Bolivia’s president accused of plotting coup against himself to boost popularity
Bolivia’s president accused of plotting coup against himself to boost popularity
Opponents say abortive raid on palace by angry ex-army chief was a stunt to bolster support
[Bolivia] has seen about 190 coups, as well as military dictatorships and revolutions, since it gained independence in 1825.
Jesus Christ. That country fucking loves coups.
That's more than one a year. That can't be right.
Looking at the Wikipedia for it, that number comes from a Washington Post country guide with absolutely no context or source to back it up. So I'm not confident that's correct. The Wikipedia article itself details less than 30 coups. They have one every few years sure, but it's not like every 9 months for 160 years someone was trying to overgrow the government.
More like American imperialism likes coups
Bolivians don't need CIA approval to plot a coup
Hell of a spin
Didn't something similar happen in Turkey with Erdogan a few years back? Pretty sure he was accused of being behind it himself too; don't know what the final verdict was though.
I think it's a pretty common accusation, just like when a politician is attacked, someone will invariably suggest that they staged it in order to get more support.
"Accused" by whom?
Just before he was detained on Wednesday, the alleged plotter Zúñiga sowed seeds of doubt, telling journalists – without providing evidence…
Burried in the EIGHTH paragraph, past the break. FML that should be in the headline, Guardian. Please do better.
“Accused” by whom?
The British, by the look of it
People will literally believe any conspiracy.
This coup looks like no other in Latin American history. Even the opposition parties denounced it, and there was virtually no division in the military
"This never happened before" does not mean "this was a false flag operation."
This is a fairly common occurrance in LATAM, the "autogolpe"
I'm not buying this shit.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It was the armoured vehicles circling the Plaza Murillo - the normally tranquil central square in historic downtown La Paz – that initially set Bolivians on edge on Wednesday afternoon.
By 2.30pm, a small tank was repeatedly ramming the gates of the neoclassical building known as Palacio Quemado until troops forced their way in and, in an extraordinary scene, the coup leader – disgruntled former army chief Juan José Zuñiga – faced off against the president, Luis Arce.
It lasted just three hours, during which time Arce rallied Bolivians to “mobilise” to defend democracy, apparently defused the mutiny in a one-on-one confrontation and appointed a new military command which ordered mutinous troops back to their barracks.
Just before he was detained on Wednesday, the alleged plotter Zuñiga sowed seeds of doubt, telling journalists – without providing evidence – that Arce had ordered him to stage a sham coup in a bid to boost the president’s flagging popularity.
In Arce’s defence, Deisy Choque, a legislator for the governing Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party, warned that the coup might have been successful “had it not been for the position taken by the president, the ministers and Bolivian society as a whole in immediately repudiating these actions”.
Amid plummeting gas exports and dwindling foreign reserves, there are growing protests over rising food prices and the scarcity of fuel and US dollars, as well as deep divisions within his political party.
The original article contains 855 words, the summary contains 237 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
So, Spiderman pointing?