Coup d’état foiled in Bolivia, after General Juan José Zuniga was arrested who had led the army with the aim of taking control of the square in La Paz where the government offices are located and the military police stormed the Presidential Palace. In a video message, President Luis Arce warned that democracy was at risk and called on citizens to take to the streets to stop the attempt to overthrow him.
“We need the Bolivian people to mobilize and organize against this coup and in favor of democracy,” Arce said in a video message filmed in the Great House of the People, the official presidential residence in Bolivia’s de facto capital, La Paz. Flanked by members of his cabinet, Arce declared: ”We cannot allow, once again, coup attempts that cause Bolivian casualties”. The ministers echoed him by shouting: ”long live the Bolivian people! Long live democracy! Long live our president Luis Arce!”.
“We denounce to the international community an attempted coup against our democratically elected government,” Vice President David Choquehuanca tweeted. In a video message, Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa Lunda said that some army units had launched an attack on “democracy, peace and national security.”
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