Bolivia’s president says general accused of leading failed coup wanted to ‘take power’ as president

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian President Luis Arce said Friday that a former general is considering “taking over” the government and becoming president. in a failed coupand he denied that the Andean nation was in economic crisis.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the embattled leader once again denied that Wednesday’s attack on the government palace was a “deliberate coup” intended to score him political points.

“I didn’t run away. I stayed to defend democracy,” Arce said.

Arce washed his hands Claims from relatives of 21 people detained by the government that they were innocent of attempting a coup and that they had been deceived by ex-general. Juan José Zúñiga.

“It’s a problem of those who were involved, it’s not the government’s problem,” Arce told AP.

Arce also said his government had been “politically attacked” by his former ally turned rival, former President Evo Morales, saying infighting hampered legislative activities and paralyzed his government faced with economic problems.

Despite this, he said, Bolivia’s economy is growing and his government is working to “diversify” the means of production, investing in products like lithium and industrializing. Bolivia has the largest reserves of lithium – a metal known as “white gold” and considered essential to the green transition – in the world, which have remained largely untapped, in part because of government policy.

Bow said the government “has taken steps” to address intermittent shortages of gasoline and dollars and other obstacles that are hurting the South American nation’s economy.

“Bolivia has a growing economy. An economy in crisis does not grow,” he said.

He said it was “totally normal” for Bolivians to run to stockpile food in supermarkets and rush to vending machines when they witness an imminent coup in the capital, instead of heeding his call to take to the streets to support the government.

He said Bolivians were traumatized by the political unrest of 2019 that led Morales to resign as president and flee and also left 37 people dead.

“Where there is a political situation, this rupture, a coup, of course people will be afraid that there will be no food… so they will go looking for money to stock up on provisions,” Arce said.

He added that the government was investigating whether the attack had been organized by the country’s political opposition. On the same day, Arce’s government minister, Eduardo del Castillo, said the government had claimed there were “snipers who did not arrive in time at Murillo Square” where the coup took place.

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Associated Press journalist Paola Flores in La Paz contributed to this report.