Failed Coup | Bolivia in Confusion

(La Paz) A week after the so-called rebellion rocked this South American country that has seen no fewer than 190 coups since its independence in 1825, Bolivians who thought they had seen it all say they have never been more confused.

A plan to stage a coup against the Bolivian president was not what General Tomás Peña y Lillo expected when he entered the military headquarters in La Paz on Wednesday last week.

The head of Bolivia’s retired military said he was surprised to receive a call that morning from army chief Gen. Juan José Zúñiga asking him to show up for talks on how to defend imprisoned soldiers.

It was a highly coveted meeting, so he rushed to find Zúñiga surrounded by officers asking for his help to “defend democracy.” Peña y Lillo says he objected, but the tanks were already rumbling out of the barracks toward the presidential palace.

“It’s a tragicomedy,” Peña y Lillo, now a fugitive wanted for his part in the alleged coup attempt, told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Like many Bolivians, he struggled to piece together the sequence of events, recalling that “there had been a lot of talk in the army that [le président bolivien Luis] Arce would hand over the government to Zúñiga” as protests raged in the country over lack of dollars and fuel.

Coup or frame-up?

As Zúñiga and his swarm of armored vehicles disappeared from the capital’s main square after three hours of unrest, President Arce hailed the retreat as a democratic victory. Bolivians rallied to denounce the coup attempt, and for a moment it seemed as if the tumult might unite the polarized nation.

But within hours, the conversation in Bolivia turned to whether a coup had actually taken place.

Before being taken to prison, Zúñiga claimed that his mutiny was a hoax concocted by President Arce to distract from a spiraling economy and a bitter political battle with his former mentor, ex-President Evo Morales. President Arce categorically denies these allegations, which remain unfounded.

Bolivians have analyzed the clash between Arce and Zúñiga outside the presidential palace that triggered the general’s withdrawal, offering various reasons why the coup attempt appeared to have been staged.

“It was a kind of theater,” said retired Gen. Omar Cordero Balderrama. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a military coup broadcast live on television. When there’s a coup, everyone knows the first thing to take control of is the media.”

Skeptical experts have also spoken out.

“Having had my brief experience as head of state, I can tell you that you don’t just go down 16 floors in an elevator to talk to the guy who brought the tanks to our doors,” said Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé, who briefly served as president of Bolivia in 2005-2006.

Many found it odd that the mutiny ended so well after just a few hours. They found it suspicious that the head of the armed forces, Gonzalo Vigabriel Sánchez, was nowhere to be found as chaos raged in the capital, appearing only after Zúñiga was fired to attend a hasty inauguration ceremony for the new appointees, during which President Arce asked him to remain in his post.

“If this were a coup, the presidency would have purged the armed forces,” said Col. Jorge Santiesteban, a Bolivian security expert. “The president rewarded the commander in chief who did nothing in the face of a major insurrection by his subordinate.”

It was also strange that the rebellion was led by Zúñiga, a loyalist who owes his position and high rank to President Arce.

Morales takes a stand

That skepticism is fueled by deep distrust of Bolivian authorities, due in part to unresolved tensions over the 2019 ouster of former President Evo Morales under military pressure that sparked a deadly crackdown on protests by security forces.

“It was up to Arce to make reforms that would end impunity, but the president did the opposite,” said Juan Ramón Quintana, Morales’s minister of the presidency. “He has deeply damaged military procedures and worsened an institutional crisis.”

After the events of June 26, former President Morales took the opportunity to discredit his rival, amplifying the claims against Arce. And, ironically, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei found himself agreeing with the socialist Morales, accusing President Arce of having fabricated the coup attempt, citing undisclosed intelligence.

At least 30 people have been arrested in connection with last week’s plot, most of them in pretrial detention or under house arrest. The accused officers have offered accounts that have fueled even stranger conspiracy theories.

Tired of the fog of conflicting narratives and confusion, some Bolivians are throwing up their hands and putting it all aside.