Bolivian police arrested a second former military chief for the mobilization in La Paz on Wednesday night (26).
The Interior Minister of the government of Luis Arce, Eduardo del Castillo, announced the capture of the commander of the Bolivian Navy, Juan Arnez Salvador, without giving details about the arrest.
The former officer was presented in handcuffs at a press conference, alongside the former head of the Armed Forces, Juan José Zúñiga, who was blamed for an attempted coup, but blamed the Bolivian president himself for having orchestrated the action.
The Interior Minister said at the press conference that both Zúñiga and Arnez are “military coup plotters who tried to destroy democracy and our country’s institutions and failed.”
The Attorney General’s Office announced the opening of a criminal investigation against all the soldiers who invaded the Casa Grande do Povo, the government headquarters, this Wednesday.
At around 4pm local time (4:51pm in Brasília) yesterday, a tank broke down the gate of the Bolivian Executive headquarters after the general commander of the Army, Juan José Zuñiga, now dismissed, threatened to take over the government and remove authorities from power.
Zuñiga said he would “free all political prisoners,” such as Bolivia’s former interim president Jeanine Áñez, and “reestablish” democracy in the country.
The heavily armed military decided to withdraw after Arce changed the entire military high command, due to what he called an “attempted coup d’état.”
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