Former head of Bolivia’s navy and army arrested over failed coup. bolivia

The former heads of Bolivia’s navy and army are among a group recently arrested for their alleged role in an alleged military coup that toppled the South American country’s leftist President Luis Arce.

Speaking on Thursday morning, just 12 hours after the fleeting uprising in Los Angeles Paz, Bolivia’s minister of the presidency, Eduardo del Castillo, accused former navy chief of staff General Juan Jose Zuniga Macias and former army chief of staff Rear Admiral Juan Arnaz Salvador . Prominent were a group of rebels who “conspired to overthrow the democratically elected government”.

“He will be charged with crimes for which he could face 15 to 30 years in prison,” del Castillo told local TV channel Unitel. He promised to reveal more details of the hot incidents after the show.

The minister claimed the conspirators had been plotting “this attempt to destroy democracy” for at least three weeks before security forces took over the historic Plaza Murillo in Los Angeles Paz at about 2.30pm on Wednesday And forcibly entered inside. The federal government palace is called Palacio Quemado.

Before retreating from the scene in a bulletproof car and being detained, Zuniga told reporters that his effort was to establish “a true democracy.”

In his television interview, del Castillo claimed that on Tuesday night, the eve of the alleged rebellion, Arce and Zuniga had met in the presence of another senior minister and that the President had informed the military that they were to be relieved of their duties. Used to be. Because his behavior was “not in accordance with the political constitution”.

“No problem… I am a soldier of this motherland… and I will follow whatever order you give me,” Zuniga reportedly responded.

Del Castillo claimed that the two men then embraced, adding: “Nobody could have imagined that the next day… our country would see a failed coup attempt.”

Wednesday’s brief and still poorly defined uprising, which lasted only about three hours and reportedly injured 12 community members, was an unedited soliloquy to console a notoriously volatile family that has witnessed 190 revolutions since gaining sovereignty in 1825. And have seen coups.

Doubts were also raised by comments made by Zuniga in the moments before he was detained, in which the former army chief accused Arce of staging a sham coup to boost his meteoric popularity. “The president told me the situation is a mess and he needs something to boost his popularity,” Zuniga said, without offering evidence.

Bolivia, a country of about 12.5 million voters, is facing a punishing financial emergency these days with declining fuel exports and social unrest. To make things worse, there is a sour power rivalry going on between Arce and former President Evo Morales, who helped elect him in 2020. Both men have said they plan to seek the presidency for their party in the next generational election. , Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).

On Thursday, some of Morales’ allies and opposition figures promoted conspiracy theories on social media about Arce being responsible for the alleged fake military coup. Alejandro Reyes, an opposition congressman from the Comunidad Ciudadana coalition, called for a parliamentary investigation into claims that Arce himself had planned an “autogolpe” (self-coup). “There are signs and announcements that indicate government involvement,” Reyes said.

Minister of the Presidency Maria Nella Prada denied such claims. He said, “This is absolutely false… These are things that I find completely unimaginable.”

Daisy Chock, a Mass. legislator, lauded President Arce – a Britain-educated former finance minister – as a hero. Chok said, “He will never be seen as a coward or a traitor – he stood up against the coup attempt and democracy prevailed.”

As the fighting intensified, armed police, their faces covered with balaclavas, held up the wrought iron doors of the nineteenth-century neoclassical palace where much of the drama of the earlier productions had taken place. Inside, two girls can be seen cleaning up broken glass from the floor, where Arce is filmed confronting Zuniga, and telling him: “I’m your captain… command all your soldiers right now. Withdraw, as usual.”

The coup d’état in Bolivia was the subject of near-universal condemnation across the political spectrum in Latin America, including conservative governments in Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay, as well as leftist governments in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

However, there have been some signs of substantial benefits from pocket branches. Bia Kissis, a key Brazilian congresswoman who is close to former President Jair Bolsonaro, reacted to news of the rebellion by tweeting: “Thank God!” Ricardo Salles, Bolsonaro’s former situation minister, believes his idea was that of the Bolivian putschists.cojones(balls).

The Argentinian newspaper Los Angeles Nación noted how it had taken control of its far-right liberationist leader, Javier Miley, for six hours in order to punish him for the failed coup.