By Raul Castillo
Jun 30, 2024, 7:03 PM EDT
The former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, assured that President Luis Arce, of his own political formation, “deceived” the country and the world with the military uprising that occurred last Wednesday. According to Morales, it was a “self-coup.”
“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,” wrote the former Bolivian president in X. “Faced with this reality, I must apologize to the international community for the alarm generated and thank them for their solidarity with our country,” he added.
On Wednesday, June 26, the Bolivian government denounced an attempted coup d’état, after the dismissed military chief Juan José Zuñiga entered the Government Palace with a tank and surrounded the surroundings with soldiers. However, the movement came to nothing after failing to obtain further support and after Arce appointed a new military leadership.
According to Morales, the call President Arce made to him on Wednesday during the military uprising “was a fake solidarity.”
“There are several details here. Initially, until Wednesday night, and even on Thursday morning, I thought it was a coup, but now I’m confused. It seems like a self-coup,” said the leader of the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) during his Sunday program on Radio Kawsachún Coca, according to the EFE agency.
The ultra-left ex-president assured that the now imprisoned Zuñiga “will be released in six months.” The former Bolivian military chief was sentenced on Saturday by a judge to preventive detention for six months.
Morales’ version is that the intention on June 26 was to install a Military Junta headed by Zúñiga and then arrest him. He also said that he suspects that the military mobilization “was planned” by the president, to gain prestige and then “victimize himself with crocodile tears,” according to EFE.
“That day, some commanders told some of our colleagues in La Paz: ‘Take care of Evo, they are going to arrest Evo.’ And they also told them to take care of the Chimoré airport. The idea was to stop me and take me to Santa Cruz,” said the former president.
Struggle between Evo and Arce
Arce and Morales have been estranged since the end of 2021 and their differences deepened last year due to the holding of a national congress of the party in which, in the absence of the president and his loyal sectors, the former president was ratified as leader of the MAS and appointed “single candidate” for the 2025 elections.
The dispute within the ruling party increased after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) decided to annul that congress and order that a new consensual one be convened. Something on which both factions have not agreed.
Morales called for an investigation to determine if, in fact, it was a “self-coup.”
With information from EFE.
Keep reading:
- Three keys to understanding the political and economic crisis behind the coup attempt denounced by the president of Bolivia
- Bolivia: UN Secretary-General António Guterres calls for protection of constitutional order after coup attempt
- Who is Juan José Zúñiga, the general who led the military takeover of the central square in La Paz, in what the president of Bolivia called an “attempted coup d’état”