Bolivia has recalled its ambassador to Argentina for consultations and called Argentina’s ambassador in for questioning after President Javier Milei’s government claimed that Wednesday’s apparent coup attempt was “fraudulent.” 

Milei’s far-right government is no stranger to diplomatic spats with left-leaning governments. But, in a rare case of Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales coinciding with a far-right leader, the Indigenous socialist ex-leader also claimed the attack had been a set-up on Sunday.

Analysts have expressed surprise at the apparent ease and speed with which the putsch was shut down, as well as the lack of support from the rest of the armed forces, leading to competing narratives of a rogue general versus an inside job. The high-profile claims now underscore the confusion and doubt surrounding the nature of Wednesday’s events — and concerns for the health of Bolivian democracy a year before the country’s next presidential elections.

On Wednesday afternoon, military regiments led by General Juan José Zúñiga forced entry into Bolivia’s presidential palace in La Paz, ramming the door with a tankette. In images that went around the world, President Luis Arce stormed downstairs to confront Zúñiga, before swearing in new military leaders in an emergency ceremony. The soldiers left the square after incoming army commander Wilson Sánchez ordered them to stand down. 

Zúñiga was immediately arrested in Plaza Murillo, outside the palace. As he was taken into custody, he told the watching TV cameras that Arce had asked him to “prepare something” to boost his faltering popularity.

“The Office of the President repudiates the false report of a coup d’état from the government of Bolivia on the date of Wednesday, 26 June, and confirmed as fake today,” Milei’s communications office wrote in a statement posted to X. “Thanks to intelligence reports, the National Government kept its calm and serenity in the face of the reported events. The account that was spread lacked credibility and the arguments did not fit with the socio-political context of the Latin American country.”

It continued that Bolivian democracy has long been at stake “not because of a military coup, but because historically, socialist governments develop into dictatorships,” and alleged that former interim President Jeanine Áñez and far-right leader Luis Fernando Camacho are among 200 “political prisoners” in the country. 

Bolivian Presidency Minister and interim Foreign Minister, María Nela Prado, announced on Monday that the Bolivian government would call Argentine Ambassador Marcelo Adrián Massoni to express its “emphatic rejection” of the Milei leadership’s comments. Bolivia’s ambassador to Argentina, Ramiro Tapia, is being recalled for consultations.

“Bolivia rejects unfriendly and reckless comments from the office of the republic of the Argentine presidency,” Prado read in a prepared statement that described Milei’s ideology as “fascist.”

“The misinformed and tendentious claims about the possible existence of political prisoners or the inexistence of a failed military coup d’état constitute unacceptable excesses and denialism.”

Just six weeks have passed since Spain permanently recalled its ambassador to Argentina after Milei implied that First Lady Begoña Gómez was “corrupt.” He has also lashed out against regional neighbors such as Colombian President Gustavo Petro, whom he called a “murderous communist,” and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is refusing to meet with Milei until he apologizes for insulting him. Milei has called his Brazilian counterpart an “angry communist” and “corrupt.”

Milei isn’t the only one to have publicly voiced accusations of a setup. On X, Morales wrote that Arce had “cheated and lied to the Bolivian people and to the world,” adding that he apologized to the international community for “the alarm generated.” However, he also condemned Argentina’s communiqué as “interference” on Monday afternoon. 

Arce, a mild-mannered economist who studied at Warwick University in the UK, served as Morales’s economy minister for most of his 14 years in office. After Morales was forced out in a coup in 2019, Arce became the candidate for their party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS, by its Spanish initials), in elections the following year. But their relationship quickly soured after Arce took office, and the two are now mired in a bitter feud for party control. They both plan to run in the 2025 presidential elections.

“I have never seen a coup attempt like this,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of Bolivia-based human rights and drug policy nonprofit, Andean Information Network. “Usually the military high command will get together, usually there’s international backing…the timing wasn’t right.” 

The MAS government has portrayed the events as a trial for Bolivian democracy that their leadership passed with flying colors. But irrespective of whether Arce put Zúñiga up to it or not, the events have troubling implications for constitutional order in the country.

“If Arce did arrange it then [the military] are angry now, and if he didn’t, then they’re not fully under control,” Ledebur said.