17 people have been arrested in an attempted coup that has rocked Bolivia, the government says

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s government announced Thursday that a total of 17 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the coup attempt that rocked the economically troubled country a day earlier.

The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock and bewilderment on Wednesday as military forces appeared to turn against the government of President Luis Arce, taking control of the capital’s main square with armored vehicles, crashing a tank into the presidential palace and unleashing tear gas. the protesters. In the following hours, the army general who led the coup attempt, Juan José Zúñiga, and an alleged co-conspirator, former Vice Adm. Juan Arnez Salvador, were arrested and remain in custody.

Senior cabinet member Eduardo del Castillo did not give details about the other 15 people who were arrested. He said one was a civilian identified as Aníbal Aguilar Gómez, whom he called the “credit” of the failed coup.

Del Castillo said the government is pursuing more suspects and that the alleged conspirators began plotting in May.

Supporters of Bolivia’s president rallied outside his palace on Thursday, giving the embattled leader some political air as they chanted pro-democracy slogans.

Riot police guarded the palace doors, and Arce—who struggled to manage the country’s currency and fuel shortages—convicted Zúñiga.

Analysts say the surge in public support for Arce, even if fleeting, gives him a much-needed reprieve from the country’s economic mire and political turmoil. The president is locked in a deepening rivalry with popular former president Evo Morales, his former ally who has threatened to challenge Arce in the 2025 primaries.

“The president’s leadership has been very bad, there are no dollars, there is no gas,” said La Paz-based political analyst Paul Coca. “Yesterday’s military move will help his image a bit, but it’s not a solution.”

Some protesters gathered in front of the police station where the former army general was being held, calling for him to go to jail. “It’s a shame what Zúñiga did,” said Dora Quispe, 47, one of the demonstrators. “We are in a democracy, not a dictatorship.”

Before his arrest Wednesday night, Zúñiga claimed, without providing evidence, that Arce ordered the general to carry out the coup attempt in a ploy to boost the president’s popularity. This fueled a frenzy of speculation about what really happened, with opposition senators and government critics echoing the allegations, calling the uprising a “coup d’état” – a claim strongly denied by Arce’s government.

In La Paz’s main Plaza Murillo, supporters turned to Arce, shouting “Lucho, you are not alone!” as fireworks exploded overhead. Lucho, a common nickname for Luis, also means “fight” in Spanish.

Some Bolivians said they believed General Zúñiga’s accusations on national television that the coup attempt was a hoax.

“They are playing with people’s intelligence because no one believes it was a real coup,” said lawyer Evaristo Mamani, 48.

Lawmakers and former officials also supported the allegations. “This was a setup,” said Carlos Romero, a former official in the Morales government. “Zúñiga followed the script as ordered.”

Soon after military action began, it became clear that any attempted takeover lacked significant political support. The rebellion ended without blood by the end of the working day. Arce appointed a new army commander, who immediately ordered the troops to withdraw.

“Here we are, firm, in the presidential palace to face any coup attempt,” Arce said after confronting Zúñiga. Hundreds of the president’s supporters took to the streets around the palace Wednesday night, singing the national anthem and cheering for Arce.

Authorities quickly arrested Zúñiga as his soldiers retreated from central La Paz.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Management Rich Verma condemned Zuniga’s actions and, speaking in Paraguay on Thursday, noted that “democracy remains fragile in our hemisphere.”

The short-lived uprising followed months of rising tensions between Arce and former president Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president. Morales has made a dramatic political comeback since mass protests and a deadly crackdown led him to resign and flee in 2019 — an army-backed retreat that his supporters hail as a coup.

Morales has vowed to run against Arce in the 2025 election, despite a Constitutional Court ruling that said he was ineligible because he had already served. The prospect of Morales running again has shaken Arce, whose popularity has plummeted as the country’s foreign exchange reserves dwindle, its natural gas exports decline and its currency’s peg to the U.S. dollar collapses.

The cash crunch has intensified pressure on Arce to scrap food and fuel subsidies that have strained state finances, a flammable move ahead of the election.

Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo said Wednesday’s unrest had its roots in a private meeting on Tuesday in which Arce fired Zuñiga over the army chief’s threats to arrest Morales if he continued to join the 2025 race .Arce also denied the legitimacy of Morales’ presidential candidacy.

In their meeting, Zuñiga gave officials no indication that he was preparing to take power, Novillo said.

“He admitted that he committed some excesses,” he said of Zuñiga. “We said goodbye in the most friendly way, with hugs. Zuñiga said he would always be with the president.”

A few hours later, panic gripped the capital, La Paz. Followed by armored vehicles and supporters, Zuñiga entered the government headquarters and declared that the armed forces sought “to restore Bolivia’s democracy.”

The influx of soldiers sent Bolivians into a frenzy, crowding ATMs, queuing outside gas stations and looting grocery stores. By one count, Bolivia has had more than 190 coup attempts and revolutions since its independence in 1825.

The country’s fragmented opposition rejected the coup before it was clear it had failed. Former interim president Jeanine Áñez, held for her role in Morales’ ouster in 2019, said soldiers sought to “destroy constitutional order” but called on both Arce and Morales not to run in the 2025 elections.

Santa Cruz Governor Luis Fernando Camacho, also detained for allegedly orchestrating a coup in 2019, demanded answers from the Arce government on Thursday.

“Was it a media show put on by the government itself, as General Zúñiga says? Was it just military madness? Was it simply another example of a lack of control?” he wrote on the X social media platform.

Zúñiga’s response was a shock, telling reporters that Arce had directly asked him to storm the palace and bring armored vehicles into downtown La Paz.

“The president told me, ‘The situation is very broken, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity,’” Zúñiga said, the Bolivian leader told him.

Bolivian officials have denied Zúñiga’s claims, insisting the general lied to justify his actions. Prosecutors said they would seek the maximum sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison for Zúñiga on charges of “attacking the constitution.”

Political pundits are scrambling to understand the reasons behind Wednesday’s unrest.

“This is the strangest coup attempt I’ve ever seen,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Intelligence Network, a Bolivia-based research group. “Democracy in Bolivia remains very fragile and certainly much more fragile today than it was yesterday.”

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Paola Flores and Isabel Debre, The Associated Press