Bolivian General and Military Supporters Withdraw After Apparent Coup Attempt

After trying to storm the presidential palace in Bolivia on Wednesday, members of the country’s military, led by a top general, quickly retreated in an apparent failed attempt at a coup.

Video on Bolivian television showed security forces in riot gear occupying the main square in the administrative capital, La Paz, a camouflaged tank ramming into a palace door and soldiers trying to make their way into the palace.

Then, just as quickly as they had appeared, the general, Juan José Zuñiga disappeared, and his supporters in the armed forces pulled back and were replaced by police officers supporting the country’s democratically elected president, Luis Arce.

Mr. Arce ventured onto the plaza after calling on Bolivians “to organize and mobilize against the coup and in favor of democracy.”

“Long live the Bolivian people!” he shouted in a television address. “Long live democracy!”

In all, the attempted afternoon incursion into the palace lasted just three hours. As the hours wore on, it became clear that General Zuñiga’s plan had little support and he was later taken into custody.

Local news outlets had also reported that General Zuñiga was dismissed from his position this week, which some in the country believed to be related to remarks he made about former President Evo Morales, a mentor of Mr. Arce.

The coup attempt comes at a tense moment for Bolivia, a landlocked nation of 12 million people in South America. Mr. Arce, a leftist and the handpicked successor of Mr. Morales — the country’s first Indigenous president and still a towering figuring in Bolivian politics — is battling with Mr. Morales for control over their party and who will be its candidate in a 2025 race.

Bolivia’s economy is struggling, and Mr. Arce has been accused of some undemocratic moves, including the detention of the opposition figure Luis Fernando Camacho and former President Jeanine Áñez.

Bolivia is also no stranger to political turmoil. The deeply polarized country has had 190 coups throughout its 200 years of history. And much of the military’s discontent, analysts say, stems from the feeling that they end up defending the established order, only to be punished politically, or with jail time, once a new government takes over.

“In the end, the forces of law and order often lend themselves to political movements and when there is a change of power, they are the ones who pay the consequences,” said Carlos Saavedra, a Bolivian political analyst. “They are also in the midst of political polarization and that is risky for them.”

During the attempt to take over the palace, General Zuñiga had briefly entered the building, according to local reporters, before exiting and making a speech surrounding by masked members of the security forces. He criticized the government of Mr. Arce, and said the military was attempting to install “a true democracy, not one for a few.”

He also called for the release of several politicians and members of the military who have been imprisoned, including Ms. Áñez and Mr. Camacho.

“Enough of rule by a few,” the general said. “Look where that has gotten us! Our children have no future, our people have no future, and the army does not lack the balls to fight for our children’s tomorrow.”

Shortly afterward, Mr. Arce confirmed that he was replacing General Zuñiga, the commander general of the armed forces, as well as the heads of the air force and navy.

In a statement on television, the new commanding general, José Wilson Sánchez Velásquez, urged General Zuñiga “not to spill the blood of our soldiers.”

The office of the attorney general announced Wednesday evening that it had opened an investigation into Mr. Zuñiga “and all the other participants” of the day’s events, adding that it would seek “the maximum punishment” for those responsible.

The military’s initial move on the palace was immediately criticized by some leaders in the region, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. “Coups have never worked,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, who has long expressed admiration for Mr. Arce and Mr. Morales, also condemned the attempted coup, calling Mr. Arce Bolivia’s “authentic democratic authority.”

It was under the López Obrador administration that Mexico first provided a landing spot and asylum to Mr. Morales after he stepped down in 2019 amid violent protests set off by a disputed election

Mr. Saavedra said he saw little support in the country for the coup attempt, calling it an “adventure of a small group of soldiers.”

“There is no mobilization in any other department of the country,” he said. “It seems like it is Zuñiga’s intimate group that wanted to latch on to the command of the general of the army.”

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.