Bolivia military coup fails as general is arrested by police

Armoured vehicles rammed the doors of Bolivia’s government palace yesterday 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.

- STAFF REPORTER

Soon the soldiers pulled back, along with a line of military vehicles, as hundreds of Arce’s supporters rushed the square outside the palace, waving Bolivian flags, singing the national anthem and cheering.

Mr Arce, surrounded by ministers, waved at the crowd. “Thank you to the Bolivian people,” he said.

Hours later, the Bolivian general who appeared to be behind the rebellion, Juan Jose Zuniga, was arrested after the attorney general opened an investigation. It wasn’t immediately clear what the charges were against him.

However, in a twist, Gen Zuniga claimed in comments to journalists before his arrest that Mr Arce himself told the general 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’,” Mr Zuniga quoted the Bolivian leader as saying.

Gen Zuniga sajd he asked Mr Arce if he should “take out the armoured vehicles?” and Mr Arce replied, “Take them out.”

There was no immediate response from Mr Arce to the allegations, and the Ministry of the Presidency did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.