“The Bolivian people are summoned today. We need the Bolivian people to organise and mobilise against the coup d’état in favour of democracy.”

A few hours later, soldiers withdrew from the square and police took control of the plaza. Bolivian authorities arrested Zuniga and took him away.

Inside the presidential palace, Arce swore in Jose Wilson Sanchez as the military commander, Zuniga’s former role. He called for calm and order to be restored.

“I order that all personnel mobilised on the streets return to their units,” Sanchez said. “We entreat that the blood of our soldiers not be spilled.”

The United States said it was closely monitoring the situation and urged calm and restraint.

Bolivia is among the world’s most politically turbulent nations, having had nearly 200 coups and revolutions since it won independence from Spain two centuries ago.

Tensions have been building in Bolivia ahead of general elections in 2025, with leftist ex-President Evo Morales planning to run against former ally Arce, creating a major rift in the ruling socialist party and wider political uncertainty.

Many do not want a return of Morales, who governed from 2006-2019 when he was ousted amid widespread protests and replaced by an interim conservative government. Arce then won election in 2020.

Zuniga said recently that Morales should not be able to return as president and threatened to block him if he attempted to, which led Arce to remove Zuniga from his post.

Ahead of the attack on the presidential palace, Zuniga had addressed reporters in the square and cited growing anger in the landlocked country, which has been battling an economic slump with depleted central bank reserves and pressure on the boliviano currency as gas exports have dried up.

“The three chiefs of the armed forces have come to express our dismay,” Zuniga told a local TV station, calling for a new cabinet of ministers.

“Stop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army,” he said in full uniform, flanked by soldiers, insisting the action being taken was supported by the public.

Right before he was arrested, Zuniga told reporters that it was actually the president who told him to stage an uprising, thus triggering a crackdown that would make him look strong and boost his sagging approval rating.

At a meeting Sunday, the general said, Zuniga asked Arce “so we bring out armoured vehicles?” He said the president answered: “bring them out”.

Arce’s instructions were to “stage something to raise his popularity,” the general said.

A second senior military officer Juan Arnez Salvador, who was head of the Bolivian navy, was also arrested Wednesday night.

Salvador’s arrest was announced by Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo, who said that Zuniga and Salvador are “two military coup leaders who tried to destroy democracy and the institutionality of our country and failed”.

Morales, head of the ruling MAS socialist party, said that his supporters would mobilise in support of democracy.

“We will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate people,” Morales said.

Bolivia’s public prosecutor’s office said it would launch a criminal investigation against Zuniga and others involved in the attempted coup.

Public support for Arce and Bolivia’s democracy has poured in from regional leaders and beyond.

“We express the strongest condemnation of the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia. Our total support and support for President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on X.

Even conservative political opponents of the government in Bolivia condemned the military action, including ex-president Jeanine Anez, who was imprisoned in 2022 amid political turmoil.

“I fully reject of the mobilisation of the military in the Plaza Murillo attempting to destroy constitutional order,” she wrote on X. “The MAS with Arce and Evo must be got out through the vote in 2025. We Bolivians will defend democracy.”

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg