Coup try feared in Bolivia as troops pour into the streets

Armored autos rammed into the doorways of Bolivia’s authorities palace Wednesday as a high authorities official warned of a coup try and Bolivian President Luis Arce mentioned “irregular” deployment of troops was happening within the capital.

Video on Bolivian tv confirmed Arce confronting the final commander of the Army, Juan José Zúñiga, within the palace hallway. “I’m your captain, and I order you to withdraw your troopers, and I cannot permit this insubordination,” Arce mentioned.

Before getting into the federal government constructing, Zúñiga informed journalists within the plaza: “Surely quickly there will likely be a brand new Cabinet of ministers; our nation, our state can not go on like this.” Zúñiga mentioned that “for now” he acknowledges Arce as commander-in-chief.

In a message on his X account, Arce known as for “democracy to be revered.” It got here as Bolivian tv confirmed two tanks and a number of males in army uniform in entrance of the federal government palace.

“We can not permit, as soon as once more, coup makes an attempt to take the lives of Bolivians,” he mentioned from contained in the palace, surrounded by authorities officers, in a video message despatched to information shops.

Former President Evo Morales, additionally in a message on X, denounced the motion of the army within the Murillo sq. outdoors the palace, calling it a coup “within the making.”

María Nela Prada, minister of the presidency and a high Bolivian official, known as it an “tried coup d’etat.”

“The individuals are on alert to defend democracy,” she mentioned to native tv station Red Uno.

The incident was met with a wave of shock by different regional leaders, together with the Organization of American States; Gabriel Boric, the president of neighboring Chile; Honduras’s chief, and former Bolivian leaders.

Bolivia, a rustic of 12 million folks, has seen intensifying protests in current months over the economic system’s precipitous decline from one of many continent’s fastest-growing 20 years in the past to one in every of its most crisis-stricken.

The nation additionally has seen a high-profile rift on the highest ranges of the governing occasion. Arce and his one-time ally, leftist icon and former President Morales, have been battling for the way forward for Bolivia’s splintering Movement for Socialism, recognized by its Spanish acronym MAS, forward of elections in 2025.