An apparent coup in Bolivia founders, but the country remains in trouble
The sight of armoured vehicles ramming the presidential palace will scare investors away
The soldiers and armoured vehicles that swarmed through La Paz, Bolivia’s capital, on June 26th had one destination: the presidential palace. After a small tank repeatedly rammed its doors, soldiers pushed inside. The leader of the uprising then revealed himself as Juan José Zúñiga, the commander of the armed forces until his sacking on June 25th. “There will be a new cabinet of ministers,” he told reporters. Politicians had to “stop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army”. The army was trying to install “a true democracy”. The army, he underscored, “did not lack balls”.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Ousting in the Andes”
From the June 29th 2024 edition
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