Former army chief Juan José Zúñiga, who had installed men and armored vehicles in front of Parliament and the presidential palace, claimed to have acted on orders from the president.
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The Bolivian president defends himself. Luis Arce denied on Thursday June 28 any conspiracy with General Juan José Zúñiga, arrested on charges of having attempted a coup d’état on Wednesday by deploying armored vehicles in front of the Parliament and the presidential palace in La Paz. The former head of the army, who finally withdrew his troops, claimed to have acted on orders from the president who asked him to “stage something to increase your popularity”in a context of serious economic crisis. “How could one order or plan a self-coup? (…) He acted on his own initiative”assured the Bolivian president to defend himself against these accusations. “Unfortunately for him, and it showed, I am not a politician who will gain his popularity with the blood of the people.”
Fourteen civilians who opposed the coup, in which elements of the military police took part, were injured by pellet fire, according to the authorities. Some had to be hospitalized and “operated”, Luis Arce told the press. Seventeen people were arrested in total after this attempted coup, including ex-general and Navy chief Juan Arnez Salvador. The two men are being prosecuted for “armed uprising and terrorism” and face up to 20 years in prison.
Juan José Zúñiga’s motivations remain unclear. Before his arrest by the police, the former general had said he wanted to “remainto restructure democracy, to make it a real democracy (…) Not that of a few, not that of a few masters who have been running the country for 30 or 40 years”“This operation had been planned since May,” he said, adding that three other suspects were being sought.
