A senior Bolivian general was arrested after armoured vehicles rammed the doors of the government palace in La Paz on Wednesay in what President Luis Arce called an attempted coup.
Forces led by army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga appeared to take control of Mr Arce’s government as they vowed to “restore democracy” but the president vowed to hold firm and swiftly named a new military commander, who immediately ordered the troops to stand down.
“What was this group’s goal? The goal was to overturn the democratically elected authority,” Mr del Castillo told journalists in announcing the arrests.
The apparent coup attempt came after the South American nation of 12m people faced months of tensions between Mr Arce and his one-time ally, former leftist president Evo Morales, over control of the ruling party.
The Bolivian Attorney General’s Office said Friday that Zúñiga had been ordered into pretrial detention for six months.
Zúñiga has also been charged by the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office with terrorism and armed uprising, his lawyer Steven Orellana said.
Fredy Mamani, former deputy foreign minister of Bolivia and an ally of Morales and Arce, told CNN that despite the “undemocratic” nature of “the tanks, the uniformed soldiers and taking the square… it is essential to highlight that the Bolivian people are united in the face of any coup d’etat.”
But echoing Zúñiga’s comments, an opposition MP accused the government of staging the coup in a bid to rally support.
“What happened today in Bolivia is a really bizarre situation,” Andrea Barrientos, a Senator for the opposition Civic Community party, told the BBC. “We can confirm that this was a self-coup, organized by Luis Arce’s government.”
News of the attempted coup was roundly condemned by international and regional leaders, including Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña, Mexico’s president, and the European Union.
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