![\"Camo](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4f95136f6053ff0d242733338b7cc68d65867b9f\/0_0_2601_1561\/master\/2601.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none\")
<\/a>Former president\u00a0Evo Morales\u00a0also sounded the alarm as troubling images of the disturbances spread on social media. Morales urged supporters to take to the streets and block roads to oppose the alleged coup attempt, which he blamed on the recently sacked army commander, Gen Juan Jos\u00e9 Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, who was reportedly removed from his post on the eve of Wednesday\u2019s turmoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate the people,\u201d wrote Morales, who was Bolivia\u2019s first president of Indigenous descent but had to flee the country in 2019 after what supporters call a US-backed coup. Morales\u00a0returned from exile after Arce\u2019s election the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the eve of his 2020 inauguration, Arce, who is a UK-educated economist,\u00a0told the Guardian: \u201cWe have reclaimed democracy for Bolivia, and our message is that we will not tolerate any kind of de facto dictatorial regime or coup in Latin America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday afternoon, that democracy looked in peril as television footage showed masked members of the military police forcing their way into the Palacio Quemado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newspaper Los Tiempos quoted the head of Bolivia\u2019s army as saying that Arce remained president \u201cfor the time being\u201d, although as the hours passed Arce seemed to reassert control. The president confronted Z\u00fa\u00f1iga as he entered the palace and was filmed instructing the general to stand his troops down: \u201cI am your captain. Obey my orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By late afternoon Arce had named a new military high command and reports suggested troops and armoured vehicles were withdrawing from Plaza Murillo in La Paz\u2019s historic centre, where the seemingly botched rebellion had played out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new army chief, Jos\u00e9 Wilson S\u00e1nchez Vel\u00e1squez, appeared on state television alongside Arce and ordered the troops who had hit the streets to return to barracks. As he spoke, the president\u2019s supporters chanted: \u201cDemocracy! Democracy! Democracy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the evening there were reports that Z\u00fa\u00f1iga had been detained on suspicion of the crimes of terrorism and armed uprising at the entrance to the general staff headquarters in La Paz. Footage showed him being driven away in a white police pickup truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tensions have been building in Bolivia ahead of general elections in 2025, with leftist Morales planning to run against former ally Arce, creating a major rift in the ruling socialist party and wider political uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Z\u00fa\u00f1iga said recently that Morales should not be able to return as president and threatened to block him if he attempted to do so, which led Arce to remove Z\u00fa\u00f1iga from his post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahead of the attack on the presidential palace, Z\u00fa\u00f1iga had addressed reporters in the square and cited growing anger in the landlocked country, which has been battling an economic slump with depleted central bank reserves and pressure on the boliviano currency as gas exports have dried up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army,\u201d he said in full uniform, flanked by soldiers, insisting the action being taken was supported by the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the drama played out, Latin American leaders from across the political spectrum spoke out against the attempted power grab. Mexico\u2019s leftwing president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, denounced what she called an \u201cattack against democracy\u201d. \u201cOur unconditional support to President Lu\u00eds Arce and his people,\u201d she wrote on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venezuela\u2019s president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, urged Bolivians \u201cto defend their democracy, their constitution and their president \u2026 No to fascism! No to putschism! \u2026 How dare they try to impose a coup in the 21st century,\u201d Maduro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazil\u2019s government reportedly convened an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis with President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva telling reporters: \u201cI want democracy to prevail in Latin America. Coups have never worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking in neighbouring Paraguay, the head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, said it would not tolerate \u201cany kind of rupture of the legitimate constitutional order in Bolivia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was also condemnation from Europe, where the Spanish prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, called for democracy and the rule of law to be respected. \u201cSpain strongly condemns the military movements in Bolivia,\u201d S\u00e1nchez tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The British ambassador in Bolivia, Richard Porter, said he was carefully monitoring the situation, adding: \u201cThe United Kingdom condemns any attempt to take power by unconstitutional means.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bolivia\u2019s President Luis Arce appears to have seen off an attempt to topple his leftwing government after a dramatic afternoon in which heavily armed troops, seemingly commanded by a top army general, stormed the government palace before beating a retreat and seeing their alleged leader detained. On Wednesday afternoon Arce urged citizens to take to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[461,12],"tags":[11830,8217,5304,7358,9149,2422,5268,3782,11583,3977,11555,11287,6731,8440,9742,11606,9387,7178,911,6621,9152,5345,5491,2264,10954,10560,10342,8138,9833,1510,5572,6864,7693,12704,5396,1565,421,3805,10199,11377,3174,10722,7540,7217,5655,12778,5349,5618,4293,10480,9151,11906,5020,9178,2485,12605,5815,3080,6348,5510,8033,6571,594],"class_list":["post-43061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world-news","tag-armed-forces","tag-army","tag-attack","tag-bank","tag-bolivia","tag-brazil","tag-british","tag-cabinet","tag-capital","tag-central-bank","tag-citizens","tag-claudia-sheinbaum","tag-coup","tag-crisis","tag-da","tag-democracy","tag-detained","tag-disturbances","tag-election","tag-europe","tag-evo-morales","tag-foreign-minister","tag-gas","tag-government","tag-international","tag-la","tag-law","tag-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-meeting","tag-mexico","tag-military","tag-ministers","tag-national-security","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-peace","tag-pedro","tag-police","tag-president","tag-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-presidential","tag-prime-minister","tag-removed","tag-reserves","tag-sacked","tag-security","tag-seized","tag-social-media","tag-soldiers","tag-spain","tag-spanish","tag-terrorism","tag-the-general","tag-the-vice-president","tag-troops","tag-truck","tag-uk","tag-uniform","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us","tag-venezuela","tag-video","tag-white","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43063,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43061\/revisions\/43063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}