Connect with us

News

Bolivian Army Leaders Arrested After Coup Attempt

Published

on

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Police officers stand guard at Plaza Murillo in La Paz on June 26, 2024. Bolivian President Luis Arce on Wednesday slammed an attempted “coup d’etat” after soldiers and tanks deployed outside government buildings and tried to knock down a door of the presidential palace, before pulling back. (Photo by AIZAR RALDES / AFP)

Two Bolivian army leaders were arrested Wednesday after soldiers and tanks took up position in front of government buildings in what President Luis Arce called an attempted coup.

The troops and tanks entered Plaza Murillo, a historic square where the presidency and Congress are situated, in the afternoon, prompting global condemnation of an attack on democracy.

Advertisement

One of the tanks tried to break down a metal door of the presidential palace.

Surrounded by soldiers and eight tanks, the now-dismissed army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga said the “armed forces intend to restructure democracy, to make it a true democracy and not one run by the same few people for 30, 40 years.”

AFP reporters saw soldiers and tanks pulling back from the square shortly after. The uprising lasted about five hours.

Zuniga was captured and forced into a police car as he addressed reporters outside a military barracks later on Wednesday, footage on state television showed.

Advertisement

“General, you are under arrest,” Deputy Interior Minister Jhonny Aguilera told Zuniga.

A second senior military officer Juan Arnez Salvador, who was head of the Bolivian navy, was also arrested Wednesday night.

Salvador’s arrest was announced by Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo, who said that Zuniga and Arnez are “two military coup leaders who tried to destroy democracy and the institutionality of our country and failed.”

Speaking from a balcony of the government palace, Arce told hundreds of supporters that “No one can take away the democracy we have won.”

Advertisement

He had urged “the Bolivian people to organize and mobilize against the coup d’etat in favor of democracy,” in an earlier televised message to the country alongside his ministers inside the presidential palace.

He fired Zuniga and Salvador and swore in a new set of military leaders.

Before he was arrested, Zuniga told reporters that the president had told him to stage an uprising, in order to trigger a crackdown that would make him look strong and boost his sagging approval rating.

At a meeting Sunday, the general said, Zuniga asked Arce “so we bring out armored vehicles?” He said the president answered, “bring them out.”

Advertisement

Arce’s instructions were to “stage something to raise his popularity,” Zuniga said.

Former president Evo Morales wrote on social media platform X that “a coup d’etat is brewing” and urged a “national mobilization to defend democracy.”

– Zuniga’s anti-democratic remarks –
Bolivia is deeply polarised after years of political instability and the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party is riven by internal conflict between supporters of Arce and his former mentor Morales.

Morales, who was Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, was extremely popular until he tried to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term in office in 2019.

Advertisement

The leftist and former coca union leader won that vote but was forced to resign amid deadly protests over alleged election fraud, and fled the country.

He returned after Arce won the presidency in October 2020.

Since then a power struggle has grown between the two men, and Morales has increasingly criticized the government and accused it of corruption, tolerating drug trafficking, and sidelining him politically.

Six months ago, the Constitutional Court disqualified Morales from the 2025 elections, however he is still seeking nomination as the MAS candidate.

Advertisement

Arce has not said whether he will seek re-election.

Zuniga appeared on television on Monday and said he would arrest Morales if he insisted on running for office again in 2025.

“Legally he is disqualified, that man cannot be president of this country again,” he said.

Since that interview, rumors have swirled that Zuniga was on the verge of being dismissed

Advertisement

Calls for calm –
The US administration of Joe Biden said it was keeping a close eye on events in Bolivia and “calls for calm,” according to a spokesperson for the National Security Council.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply concerned” by events in Bolivia and called on all actors, including the military, to “protect the constitutional order and to preserve a climate of peace”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Condemnations of the troop movements also poured in from across Latin America, with leaders of Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela calling for democracy to be respected.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X: “I am a lover of democracy and I want it to prevail throughout Latin America. We condemn any form of coup d’etat in Bolivia.”

Advertisement

The Organisation of American States (OAS) said the international community would “not tolerate any form of breach of the legitimate constitutional order in Bolivia.”

AFP

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

BREAKING: Jubilation As PDP Wins All 30 LGs In Osun State(See winners)

Published

on

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC, has announced that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won all the local government and councillorship positions in the just concluded local government elections in the state.

The Chairman of the Commission, Hashim Abioye, made this announcement via a Facebook Live broadcast on Saturday evening.

Abioye stated that PDP candidates secured all the councillorship seats in all 332 wards in the state, as well as the chairmanship elections in all 30 local government council areas.

Advertisement

The names of the PDP chairmanship candidates and their respective local government council areas:

Babalola Wasiu Kayode – Boripe

Okunade Oluwafemi Adesanya – Egbedore

Adeyenuwo Rotimi John – Ife Central

Advertisement

Agboola Francis Olajire – Obokun

Azeez Lateef Adeniran – Isokan

Aina Abayomi Adesina – Boluwaduro

Sodiq Samuel Oluwapelumi – Ola Oluwa

Advertisement

Ajibade Oluwatoyin S. – Irepodun

Adebanjo Oladiti Tunmininu – Ilesa West

Ibironke Alade Adegboye – Atakumosa East

Aroke Muyiwa Aderemi – Ife South

Advertisement

Kolade Obafemi Kolawole – Olorunda

Moshood Adekunle Kabiru – Iwo

Awotunde Abiodun Sarafadeen – Ifelodun

Akande Taiwo Adekunle – Osogbo

Advertisement

Dada Feyisayo Ajibola – Atakumosa West

Amodu Taiwo – Ede North

Atolagbe Kayode Olayinka – Ifedayo

Akande Michael O. – Ife North

Advertisement

Adeyekun Taiwo Adebayo – Oriade

Adeniran Adenike Felicia – Ayedaade

Afolabi Oyekola Lukman – Ede South

Odunyemi Haruna Bukola – Ife East

Advertisement

Jooda Ambali Babajide – Irewole

Adewale Adeyinka Oluwaseun – Odo Otin

Ogunbiyi Solomon Akinyemi – Ayedire

Raimi Adenike Nafisat – Ejigbo

Advertisement

Adebisi Jayeola Nasir – Ila

Ilesanmi Taiwo Sunday – Ilesa East

Alade Aderemi Fatai – Orolu

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

DSS arrests three for assaulting operatives during LSHA crisis

Published

on

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested three persons linked to the alleged assault on its officers during the crisis that rocked the Lagos State House of Assembly, following the removal Mudashiru Obasa, as Speaker

Apparently sensing danger, some lawmakers had mobilized their supporters to the Assembly Complex, but these supporters allegedly attacked some DSS officers who were invited by the Assembly leadership to secure the facility. Security sources revealed that “after extensive analysis of CCTV footage, we were able to clearly identify three of the suspects”.
“The suspects, Ibrahim Olanrewaju Abdulkareem, a photographer and two others attached to the Assembly’s Seargent at Arms, Adetu Adekunle Samsudeen and Adetola Oluwatosin Fatimoh, a lady, were consequently tracked and arrested during the week in different parts of Lagos,” The trio have since confessed to the crime and will soon be charged to court, the source said.

It would be recalled that the Lagos Assembly had in a leaked memo dated 14th February, 2025 and addressed to the DSS Director in the State, and Heads of other Security Agencies in Lagos State, told the Security Agencies in Lagos that, there was credible information to the effect that, Obasa had planned to forcefully reinstate himself today, February 18, 2025.
Accordingly, the Assembly management, held the view that, the development posed “a potential security threat” to it and its members.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Police seal OSSIEC office, officials nabbed, says chairman

Published

on

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC), Hashim Abioye, has claimed that the police have sealed off the headquarters in Osogbo.

In a video post on the OSSIEC X handle, Abioye accused the police of also arresting election officials and blocking journalists from covering the local government election.

According to him, several OSSIEC officials were detained while on their way to polling units on Saturday.

Advertisement

Attempts by our correspondent to reach Abioye for further details proved abortive as his telephone line was switched off.

The OSSIEC chair, in the post, assured voters that materials had been deployed to affected areas.

So far so good, the reports have been positive and the conduct has been very smooth and peaceful as against the false alarm raised by the police. Everywhere is calm,” Abioye said.

“The only thing is that in some of the areas in which materials are supposed to have arrived for voters to cast their votes, we had reports of police arresting our officials.

Advertisement

“I don’t know on whose order because there is no court order that warranted the arrest of officers of our officials.

“As it is, we have deployed materials to those units because we have enough on the ground.

For our people in the media community, I want to apologise for the inadequacy of the tags and the jackets because we have enough but the police sealed our office and that was not warranted at all.”

Abioye’s comments come after police had called for the local government election to be called off by the state government, citing a security threat.

Advertisement

In a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, on Friday, the Police said it received credible intelligence indicating a likelihood of violence and significant security threats should the planned elections proceed.

The police explained that reports gathered from joint intelligence gathering revealed that various groups, including political elements and other interested parties, are mobilising to instigate unrest, disrupt public peace and undermine the democratic order.

However, the Osun State government acknowledged the police’s advice but insisted on going on with the election.

Channels Television reports that the election eventually went on as scheduled on Saturday.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 Naija Blitz News