Former VP of Bolivia: Infighting Makes Us Fail to See Bigger Enemies

Orinonco Tribune, June 29, 2024 — 

The former vice-president of Bolivia (2006-2019), Álvaro García Linera, repudiated the coup attempt against Luis Arce’s government, adding that the powers that be are always on the lookout and “stick their heads out” when progressive projects are weak. In an interview with journalist Víctor Hugo Morales on the Argentinian radio channel AM750 on Thursday, June 27, García Linera called upon Latin American progressive forces to reflect on the role of the “de facto powers” that try to undermine the governments in the region.

“All over the world, in all democracies, there are de facto powers outside the vote, such as the big business oligarchies, the armed forces, and, in the case of the American continent, the US Embassy,” said García Linera just hours after the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia, where the now-detained General Juan José Zúñiga tried to enter the Palacio del Quemado (seat of the presidency of Bolivia) with tanks. The coup attempt was condemned by the Bolivian government and the presidents of all the countries in the region apart from Argentinian President Javier Milei.

“Yesterday it was the turn of a faction, a very conservative part of the Armed Forces, to act,” García Linera said about the attempted military coup, which occurred because “they saw weakness in the government.” He ruled out the version of a possible “self-coup” suggested by a sector of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), the party of Arce and Evo Morales. On Thursday, Bolivian Congressman Anyelo Céspedes Miranda told Am750 that “everything has been planned” by Arce.

García Linera, far from subscribing to the idea of a self-coup d’état, emphasized that coups are “always latent dangers that never disappear, but become more immediate when progressive governments have difficulties, when they are weak. They remain more silent when governments are strong.”

The former Bolivian VP opined that the declarations of General Zúñiga—who led the coup attempt and later, after he was arrested, claimed that it was all a plan orchestrated by Arce—”must be taken as a falsehood because he is already an arrested man who has nothing to lose.”

“These are the internal fractures that show our weakness. Internal fights make us forget greater enemies,” added García Linera, referring to the tumultuous infighting within MAS between the factions close to Luis Arce and those supportive of Evo Morales.

“There are always contradictions within progressive forces,” he added. “But when these contradictions become fundamental, we fail to see the real adversary lurking. In Bolivia, the adversary has been acting since the beginning of the year, with the assets leaving the banks. There are businesspeople who do not deposit their export dollars [to the Bolivian banking system] and prefer to leave them in their US accounts. And now, we had this coup attempt.”