(28 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz, Bolivia - 27 June 2024
1. Bolivian President Luis Arce entering briefing room
2. Wide of press conference
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luis Arce, President of Bolivia:
"We are never going to authorize weapons to be raised against the people. And what the former Army commander general did yesterday was to rise against the Bolivian people, attacking the democracy that has cost the Bolivian people blood. We are never going to do that. Never. Therefore, it is rather outrageous that he wanted to involve us as a justification for his actions and appetites, perhaps personal, perhaps for something else, some other interest."
STORYLINE:
Bolivian President Luis Arce on Thursday angrily called accusations that he was behind an attempted coup against his government “outrageous”.
Arce's comments, his first to the press since Wednesday's failed apparent coup, came after the general involved, Juan José Zúñiga, alleged without providing evidence that the president had ordered him to carry out the mutiny in a ruse to boost his flagging popularity.
"What the former Army commander general did yesterday was to rise against the Bolivian people, attacking the democracy that has cost the Bolivian people blood" Arce said during a press conference in La Paz on Thursday.
"It is rather outrageous that he wanted to involve us as a justification for his actions and appetites", he said.
Gen. Zúñiga's allegations fueled speculation about what really happened, even after the government announced the arrest of 17 people, most of them military officers. Opposition senators and government critics joined the chorus of doubters, calling the mutiny a “self-coup.”
Those claims have been strongly denied by Arce and his government. “We are never going to authorize weapons to be raised against the people,” he said Thursday.
Among the 17 people arrested are the army chief, Gen. Zúñiga, and former navy Vice Adm. Juan Arnez Salvador, who were taken into custody the day before. All face charges of armed uprising and attacks against government infrastructure, and penalties of 15 years in prison or more, said the country’s attorney general, César Siles.
The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock and bewilderment Wednesday as military forces appeared to turn on Arce, seizing control of the capital’s main square with armored vehicles, repeatedly crashing a small tank into the presidential palace and unleashing tear gas on protesters.
The president claimed that not only military officers were involved in the plan, but people retired from the military and civil society. He did not elaborate.
AP Video by Carlos Guerrero and Victor R. Caivano
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