General Juan José Zuñiga attempted to coup Ieftist president Luis Arce, taking Murillo Plaza and barrelling down the presidential palace’s door with a tank. Zuñiga called to “restore democracy” & “free all political prisoners” referring to the fаr-right leaders Jeanine Añez and Fernando Camacho ²/
President Arce called on social movements and the people to denounce the coup and organize against it. which he refused. The Worker’s Central of Bolivia (COB) called to blockade the coup “indefinitely” and even his staunch rival Evo Morales has considered this coup on his X/Twitter Account. 3/
But, the national police remained loyal to Arce and arrested Zuñiga. Social movements and the people organized in La Paz’s Murrillo Plaza, supporting Arce for surviving this coup. Arce said in response “We deplore the acts of bad soldiers… the Bolivian people have also been a democratic people. 4/
So, what motivated the coup? (1) Zuñiga, who was the top military chief, was discharged from military the day before the coup & (2) Zuñiga called on the far-right to rally support, which is why he called to free ex-president Añez and Fernando Camacho, leaders of the 2019 coup against Evo. ⁵/
The Bolivian far-right has framed this as a “self-coup” (autogolpe), that Arce fabricated this coup for personal gain. This is problematic. It tries to delegitimize the Arce gov’t, which paves the way for more wannabe coups, and it whitewashes the far-right history of coups, like 2019 or 1971. 6/
Whether started more for personal or ideological reasons, it's clear the coup in Bolivia failed. But opponents to Bolivia’s plurinational project continue to destabilize the country, from the far-right agitators in the Santa Cruz region to neoliberals in support of the 2019 coup. 7/
