Bolivian President Luis Arce on Thursday denied conspiring with his former army chief, who was arrested after deploying troops and tanks to the heart of the capital, La Paz, where they tried to break down a door of the presidential palace.
Fourteen civilians who opposed the coup were wounded by gunfire, authorities said.
Some had to be hospitalized and operated on, Luis Arce told reporters.
Photo: Reuter
Authorities paraded handcuffed detainees in front of the media, announcing 17 arrests, including former army chief Juan Jose Zuniga. Riot police kept close watch over government buildings a day after the botched coup.
Tensions in the Andean nation have been rising in the past few weeks over surging prices, shortages of cash and fuel, and a feud between Arce and former Bolivian president Evo Morales ahead a presidential election next year.
In his first public appearance since announcing the coup attempt was over on Wednesday, Arce denied he had conspired with Zuniga.
The army chief said that he was following orders and that Arce had hoped to trigger a crackdown that would boost his popularity as president.
“How could one order or plan a coup on one’s self?” Arce asked.
Flanked by soldiers and tanks outside the presidency, Zuniga said that “the armed forces intend to restructure democracy, to make it a true democracy and not one run by the same few people for 30, 40 years.”
Shortly thereafter, the soldiers and tanks pulled back from the historic Plaza Murillo and local television broadcast images of Zuniga’s arrest.
Bolivia’s naval chief, Juan Arnez Salvador, was also arrested. The two men face up to 20 years in prison for the crimes of terrorism and armed uprising, prosecutors said.
Bolivian Minister of the Interior Eduardo del Castillo announced 17 arrests, including active and retired military personnel, and civilians, in connection with the attempted coup.
Other suspects were still being sought.
The government broadcast a conversation between Arce and Zuniga at the doors of the presidential mansion, surrounded by military personnel, in which Arce ordered his army chief to withdraw his troops to their barracks.
Zuniga said “no,” but left the presidential palace a few minutes later.
“We are going to defend democracy and the will of the Bolivian people, whatever the cost!” the 60-year-old Arce wrote on X.
He has since sworn in new military leaders.
However, the coup plot took an unusual twist as Zuniga told reporters that Arce had ordered a staged uprising to trigger a crackdown that would make him look strong and “raise his popularity.”
“It is absolutely false,” presidential aide Maria Nela Prada said.
Former Bolivian president Carlos Mesa wrote on X that the troop deployment “resembles a farce.”
Bolivia, which has a long history of military coups, has in recent weeks been rocked by an economic crisis due to a drop in natural gas production, its main source of foreign currency until last year.
The country has had to reduce fuel imports and there is a shortage of cash, which has triggered protests by unions of merchants and freight transporters.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of government at Cornell University in New York State, told reporters that the failed coup was “a symptom of a significant and broad discontent” in the country.
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