At first, they heard sirens. Then, on Wednesday, Bolivia’s top ministers looked out into the country’s main political square and saw armored vehicles and troops streaming out of their homes. The interior minister later said she had a chill running down her spine.
Within moments, President Luis Arce was addressing his inner circle – “We are facing a coup!” – before heading to the presidential palace to confront the generals seeking to oust him from power.
The failed coup attempt lasted only three hours and ended with the arrest of the general, whose attack appeared to have been motivated, at least in part, by anger over Arce’s firing of him the previous day.
But this is not the end of Mr. Arce’s problems or the challenges facing Bolivia.
Arce, 60, a former finance minister, took office in 2020 in a democratic election that seemed to symbolize a new, more promising chapter for the country after intense political turmoil.
Now, in addition to his dispute with the former general, Arce faces financial difficulties, growing protests, criticism of the jailing of political opponents and divisions within his party.
But perhaps his greatest challenge is the ongoing battle with his one-time mentor, former President Evo Morales. Evo Morales, the titanic figure of Bolivian politics who has withdrawn from the halls of power, is now vying with Mr Arce over who will be the party’s candidate.
Mr Morales, 64, the first indigenous president of a country with a large indigenous population, is a socialist elected in 2006 and a member of the so-called Pink Wave leftist polity that ruled much of South America in the 2000s. leader of.
He made history by bringing a wide swath of Bolivian society into politics, but fled the country during disputed elections in 2019 and chose Mr Arce as his party’s candidate in new elections to be held in 2020 .
In an interview with The New York Times that year, Arce described Morales as a “historical figure” in the political movement but said Morales would not have a formal role in the government.
At the time, it appeared to be a successful transition of power for Arce, who had served in the Morales government amid strong economic growth driven by a commodities boom and the country’s vast natural gas reserves.
But now, after a period in exile, Morales is “really determined to return to the presidency,” said Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of government at Cornell University who studies Latin American politics . “He saw that he had been expelled in an illegal way and that he had the right to be a candidate again. Arce saw it very differently.
In Bolivia, a landlocked country of 12 million people, Morales, Arce and their supporters have long sought to position the country as a left-wing counterweight to U.S. power.
The country could also play a huge role in the fight against climate change thanks to its vast lithium reserves, which are critical to the global shift toward electric vehicles.
Wednesday’s coup attempt was led by Juan José Zuniga, who had served as army chief until Tuesday night. Interior Minister María Nela Prada said in an interview that Mr. Arce fired General Zuniga after he made political statements in a television interview in which he insisted that Mr. Morales “Cannot serve as president of this country again,” and suggested the military would enforce the claim.
Until then, “Zuniga had been President Luis Arce’s most trusted person, his most trusted person in the armed forces,” said former Defense Secretary Remi Ferreira. However, the general’s dismissal appears to have changed that.
At about 3 pm the next day, General Zuniga appeared together with the chiefs of the Navy and the Air Force in the country’s main political square, home to the presidential palace and the important government building “Pueblo House”. .
Ms. Prada said Mr. Arce and his ministers were preparing to start a meeting in Casa Grande and watched in shock as military personnel occupied the square below.
Mr. Arce, wearing a black puffer jacket and glasses, strode toward the presidential palace with Ms. Prada at his side as he faced off against the general, who was wearing a green uniform and a bulletproof camouflage vest. A group of military police surrounded them.
“This is your captain!” Ms. Prada shouted, referring to the president.
“We can’t turn back!” shouted a Zuniga supporter.
Mr. Arce told the general to turn around.
“These are orders, General,” he continued. “Do you want to listen?”
“No,” Mr. Zuniga replied.
Then came a pivotal moment, Ms. Prada said. She explained that the air force chief had apparently had second thoughts and decided to withdraw support for the coup. The police refused to join. Eventually, the newly appointed army commander ordered the tanks and troops to withdraw.
Ms. Prada said at least 12 people were injured with firearms during the clashes. Seventeen people, including Mr. Zuniga, have now been arrested. Bolivia’s ambassador to the Organization of American States said Thursday that about 200 military officers were involved in the attempted coup.
But while Arce, known as “Lucho” as he is known in the country, successfully prevented the coup, getting Morales to back down may be more difficult.
As a former leader of the country’s coca growers, Mr Morales still retains some support among voters and members of his party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS). A recent survey showed 19% of respondents backed Arce and 9% backed Morales.
Mr Arce can legally run for re-election next year in elections scheduled for late 2025.
Bolivian law prohibits serving more than two consecutive terms. Mr Morales served three terms as president and successfully lobbied the courts to allow him to run for a third time due to a legal loophole. But when he tried to run for a fourth term, it resulted in a disputed election and riots that led to his ouster.
Bolivia’s Constitutional Court ultimately has the power to decide whether Morales can run again.
The country’s domestic economic problems include fuel shortages, high inflation and lack of access to U.S. dollars. They have sparked protests led by truck drivers and others, constituencies who play a major role in the country’s business.
In the legislature, parts of Arce’s party formed an alliance with the opposition to block his initiative. His critics accuse him of going after opponents, including prominent politician Luis Fernando Camacho, who has been in pretrial detention since December 2022 on sedition and terrorism charges.
Carlos Romero, the former interior minister under Morales, said relations between the former president and Arce were now “terrible” and that casting doubt on the legitimacy of Mr Morales’s candidacy “is government politics.” part of the strategy” insisted on disqualifying him. “
Romero said Wednesday’s coup attempt was “so clumsy, so improvised” and must have been “an arrangement agreed upon with the national government” – reiterating Zuniga’s statement before his arrest that the coup attempt was for Mr Arce. A gimmick concocted to make yourself look like a hero.
Arce’s government said there was no evidence to support the claim and denied it.
Former president Carlos Mesa, leader of the country’s main opposition party, said he believed Arce had tried to gain political benefit from the coup “through self-sacrifice.”
On Wednesday night, Arce appeared on a balcony overlooking the main political square where hundreds of supporters had gathered and declared that they had defeated the country’s “coup plotters”.
“Thank you, Bolivian people!” he shouted.
Then, everyone burst out: “I fight! Fight! Fight!”
Jorge Valencia contributed reporting.
