{"id":268550,"date":"2024-06-29T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T03:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=268550"},"modified":"2024-06-29T11:17:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T03:17:01","slug":"bolivia-coup-attempt-ex-army-chief-given-six-months-preventive-detention-says-prosecutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=268550","title":{"rendered":"Bolivia coup attempt: Ex-army chief given six months \u2018preventive detention\u2019, says prosecutor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"General<\/a>
General Juan Jos\u00e9 Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Mac\u00edas escorted by police after the coup attempt <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

LA PAZ, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Bolivian former army chief accused of leading a failed coup attempt has been given six months \u201cpreventive detention\u201d, a top prosecutor said, as the president again denied the attack was a \u201cself-coup\u201d designed to boost his flagging popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Juan Jos\u00e9 Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Mac\u00edas has been handed charges of terrorism and armed uprising, state prosecutor Cesar Siles said. Z\u00fa\u00f1iga has said he was following an order from the president, Luis Arce, following Wednesday\u2019s fleeting insurrection in La Paz. In the moments before he was detained, the ex-army chief claimed: \u201cThe president told me the situation was fucked and that he needed something to boost his popularity.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Z\u00fa\u00f1iga is found guilty, the terrorism charge can be punished by 15-20 years in prison, and five to 15 years for armed uprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutor Siles said the attorney general\u2019s office had requested the six months detention for Z\u00fa\u00f1iga and that other government bodies, including the defence ministry and interior ministry, supported the request \u201cdue to the importance and seriousness of the events that occurred\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis preventive detention that the judge is ordering will undoubtedly set a precedent and a good signal so that this investigation can continue to advance,\u201d Siles said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with the media, Arce denied once again that the attack on the government palace was a \u201cself-coup\u201d, saying: \u201cI didn\u2019t escape, I stayed to defend democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arce claimed on Friday that Z\u00fa\u00f1iga had intended to take over the government and become president after Wednesday\u2019s events, in which heavily armed troops stormed the government palace<\/a> in La Paz before beating a retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s brief and still poorly explained mutiny, which lasted only about three hours and reportedly saw 12 people injured, was the latest convulsion to grip a notoriously volatile nation that has witnessed 190 revolutions and coups<\/a> since it gained independence in 1825.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolivia, a landlocked country of about 12.5 million citizens, is enduring a punishing economic crisis with gas exports plummeting and social unrest on the rise. To make matters worse, a bitter power struggle<\/a> is playing out between Arce and Evo Morales, the former president who helped elect him in 2020. Both men have said they plan to seek the presidency in next year\u2019s election for their party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interview, Arce denied the Andean country was experiencing an economic crisis, while also saying the infighting with Morales had snarled legislative activities and hamstrung his government\u2019s efforts to confront economic problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arce said the government \u201chas taken action\u201d to address intermittent gasoline and dollar shortages and other hurdles ailing the South American country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBolivia has an economy that\u2019s growing. An economy in crisis doesn\u2019t grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arce said his administration was working to \u201cdiversify\u201d means of producing, investing in things such as lithium and industrialisation. Bolivia has the largest reserves of lithium in the world, which have gone largely untapped, in part due to government policy. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LA PAZ, June 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Bolivian former army chief accused of leading a failed coup attempt has been given six months \u201cpreventive detention\u201d, a top prosecutor said, as the president again denied the attack was a \u201cself-coup\u201d designed to boost his flagging popularity. General Juan Jos\u00e9 Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Mac\u00edas has been handed charges of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268550"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268551,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268550\/revisions\/268551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}