An attempted military coup is underway in Bolivia. This afternoon (evening in Italy), army units stormed the government palace where President Luis Aree himself is with his ministers. Images broadcast live by the channel Télésur they showed dozens of soldiers arriving at a forced pace, then an armored vehicle breaking down the main door of the building under the orders of the (just dismissed) army commander Juan José Zuñiga, who himself entered the building accompanied by armed soldiers and with their faces covered. It is currently unclear to what extent army insurgents have taken control of this and other key state headquarters. “Enough is enough, the country cannot continue like this,” Zuñiga said in a brief statement to the press before making his entrance, soon announcing the installation of a new government. The vice president, David Choquehuanca, denounced to the entire international community that a “coup d'état” is underway against the elected government of La Paz, while messages immediately arrived from the rest of the Latin America condemning what is happening from the leaders of countries like Argentina (Alberto Fernández) and Chile (Gabriel Boric), followed on behalf of the EU by that of the High Representative for Foreign Policy, the Spanish Josep Borrell.
The clash at the top and the role of Morales
The violent action of the military – on the one hand, it remains to be understood to what extent it is relevant – comes the day after the dismissal of Zúñiga from the post of army commander. A decision that the government had in turn decided after having made serious threats against the socialist government in place and against the former president, still very influential in the country, Evo Morales. “He cannot become president of this country again,” Zúñiga declared on television on Monday, saying he was ready to intervene to avoid such a scenario and recalling that the Bolivian armed forces are “the armed arm of the people and the homeland “. An incendiary proclamation to which Morales himself responded promptly, speaking of threats “unheard of in a democracy” likely to foreshadow the most harmful scenario: “Our democracy is now more than ever in danger”, he warned. Guessing what would happen less than 48 hours later.
International reactions
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