Bolivia has arrested more than a dozen high-ranking military and intelligence officials following a failed attempt to unseat the country\u2019s president in a coup allegedly led by its former army chief. <\/p>\n
The meetings were led by former army chief Gen. Juan Jose Z\u00fa\u00f1iga and former navy commander Gen. Juan Arnez, with Z\u00fa\u00f1iga\u2019s civilian personal adviser allegedly devising the \u201cstrategy\u201d of the coup, the report claims. <\/p>\n
All three men are among 17 people arrested so far in connection with Wednesday\u2019s events \u2013 most of them members of the military, the report says. Other top officials arrested include military intelligence chief Julio Buitrago. <\/p>\n
The coup attempt, which was condemned by the Bolivian government and international leaders, comes as the South American country of roughly 12 million people struggles with an economic crisis and political instability that has fueled mass street protests. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, military units led by Z\u00fa\u00f1iga \u2013 who was fired as commander of the Bolivian army just a day earlier \u2013 occupied La Paz\u2019s main Murillo Plaza as armored vehicles rammed the presidential palace door and soldiers tried to break into government offices. <\/p>\n
Hours later, President Luis Arce \u2013 who had called on the public to \u201corganize and mobilize\u201d in defense of democracy \u2013 could be seen confronting Z\u00fa\u00f1iga in the crowded palace hallway, ordering the general to withdraw his soldiers and stand down. <\/p>\n
Arce, who has been in power since 2020, later declared victory to crowds in front of the Quemado Palace after Z\u00fa\u00f1iga was handcuffed and forced into a police car. <\/p>\n
Following the coup attempt, Bolivia\u2019s defense minister Edmundo Novillo told a news conference the government had regained \u201ctotal and absolute control\u201d over its military. \u201cWe urge the population that everything goes back to normal,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
As he was being arrested Z\u00fa\u00f1iga alleged \u2013 without providing evidence \u2013 that he was acting on Arce\u2019s instructions. <\/p>\n
Arce denied the former army chief\u2019s allegations on Thursday, telling reporters the coup attempt had caught him by surprise. <\/p>\n
Bolivia, which has seen almost 40 attempted or successful coups since 1946, has been wracked by dwindling foreign currency reserves, particularly the US dollar, and shortages of fuel and other necessities. Tensions have also been rising over plans by leftist former president Evo Morales to challenge one-time Arce ally in next year\u2019s general elections. <\/p>\n
The investigation into Wednesday\u2019s events will continue until all \u201cparticipants\u201d in the coup are identified, according to the Bolivian government report. <\/p>\n
It also says the country\u2019s Air Force commander was involved with planning the failed coup, but no one of that description is included in the list of arrests. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Bolivia has arrested more than a dozen high-ranking military and intelligence officials following a failed attempt to unseat the country\u2019s president in a coup allegedly led by its former army chief. The meetings were led by former army chief Gen. Juan Jose Z\u00fa\u00f1iga and former navy commander Gen. Juan Arnez, with Z\u00fa\u00f1iga\u2019s civilian personal adviser allegedly devising <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}