President Luis Arce talks about General Zuñiga’s statements
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
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00:00Okay, according to the alleged information that Zúñiga would have told us, we were never informed about what he was trying to do.
00:20And of course, we were surprised.
00:30And I'm going to join that with another question that you made.
00:41There are several things that have been said about the statements made by General Zúñiga as former commander of the army that deserve a major analysis.
01:01We have to emphasize, they're trying to emphasize one thing, but there are several things that have to be emphasized.
01:10Some of them are contradictory.
01:14For example, as a result of what I have mentioned, we knew he knew that we were going to relieve him from his charges, from his position, because loyalty cannot be paid with disloyalties.
01:38He was waiting that we pardon him for his disloyalty and for the failures of the Constitution that he was making.
01:51He clearly said that he was acting in response to what the ministers of defense had told him.
02:12He didn't expect that we were going to make a decision of that nature.
02:21When some of you said he was going to respect the president's mandate, he responded,
02:43For the moment, yes, I will respect the orders of a general captain.
02:50He said that.
02:51You know that.
02:54But when I face him and I order him at the door of the palace to stand down the troops, he responded,
03:11No, he's not going to comply with that.
03:14He's not going to obey that.
03:17That's another main problem, because if he's not going to comply with my orders, that means that he doesn't obey what I told him.
03:29That's very clear.
03:30He was not complying with orders that his captain general was giving him.
03:40That could be a self-coup.
03:48He could have told me, if he could have told me, and he could have accepted a counter-order, because he acted on his own.
04:04That has to be clear.
04:07Also, and in the analysis that we made, the former commander of the army, in his first statements, he speaks about that we are tired, that we are bad, that we are not in good conditions, that we don't have support of the people.
04:36He tries to pull to his side those who intervened in the coup, in the previous coup, when he referred that he was going to liberate the political prisoners, and he was going to liberate Camacho and Janini.
04:57He said that.
04:59Nobody has referred to that.
05:03That's very serious.
05:05He wanted to take the government to liberate the people that have been sentenced by the justice.
05:13Nobody has analyzed that, this factor.
05:33Well, there's several things that he has said, and in the end, he's trying to justify himself with what he did.
05:46He speaks clearly that the former commander of the army, that he would have received an instruction.
06:02I gave him the instructions here before the rest of the commanders to retire, and he never obeyed that order.
06:15And he claimed that I was saying that to gain some popularity.
06:24We have demonstrated in all these times that he cannot gain popularity with the people's blood.
06:38We have come to re-vindicate that people.
06:46But afterwards, when he made those statements, he contradicted himself because he was not, because of an instruction, because he wanted to take the power.
07:02So his calculations actually failed him, and he was thinking that all the move forces were going to join him.
07:14So responding to several questions that you have made, I categorically say I have never given him an instruction of that sort.
07:39When I assumed for the first time our national government, the first commander that I met in 2020, when I met those commanders, I told them clearly
08:06that we had to sanction all militaries that participated in the coup of 2019, and I told them clearly that we would never allow the army's forces to be against the people.
08:28What he did yesterday, former General Zúñiga, was to raise himself against the Bolivian people, against democracy that has voted the people of Bolivia.
08:42So it's very outrageous to justify himself for personal interests or for something else.