Bolivia’s leaders have claimed a coup is afoot against Luis Arce’s leftwing administration after heavily armed army troops seized control of La Paz’s political heart and military police were filmed trying to force their way into the former government palace.
“We denounce to the international community that a coup attempt against our democratically elected government,” the vice-president, David Choquehuanca, tweeted on Wednesday afternoon as the alleged putsch unfolded.
In a video message, foreign minister Celinda Sosa Lunda claimed some army units had launched an attack on “democracy, peace and national security”.
Minutes earlier, Arce had taken to social media to report an “irregular mobilization” of some members of the military. “Democracy must be respected,” he tweeted.
Former president Evo Morales also sounded the alarm as troubling images of the disturbances spread on social media. Morales urged supporters to take to the streets and block roads to oppose the alleged coup attempt, which he blamed on the recently sacked army commander General Juan José Zúñiga, who was reportedly removed from his post on the eve of Wednesday’s turmoil.
“We will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate the people,” wrote Morales, who was Bolivia’s first president of Indigenous descent but had to flee the country in 2019 after what supporters call a US-backed coup. Morales returned from exile after Arce’s election the following year.
On the eve of his 2020 inauguration, Arce, who is a UK-educated economist, told the Guardian: “We have reclaimed democracy for Bolivia, and our message is that we will not tolerate any kind of de facto dictatorial regime or coup in Latin America.”
On Wednesday afternoon, that democracy looked in peril as television footage showed masked members of the military police forcing their way into the Palacio Quemado.
The newspaper Los Tiempos quoted the head of Bolivia’s army as saying that Arce remained president “for the time being”.
Speaking in neighbouring Paraguay, the head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, said it would not tolerate “any kind of rupture of the legitimate constitutional order in Bolivia”.
More details soon …