Luis Arce faces siege from opposition a week after coup attempt in Bolivia

A week after General Juan José Zúñiga failed in his coup attempt against Bolivian President Luis Arce, the latter finds himself besieged by the civilian opposition, which, without providing evidence, accuses him of having falsified the facts and of a “self-coup”, and is trying to weaken the support of other countries for his government. The main critic has been former President Evo Morales, Arce’s former mentor and now his greatest political enemy. Almost all other former presidents and opposition leaders in the country also share this position.

In implicit response, The president wrote in X: “In recent years, personal, economic, national and foreign interests have joined together to try to interrupt this new stage of our history.” He added: “Not only have they grown in their aggressiveness, but also in their irresponsibility with the future of our country. These perverse interests have finally shown their true intentions in trying to return to a dark past of dictatorship.”

In connection with these events, the police have arrested two force commanders: Zúñiga and the former head of the Navy, Juan Arnés; three regiment commanders and several other retired officers and military personnel. Some are in different prisons and others under house arrest. Investigations are continuing. The official theory is that it was a previously planned movement that involved other military personnel in addition to Zúñiga’s direct subordinates.

Doubts about the real meaning of this general’s insubordination on June 26 began just two hours after he occupied Plaza Murillo, the epicenter of Bolivian political power, when he withdrew his troops without negotiating his demand for the “release of political prisoners.” Historian Pablo Stefanoni then explained that the events should be interpreted as an “armed social movement” in protest against Zúñiga’s previous dismissal from his post as Army commander. The government presented them as a “failed coup d’état” and Arce even tried to connect the military uprising with external interests in Bolivia’s natural resources.

This discourse was later challenged by Zúñiga himself, who at the time of his arrest by the police declared that it was Arce who was behind the mobilization of armored cars that he had just driven, something that the government “absolutely” denied. Social media was then filled with questions about the official version. The phrase “it was not a coup, it was fraud” was again circulated, which a part of the population had used to oppose the government’s persecution of those allegedly responsible for the overthrow of Evo Morales in 2019. Bolivia then became polarized between those who believed that Morales’ fall had been a military coup and those who thought it had been a popular revolt against the alleged fraud in that year’s elections. This time, Morales himself joined in the idea of ​​“fraud”: “President Luis Arce deceived and lied to the Bolivian people and the world. It is regrettable that such a sensitive topic as the denunciation of a coup is used. “Faced with this reality, I must apologize to the international community for the alarm generated,” he posted on June 30. Former President Carlos Mesa described what happened as “a farce.” For another former president, Jorge Quiroga, the government was “inept or complicit, or both.” Arce only responded directly to one of his predecessors: “Evo Morales, don’t be wrong once again! Clearly what happened on June 26 was a failed military coup in Bolivia. Don’t side with fascism that denies what happened!”

Following Morales’ post, and supposedly based on it, the office of Argentine President Javier Milei issued a statement on Bolivia that “repudiates the false accusation of a coup d’état” and calls for the existence of “political prisoners.” This statement and another message from Milei in the same vein strengthened Bolivian criticism of Arce. Former President Jeanine Áñez, who is in prison, congratulated and thanked the Argentine president. Morales repudiated him, because “Bolivian affairs are resolved by Bolivians.”

The opposition also welcomed the decision of the US State Department to wait for an “independent investigation” to clarify the episode, although it expressed concern about the “democratic fragility” of some countries around the world.

At the same time, the “Evist” delegates at the June 27 meeting of two leftist internationals, the Sao Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group, achieved a resolution that, while condemning the attempted coup against Arce, above all repudiates “the attempts to ban the MAS-IPSP [Movimiento al Socialismo – Instrumento Político por la Soberanía de los Pueblos] and disqualify his brother and former president Evo Morales.” The Bolivian government believes that Morales cannot participate in the 2025 elections due to a ruling by the Plurinational Constitutional Court that prohibits more than two terms in any elective office. The leftist statement exposed the political solitude in which Arce finds himself, which he will try to reverse in his meeting on July 9, in Bolivia, with the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva.

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