(28 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz, Bolivia - 27 June 2024
1. Luis Arce, Bolivian president, entering briefing room
2. Arce speaking
3. A journalist recording Arce
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luis Arce, President of Bolivia:
"We are never going to authorize weapons to be raised against the people. And what the former Army commander general did yesterday was rise against the Bolivian people, attacking the democracy that has cost the Bolivian people blood. We are never going to do that. Never. Therefore, it is rather outrageous that he wanted to involve us as a justification for his actions and appetites, perhaps personal, perhaps for something else, some other interest."
5. Photographers
6. A security guard by journalists
7. Arce speaking
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luis Arce, President of Bolivia:
"Military intelligence worked for the Army commander and never passed information to the Ministry of Defense, much less to the President of the State. Therefore, one of the central issues was why this was being covered up and did not come to light until yesterday. Well, precisely because in the area of ​​intelligence that should have been reporting that; they should been alerting (us): they took no action."
9. Arce at the news conference
10. Arce appears in a camera screen
11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luis Arce, President of Bolivia:
"When we saw that the coup d'état was coming, I ordered to be communicated with comrade Evo (Morales), and I warned him that they were here carrying out a coup d'état so that he could take precautions, because it was clear that they were coming for me but I was also It was clear that later they were going to go for Evo Morales. Therefore, as colleagues, because in the end that is what we are, I called him to warn him and to take precautions."
12. Arce leaving the briefing room
STORYLINE:
Bolivian President Luis Arce on Thursday angrily called accusations that he was behind an attempted coup against his government “lies,” saying the general who apparently led it acted on his own.
Arce vowed the general would face justice.

His comments, his first to the press since Wednesday's failed apparent coup, came after the general involved, Juan José Zúñiga, alleged without providing evidence that the president had ordered him to carry out the mutiny in a ruse to boost his flagging popularity.

That fueled speculation about what really happened, even after the government announced the arrest of 17 people, most of them military officers. Opposition senators and government critics joined the chorus of doubters, calling the mutiny a “self-coup.”

Those claims have been strongly denied by Arce and his government. “We are never going to authorize weapons to be raised against the people,” he said Thursday. "It is rather outrageous that he wanted to involve us as a justification for his actions and appetites."

Meanwhile, Arce's supporters rallied outside the presidential palace on Thursday, giving some political breathing room to the embattled leader as authorities made more arrests in the failed coup that shook the economically troubled country.

Among the 17 people arrested are the army chief, Gen. Zúñiga, and former navy Vice Adm. Juan Arnez Salvador, who were taken into custody the day before.

All face charges of armed uprising and attacks against government infrastructure, and penalties of 15 years in prison or more, said the country's attorney general, César Siles.

The president claimed that not only military officers were involved in the plan, but people retired from the military and civil society. He did not elaborate.






Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...