Two Bolivian army leaders have been arrested after soldiers and tanks took up position in front of government buildings on Wednesday 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.

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”.

Shortly thereafter, AFP reporters saw soldiers and tanks pulling back from the square. The uprising lasted about five hours.

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

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

“No one can take away the democracy we have won,” Arce said from a balcony of the government palace in front of hundreds of supporters.

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

Earlier Arce had urged “the Bolivian people to organise and mobilise against the coup d’etat in favour of democracy”, in a 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.

Right before he was arrested, Zuniga told reporters that it was actually the president who told him to stage an uprising, thus triggering 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.”

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

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

Zuniga’s anti-democratic remarks

Bolivia is deeply polarised after years of political instability and the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) 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.

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 criticised 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. 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, rumours have swirled that Zuniga was on the verge of being dismissed.

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.

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.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday called for “respect for democracy and the rule of law,” in a message on X.

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