt.
A few hours later, the general was detained.
Footage on Bolivian television showed security forces in riot gear occupying the main square in the administrative capital, La Paz, camouflaged military vehicles crashing through the palace gates and soldiers trying to enter the palace.
Then, almost as quickly as they appeared, General Juan José Zuñiga disappeared, his military supporters stepped down and replaced by police officers supporting democratically elected President Luis Arce.
Mr. Arce took to the square after urging Bolivians to “support democracy, organize and mobilize against the coup.”
“Long live the Bolivian people!” he shouted in a televised address. “Long live democracy!”
In total, the afternoon attempt to break into 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 carry out a coup attempt.
As TV cameras rolled, Mr. Zuñiga said: “The president told me: the situation is really messed up. This week is going to be very important, so I need to prepare something that will boost my popularity.”
Moments later, police chased the general away in a white police truck.
Eduardo del Castillo, a key minister in Arce’s government, later said that General Zuñiga and his alleged co-conspirator, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Juan Arnez, had “lost all trust.”
“They were trying to gain popular support and the support of the Bolivian people,” he said. But the Bolivian people no longer want to risk a coup.”
Del Castillo added that nine people were injured by firearms during the chaos.
Bolivia’s attorney general’s office announced Wednesday evening that it had opened an investigation into General Zuniga and all other participants in the day’s events, adding that it would seek “maximum punishment” for those responsible.
Local media previously reported that General Zuniga was removed from his position this week, which was believed to be related to comments he made about Arce’s mentor, former President Evo Morales.
The coup attempt comes at a critical moment for Bolivia, a landlocked South American country of 12 million people. Mr. Arce, a leftist and the hand-picked successor to Mr. Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president and a heavyweight in Bolivian politics, is fighting with Mr. Morales for control of their party and who will be the candidate in the 2025 primary.
Bolivia’s economy is struggling and Mr. Arce has been criticized for measures his critics call undemocratic, including the detention of opposition figure Luis Fernando Camacho and former President Jeanine Áñez.
According to local reporters, General Zuniga briefly entered the building during the palace takeover, then left and gave a speech surrounded by masked security forces. He criticized the Arce government, saying the military was trying to establish “real democracy, not democracy for a few.”
He also called for the release of several imprisoned politicians and soldiers, including Ms. Áñez and Mr. Camacho.
“Government by a few is enough,” the general said. “Look where it got us! Our children have no future and our people have no future. “The military has the guts to fight for our children’s tomorrow.”
Shortly after, Mr Arce confirmed that he would replace General Zuñiga as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the heads of the air force and navy.
In a televised statement, the new commander, José Wilson Sánchez Velásquez, urged the Zuniga general to “stop shedding the blood of our soldiers.”
The army’s initial move into the palace was immediately criticized by local leaders, including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “Coups have never worked,” he told reporters Wednesday.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has long admired both Prime Minister Arce and Morales, also condemned the coup attempt, calling Arce Bolivia’s “true democratic authority.”
It was during López Obrador’s government that Mexico first offered President Morales landing ground and asylum after he stepped down amid violent protests over disputed elections in 2019.
Bolivia is no stranger to political turmoil. This highly polarized country has experienced 190 coups in its 200-year history. And analysts say much of the military’s discontent stems from a feeling that although it will end up defending the existing order, it will face political punishment or imprisonment for adhering to that order once a new government comes to power.
But Bolivian political analyst Carlos Saavedra said the short-lived incursion had little support in the country, calling it “an adventure by a small group of soldiers.”
“There is no mobilization in any other department of the country,” he said. “It appears that it was Zuniga’s close-knit group that wanted to hold on to the military commander’s command.”
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega contributed to the report.