LA PAZ, Bolivia — Supporters of Bolivia’s president rallied outside his palace on Thursday, giving some political breathing room to the embattled leader as authorities made more arrests in in a couple that shook the economically troubled country a day earlier.
Riot police guarded the palace doors and Arce — who has struggled to manage the country's shortages of foreign currency and fuel — emerged on the presidential balcony to condemn Zúñiga and declare that “no one can take democracy away from us.” Before his arrest late Wednesday, Zúñiga alleged without providing evidence that Arce had ordered the general to carry out the coup attempt in a ruse to boost the president’s popularity. That fueled a frenzy of speculation about what really happened, and opposition senators and government critics echoed the accusations, calling the mutiny a “self-coup" — a claim strongly denied by Arce's government.
Lawmakers and former officials, particularly those allied with Morales, bolstered the allegations. “This has been a setup,” said Carlos Romero, a former official in the Morales government. “Zúñiga followed the script as he was ordered." The short-lived mutiny followed months of mounting tensions between Arce and Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president. Morales has staged a dramatic political comeback since mass protests and a deadly crackdown prompted him to resign and flee in 2019 — a military-backed ouster that his supporters decry as a coup.
Mere hours later, panic gripped the capital of La Paz. Tailed by armored vehicles and supporters, Zuñiga burst into government headquarters and declared the armed forces sought “to restore Bolivia's democracy."
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