General Juan José Zúñiga, head of the Bolivian Army, has declared that together with three commanders of the armed forces, he will take the presidential palace and change the Cabinet, while the military gasses the population concentrated around Murillo Square.
At this moment, soldiers are entering the Casa Grande del Pueblo (government headquarters) dressed in combat gear.
The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, in his X account denounced irregular mobilizations of some units of the Bolivian Army. Democracy must be respected,” he wrote.
Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa spoke in the same sense, with a call to the international community in the face of the coup attempt and requesting international condemnation.
The state channel Bolivia TV showed how the Military Police with riot shields are preventing the free movement of people, and how they gassed civilians who tried to approach the Casa Grande del Pueblo.
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has denounced this Wednesday an alleged “quartering” of the Armed Forces.
“For an hour now, division commanders have been instructing regiment commanders to immediately return to their barracks to await new dispositions (quartering).
“This raises many suspicions of the military movement in Bolivia,” he wrote on his X account.
The people have begun to mobilize towards Plaza Murillo with slogans in defense of democracy.
The Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, denounced on the state channel that the troops took over the corners of the Casa Grande del Pueblo, the Chancellery and the Legislative Assembly.
She indicated that apparently it is General Zúñiga’s response after his dismissal today for issuing deliberative statements in the political sense, which constitutes a break in the constitutional order.
