Last updated at 8:07 p.m.

Bolivian President Luis Arce swore in a new military high command on Wednesday in an emergency ceremony after a section of the army, led by outgoing General Juan José Zúñiga, took the central square outside the seat of government in La Paz, breaking down the door with tankettes and forcing their way into the government’s headquarters.

Incoming army commander Wilson Sánchez, sworn in just minutes earlier, ordered the heavily armed troops gathered in Plaza Murillo to stand down. Bolivian TV footage showed the soldiers leaving the square.

Zúñiga had forced entry to the building, known as the Casa Grande del Pueblo, earlier on Wednesday while soldiers with guns waited outside. At around 4:30 p.m. Bolivian time (5:30 p.m. Argentine time), Bolivian television channels showed Arce coming face-to-face with Zúñiga. The recording was inaudible, but the president reportedly ordered Zúñiga to stand down. Zúñiga reportedly refused. Shouts of “Long live Lucho! [Arce’s nickname]” could be heard in the background. In Bolivia, the armed forces respond to the president.

Before the change of command, Arce gave a brief televised address flanked by his cabinet, calling on regular citizens to defend Bolivian democracy. “We need the Bolivian people to organize and mobilize against the coup d’état and in favor of democracy,” he said, adding that his government was “firm.”

Arce warned earlier that ‘irregular’ military maneuvers were taking place and called for democracy to be respected minutes before 4 p.m. Argentine time on Wednesday.

Former President Evo Morales described the army movements as an upcoming coup on X. 

“A coup d’état is brewing,” posted Morales, an Indigenous socialist who ran the country for 14 years before being forced out in a coup in November 2019. “At this moment, members of the armed forces and tanks are being deployed in Plaza Murillo. They called an emergency meeting at 3 p.m. among the joint chiefs of staff of the Army in Miraflores, with combat uniforms. We call on social movements from the countryside and the city to defend democracy.”

Arce’s government has been under pressure over dwindling international reserves as natural gas reserves that long drove Bolivia’s economic growth draw near to depletion, raising doubts over the country’s macroeconomic stability. His leadership has also been weakened by a public feud with Morales, his former mentor, dividing his party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS, by its Spanish initials) into pro-Evo and pro-Arce factions.

Morales was lauded for his achievements in reducing poverty and fighting for equality for Indigenous people, but lambasted after trying to run for a fourth term in office in 2019. Bolivia’s constitution limits presidents to two terms. The population voted to keep term limits in a 2016 referendum. 

Morales now plans to run in the 2025 elections.

Zúñiga was fired on Tuesday after saying during a television interview on Monday that Morales should not run again and that he would “defend the constitution at all costs” to stop the former leader from assuming office again.

David Inca, an activist at the El Alto Permanent Assembly on Human Rights (APDH, by its Spanish initials) and advocate for the victims of the Senkata massacre, highlighted that Bolivia’s police force had not participated in the would-be putsch. He pointed out that Zúñiga had called for members of the military currently in prison for the Áñez-era massacres to be freed. “He wanted to free all his colleagues who violated human rights in 2019,” he said. 

Families and survivors of the violence are demanding the Arce government to do more to ensure that any members of the military who were involved in human rights violations in 2019 be removed from their positions, he added.

Morales was forced from office in a coup on November 10, 2019, after contentious electoral fraud accusations sparked weeks of protests, which sometimes turned violent. Far-right Senator Jeanine Áñez assumed the presidency, presiding over two massacres in El Alto and Sacaba in the first days of her presidency.

Arce was voted into office in October 2020 with 55% of the vote against centrist rival Carlos Mesa’s 29%.

Bolivia’s union federation declares general strike

Bolivia’s main trade union federation, the Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB), called a general strike in response to the coup attempt. 

“The Bolivian Workers’ Central expresses its rejection of these unconstitutional acts [and] asks for respect for the Political Constitution of the State, respect for the democratic vote of the people, which is sovereign, which chose this constitutional government at the ballot box,” the COB leadership said in a press conference, adding that if the military did not stand down, they would call on the country’s powerful social movements to mobilize.

“From this moment, we declare ourselves in a mobilized indefinite general strike among all sectors,” the leaders concluded.

World leaders were quick to condemn the events. “From Chile, I express my concern for the situation in Bolivia,” posted Chilean President Gabriel Boric. “We express our support for democracy in our brother country and for the legitimate government of [Arce]. We emphatically condemn the unacceptable action of the forces of part of the army of that country. We cannot tolerate any rupture in the legitimate constitutional order, in Bolivia or anywhere else.”

Honduran President Xiomara Castro said she would call an emergency meeting of the CELAC member states “to condemn the fascism that is attacking democracy in Bolivia today and demand full respect for the civilian powers and the Constitution. The military forces have struck again in a criminal coup d’état. we express our unconditional support for our brother people of Bolivia, to President [Arce] and to [Morales].”

Once the military retreated, Foreign Minister Diana Mondino posted on X that “Governments, whether good or bad, whether you like them or not, can only be changed at the ballot box. Not with violent coup d’états. Democracy is non-negotiable.” She did not mention Bolivia specifically and the Foreign Ministry did not offer additional comment.