The President of Bolivia, Luis Arce Catacora, discusses the failed coup attempt and incidents of June 26th, 2024, before journalists in a press conference from La Paz, Bolivia. teleSUR
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00We go live to La Paz, Bolivia, where President Luis Arce is offering statements 24 hours
00:10after the country faced down a failed coup attempt.
00:15I'm here to solve this problem.
00:23Despite the fact that our ministers have been informing in Casa Grande all this time, we've
00:36been here following up on what happened for us, for the President.
00:49The information that is arriving is actually in the afternoon.
01:00Between 11 o'clock and 12, we were meeting with the comrades of the Unity of Trade Unions.
01:15We participated there, and we decided in the middle of the event, our defense minister
01:33wanted to communicate with us urgently, and we asked what is it about, and he just told
01:41me his concern that the commander of the army was not responding to any phone calls, and
02:01there are information that Unity's military units were heading to La Paz, and there was
02:11no instruction for those motorized units with military effectives were actually moving
02:22to La Paz.
02:25They didn't have any authorization.
02:29As our minister of defense has said, he had this news, he called the commander of the
02:37army at that moment, General ZĂșñiga, and asked him what was happening.
02:49He said that General ZĂșñiga, he didn't know how he was going to investigate.
02:56You know the attempts of the minister of defense to communicate with him.
03:06They were in contact with a commander-in-chief of a military command, and they didn't receive
03:14any communication on the part of the three commanders of the forces.
03:21In Bolivia, we have three forces, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Army.
03:30This is our army.
03:32The three commanders didn't respond to the calls.
03:39The chief commander was asking for information and didn't receive any information, and that
03:45accounts for the concern about what was happening, and that's why they just made us know that
03:53in the middle of the meeting.
03:55I ordered our defense minister to communicate himself with the chief and to insist on the
04:06phone communication with the army commander.
04:12When we personally tried to communicate with the commander, we didn't receive any response
04:30to our calls that we were doing personally.
04:35We even sent messages, and he didn't do it.
04:45Arriving at Casa Grande, I communicated with Cochihuanca, and I told him that we meet here
04:58to evaluate the situation with our vice president.
05:07We communicated with the defense minister and asked him about what he has the information.
05:16We started to evaluate with the president, with the vice president, and we heard the
05:24sirens, and when I told the minister of defense to go and see what happened, she said that
05:35it was that there were armored vehicles arriving at the square.
05:43The armored vehicles were actually coming down the street and taking all the corners
05:48of the square.
05:50Additionally, a little bit later, military police units were getting inside the square,
06:10and we clearly realized that it was an attempt, an acute attempt.
06:20We contacted all our ministers to come to Casa Grande to evaluate the situation, and
06:35we ordered everybody and all the population to inform the population what was happening.
06:44We wrote the tweet that you know, and little by little, we saw that the Plaza Murillo were
06:54being taken by the military.
07:00Immediately, our government minister called me and was in the middle of the square, and
07:08he was trying to get into the square.
07:12He wanted to try to speak with the person that was at the head of the operation.
07:19He couldn't contact that person.
07:24He came to Casa Grande and informed us of the armored vehicles, that General Zuniga,
07:32the Vice Admiral, and they were the ones that were heading personally in Plaza Murillo.
07:41Simultaneously, the police commander arrives, that also informed us that he was summoned
07:52by these commanders to join in to this coup attempt.
08:06The police commander told us that his decision was to deny, to say no, to join in those actions.
08:20Ten years, ten days before, in the anniversary of the police, he had said that he would defend
08:27the democracy.
08:30I evaluated that attitude, and of course, the situation was very clear, and we saw the
08:42images that were being broadcast by social media.
08:49We saw the intention to penetrate with this armored vehicle to this Palacio Quemado.
09:04We took the decision to go down and talk to the people that were there.
09:12At that moment, we were receiving demonstrations of solidarity from governments around the
09:19area, from international organizations, from social organizations.
09:25We also saw expression of support.
09:31The communique that was issued by the Central Union of Bolivia was to order an undeniafied
09:41strike.
09:46The Central Union of Trade Unions was also joined by other organizations.
09:58In addition to what we saw that was happening around the Plaza Murillo, where the people
10:06gathered there around the area, they were just facing the air forces that were there,
10:21because the air forces were actually against the people.
10:25We took the decision to go down and to face those who were heading this failed coup attempt.
10:36To face them, I had the command baton that characterizes me to characterize the general
10:48captain of air forces that is also used in the public acts.
10:58I take the baton.
10:59I go down to be able to face those who were heading the coup operation.
11:12To the three commanders, I ordered them to stand down, and to General ZĂșñiga, I ordered
11:26to redeploy all the forces, all the military forces that were deployed there in Plaza Murillo.
11:36General ZĂșñiga answered me that he was not going to comply with my orders, in spite of
11:43the fact that I was showing him the baton of command, which accredited me as a general
11:52captain of the air forces in Bolivia.
11:55He didn't comply with that.
12:00I also told them to advise Almarro, who was also on the same line of not complying with
12:09my orders.
12:16I also faced and told the same thing to the air force general, and I also insisted on
12:27this action, insisted about the consequences of what they were doing, and they were violating
12:36the proper rules of the air forces.
12:46They just left the area where they were standing.
12:54It was clear at that moment that we have talked with the Minister of Defense.
13:03In the moment that we were observing what was happening in the square, I was communicating
13:11with our Minister of Defense, and he told me who was the person that was at the head
13:21of this coup attempt.
13:26So I ordered him, to our Minister of Defense, that we should make an urgent change of our
13:34commanders so that he can bring the three commanders that the day before we had determined.
13:47What does this mean?
13:48The day before, on Tuesday, General ZĂșñiga, with any authorization, made statements that
14:05were not in line with the government line and which violated our political constitution.
14:12At that moment, I met rapidly with the Minister of Presidency and Minister of Defense.
14:23We analyzed this issue, and we decided that ZĂșñiga was violating the policy of the state,
14:38and also the members.
14:41He was violating our constitution, and we would not allow that.
14:46I ordered the Minister of Presidency to meet, as you know.
14:53I had a meeting with the governors, a meeting that was extended up to 7, 7.30 in the evening,
15:02and I knew that meeting was going to be long, and I ordered the Minister to meet with ZĂșñiga
15:12and to let him know about our decision to separate him from the command of the army.
15:23I was told afterwards, this Minister that I had met with ZĂșñiga, and they ended the
15:37meeting where ZĂșñiga said that he had understood that he had exceeded his statement and that
15:46he was willing to be in the hands of the decision that was to be taken, which the decision
15:53was communicated to ZĂșñiga at that moment.
15:59So that's why one of his statements that he made at the door of the Palacio Quemado
16:04really talks, speaks about loyalty and disloyalties, but the true thing, the real thing, we would
16:17not allow, we could not allow something that violated the constitution of a state, and
16:24we had to act in consequence.
16:29That way you are witness, we went to Casa Grande and we positioned ourselves, we appointed
16:39the new commanders of the military forces.
16:44This chronology that we have set is for you to know it, I know that you've been here
16:53with us from the first moment facing this coup attempt.
17:12Of course, in those moments, so tense that we were living through, the most important
17:24thing has been the people, the Bolivian people that has mobilized, and they saw that the
17:34military army was shooting at them.
17:41Some of them actually had to be treated surgically because they were hit, they were wounded.
17:50When one faces what kind of a situation, many things pass through your head, and I remember
17:58in those moments when I saw those armed vehicles in those corners in 2019, also the coup, I'm
18:16sorry, 1979, at the head of Latouche, the 1980 coup, GarcĂa Mesa, young, in that moment,
18:36the people were making barricades at the University of San Andrés also, facing the
18:49tanks that were supporting the coup at that time, and I was remembering what happened
18:58in 2019.
18:59Of course, when the coup was carried out, the armored vehicles were not there as it
19:08was yesterday.
19:12The armored vehicles came afterwards, and the repression of the Bolivian people was
19:17after the coup, and I remember that repression period in 2019, but also that moment we also
19:31remember everything that we have passed in our electoral campaigns when we had our brothers
19:41and sisters in our shoulders when we were campaigning, when they were telling us what
19:49they had suffered for the coup of that year, 2019, 2020.
20:00We remember the campaigns, 2020, and we remember how, together with the Bolivian people, we
20:09were facing that, and we also could remember how, together with the Bolivian people, we
20:15celebrated the recovery of the democracy, and that gave us the courage to face the putschist
20:29that was trying to enter the Palace of Government panels, as afterwards were known by the statements
20:37by the ZĂșñiga in the prosecutor's office and in other instances.
20:47What they tried to do was to take the government.
20:51That's what I can say, inform now about what we have known from here, where ministers and
21:00vice ministers have been firmed as one man facing this coup attempt, that one doesn't
21:14know what consequence it would have had.
21:18We have the convictions, the democracy, and we, in the campaign of 2020, we said that
21:27we were going to express, to defend the democracy and recover the democracy for the Bolivarian
21:34people, for the Bolivian people.
21:35So that's why we faced this decisively to stop that coup attempt that we unfortunately
21:46considered that happened.
21:49These are the details that I can share with you that we have lived through in Casa Grande.
21:54Well, if you have any doubt, I can answer any questions.