Soldiers surround Bolivian presidential palace in attempted coup
Last edited Wed Jun 26, 2024, 06:24 PM - Edit history (1)
Armoured vehicles and troops have taken up positions on the square.
...
The military officer in charge of the troops which took over central La Paz, General Juan José Zúñiga, said he recognised President Arce "for the moment" but that there would be a change of ministers and cabinet.
"We are going to recover this homeland," General Juan José Zúñiga said from Murillo Square after it was taken by troops.
Updated at BBC source - was:
Bolivian President Luis Arce has demanded democracy be "respected" after soldiers were reported to have moved into central La Paz.
Unverified videos showed armoured vehicles and soldiers in Murillo Square, in the centre of the capital La Paz.
The presidential palace was rammed by an armoured vehicle, with soldiers reportedly storming the interior.
Former President Evo Morales warned of an imminent “coup,” accusing General Juan José Zúñiga of planning to seize power and calling on supporters to strike and block roads.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c288eewr1wko
Reporting from reliable sources on the spot is needed.
= new reply since forum marked as read
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Armored vehicles rammed into the doors of Bolivia’s government palace Wednesday in an apparent coup attempt, but President Luis Arce vowed to stand firm and named a new army commander who ordered troops to stand down.
June 26, 2024
2 min read
Tear gas is fired by military troops outside the Quemado Palace at Plaza Murillo in La Paz on June 26, 2024. Bolivian President Luis Arce on Wednesday denounced the unauthorized gathering of soldiers and tanks outside government buildings in the capital La Paz, saying “democracy must be respected.”
AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images
By Paola Flores And Megan Janetsky The Associated Press
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Armored vehicles rammed into the doors of Bolivia’s government palace Wednesday in an apparent coup attempt, but President Luis Arce vowed to stand firm and named a new army commander who ordered troops to stand down.
The soldiers pulled back behind a line of military vehicles, as hundreds of Arce’s supporters rushed the square outside the palace, waving Bolivian flags and cheering. Arce, surrounded by ministers, waved at the crowd as they sang the national anthem. “Thank you to the Bolivian people,” he said. “ Let democracy live on.”
Hours later, the Bolivian general who appeared to be behind the rebellion, Juan José Zúñiga, was arrested after the attorney general opened an investigation. It wasn’t immediately clear what the charges were against him.
However, shortly before his arrest Zúñiga claimed Arce asked him to storm the palace in a political move. “The president told me: ‘The situation is very screwed up, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity’,” Zúñiga told reporters. Zúñiga sajd he asked Arce if he should “take out the armored vehicles?” and Arce replied, “Take them out.”
Wednesday’s rebellion followed months of tensions, with economic hardship and protests growing ever stronger as two political titans — Arce and his one-time ally, leftist former President Evo Morales — battled for control of the ruling party.
More:
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/americas/military-flees-bolivia-government-palace-after-coup-attempt-fails-general-taken-into-custody/article_1f2190f3-9979-51b1-a8ae-93fe9564e46c.html
(my bolding)
Progressives need to speak up: Morales made mistakes, but nothing justifies the violent right-wing putsch that followed.
By Laura Carlsen | November 20, 2019
The coup d’etat in Bolivia has divided not only that country but the world.
The mainstream press, the Trump administration, the Washington-compliant Organization of American States, and right-wing governments throughout the region have hailed the ouster of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president.
That’s to be expected. The U.S. has long plotted regime change for Bolivia, a government that not only openly espoused socialism, but set a terrible example — in the still present logic of the Cold War — by succeeding in improving the living conditions of its population while attaining the highest growth rates in the region.
What’s unexpected is the defense of the coup from parts of the left that have refused to call it a coup, and instead insist that the actions of the Morales government led to its own downfall. The events and the aftermath tell a clear story: There was a coup in Bolivia, which has installed a virulently racist and fundamentalist, anti-women regime, with the full support and planning from the U.S. government and the OAS.
This new regime has no intention of returning to constitutional order (despite claims to carry out elections under its terms), has eliminated separation of church and state, and has already launched multiple murderous attacks on its opponents. Security forces have murdered scores of protesters, mostly indigenous people, as the regime grows increasingly desperate and repressive.
. . .
Second, there’s the fact of prior planning. Regime change in Bolivia was long planned by the right and the U.S. government. Years ago, the conservative “civic committees” based in the white, wealthy area of Santa Cruz began a strategy of separating from the nation ruled by a very popular indigenous, leftist president. The U.S. embassy supported the civic committee of Santa Cruz and other opposition groups, betting on the balkanization of the country.
. . .
Trump’s instant recognition of the coup regime was openly celebratory even as violence gripped the country. He stated triumphantly:
“The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia’s constitution. These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail. We are now one step closer to a completely democratic, prosperous, and free Western Hemisphere.”
More:
https://fpif.org/whats-happening-in-bolivia-is-a-violent-right-wing-coup/
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Jeanine Áñez, white racist senator from the wealthy, separatist oligarcy, appointed herself as interim president, and waved the Bible around continually while insisting the Bible believers would rule the nation.
It doesn't ever seem to surface in official discussions about Bolivia, but it undoubtedly has obsessed politicos there, and elsewhere, since it was discovered.
It will make a colossal difference in Bolivia's future when someone finally gains convincing control. Hopefully it would be someone acting in the interests of the environment and the citizens, but how often has that happened in "the U.S.'s backyard", anyway?
So glad you spoke the normally unspoken! People should start thinking about it really hard! It's not going away after this. 