(La Paz) Former Bolivian head of state Evo Morales on Sunday accused current President Luis Arce, his former ally, of “lying” about the recent thwarted military plan to overthrow him, even suggesting that it may have been a “self-coup.”
“I thought it was a coup, but now I doubt it: it looks like a self-coup,” Morales said on his Sunday radio show, broadcast from the central Cochabamba department. ).
Evo Morales was one of the first to warn on his social networks about the armed uprising last Wednesday, when troops with tanks, led by former army commander Juan José Zúñiga, besieged the presidential palace.
“I feel, I don’t know if I’m wrong, that Lucho (Arce) did not respect the truth; he deceived us, he lied, not only to the Bolivian people, but to the whole world,” added the influential indigenous leader.
Luis Arce maintained on Sunday that “clearly,” “a failed military coup” took place on Wednesday.
“Evo Morales, don’t be wrong again!” […] Do not side with fascism which denies what happened,” Mr. Arce wrote on X. “Those who sought to take power by force of arms” will be judged, he added.
Mr. Morales had already questioned on Friday the official version of the coup d’état plan of Mr. Zúñiga – detained since then in a high security prison -, but this time he clearly distances himself from Luis Arce, who was his Minister of Finance during his almost 14 years of presidency (2006-2019).
The two men are competing within the ruling party for the nomination for the 2025 presidential election.
This Sunday, Mr. Morales assured that he had received information which “convinced” him that in reality “it was a self-coup”.
According to the former president, he learned from ministerial sources that Arce was going to hand over the presidency to a “military junta” to prevent him “from being president again.”
At the time of his arrest, Mr. Zúñiga said that Luis Arce himself had asked him to “stage something to increase his popularity”, which was later denied by the Bolivian president, in power since 2020.
A total of 21 active, retired and civilian soldiers were arrested after the coup attempt, including the three former commanders of the armed forces.