According to local media, Bolivian officials detained a former general who attempted to overthrow President Luis Arce on Wednesday.
Before being arrested, Juan Jose Zuniga “has tried to subvert the constitutional order,” stated Deputy Interior Minister Jhonny Aguilera, who removed Zuniga earlier this week as Commander of the Bolivian Army, according to the Ahora el Pueblo newspaper.
Images of Zuniga being dragged into a police vehicle outside a military barracks and driven to the prosecutor’s office surfaced on social media.
An inquiry into the coup attempt and its aftermath has been opened, according to the top prosecutor’s office.
After a tank carrying Zuniga was spotted forcing its way into the presidential palace in La Paz, the military rebellion broke out that afternoon.
Not shortly after the coup attempt, Arce issued a warning against “irregular military mobilizations” and, in a speech with his ministers on national television, urged the populace to organize against it and to protect democracy.
“Today the country once again faces interests so that democracy in Bolivia is truncated,” he stated. “The Bolivian people must band together and take up arms against the coup.”
According to the president of state of Bolivia, Zuniga was leading an attempted coup d’état.
Following a string of threats against former President Evo Morales, Zuniga was fired on Tuesday.
An armored truck crashed through the entryway, allowing Arce to meet the head of the attempted military coup in the government palace corridor.
“Withdraw all of these soldiers right now. “It is a directive,” he growled at Zuniga.
Morales had decried the coup just hours before.
“A coup d’état is imminent.” He remarked, “At this moment, tanks and members of the Armed Forces are stationed in Plaza Murillo,” urging social movements to “defend democracy.”
Later, noting the military’s retreat from Murillo Square and the calm that he said had returned to the government offices, Morales declared that the call for mobilization had been halted.
The world community expressed significant opposition to the government’s’ takeover.