LA PAZ: Three suspected leaders of a failed coup against Bolivian President Luis Arce were remanded in custody on Friday for six months, the country’s top prosecutor said.
Former army chief Juan Jose Zuniga, former head of navy Juan Arnez and Alejandro Irahola, former head of the army’s mechanized brigade, will be held in a high-security prison not far from the capital La Paz.
“This pre-trial detention ordered by the judge will undoubtedly set a precedent, and is a good signal for the investigation to move forward,” said Attorney General Cesar Siles.
The three officers face charges of engaging in an armed uprising and terrorism and face up to 20 years in prison, Siles said on state television.
A total of 21 active, retired and civilian military personnel were arrested in connection with Wednesday’s attempted coup, in which troops and tanks were deployed in the heart of the capital, where they tried to break down a door of the presidential palace.
Zuniga said his goal was to “restructure democracy” in Bolivia. He was soon captured and the troops pulled back.
In an unusual twist, Zuniga claimed he was following Arce’s orders and that the president had hoped for the coup to trigger a crackdown that would boost his popularity.
Arce denied the allegations. “How could one order or plan a coup on one’s self?” he told reporters.
Tensions in the Andean nation have been rising in recent weeks over surging prices, shortages of dollars and fuel, and a feud between Arce and powerful former president Evo Morales ahead of the 2025 election.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced Thursday that he would soon visit his “friend” Arce to support him following the unrest.
Russia “strongly” condemned the attempted military coup, its foreign ministry said Thursday, warning against “destructive foreign interference” in the South American country.
UN chief Antonio Guterres “welcomes the peaceful resolution of the situation,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, having earlier expressed alarm over the abortive coup.
Condemnations of the coup bid also poured in from Madrid, Washington and across Latin America.
Bolivia, which has a long history of military coups, has in recent weeks been rocked by an economic crisis due to a drop in natural gas production, its main source of foreign currency until 2023.
The country has had to reduce fuel imports, and there is a shortage of dollars, which has triggered protests by powerful unions of merchants and freight transporters.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of government at Cornell University in New York state, said the failed coup was “a symptom of a significant and broad discontent” in the country.
For now, “we must carefully evaluate how widespread the discontent is within the armed forces,” he said, adding that Arce’s government was facing “a critical moment of weakness.”
Bolivia is also deeply polarized after years of political instability, and the ruling Movement Towards Socialism party is riven by internal conflict between supporters of Arce and his former mentor Morales.
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Suspected leaders of failed Bolivian coup remanded in custody
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Suspected leaders of failed Bolivian coup remanded in custody
- A total of 21 active, retired and civilian military personnel arrested in connection with attempted coup
- Former army chief Juan Jose Zuniga claims he was following Bolivian President Luis Arce orders to boost his popularity
Rogue Catholic traditionalists risk showdown with Vatican
- Switzerland-based Society of Saint Pius X to go ahead with the bishop ordinations on July 1
- Ordaining bishops without the Vatican’s approval would mean excommunication
PARIS: A Catholic community wedded to tradition is preparing to defy Pope Leo XIV by ordaining new bishops without his approval, raising the specter of a new schism within the Church.
It reignites a long-standing power struggle between Rome and traditionalists who are angered by threats to old-age rites, such as the use of Latin in church.
The Switzerland-based Society of Saint Pius X, which has about 600,000 followers worldwide, said this week it would go ahead with the ordinations on July 1, after a diplomatic outreach came to nothing.
The society (SSPX) said it had asked for an audience with the US pontiff, who was elected in May, but received an unsatisfactory response.
Ordaining bishops without the Vatican’s approval would mean excommunication — being expelled outright from the Catholic Church.
It would not be the first time: the society was founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but clashed with Rome almost immediately.
It rejected the reforms introduced under the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which sought to bring the Church into the modern era, including by restricting the Tridentine mass.
SSPX refused to stop performing the mass, which is conducted in Latin by a priest who keeps his back to the congregation, in a ceremony marked by incense and Gregorian chants.
By 1975, the Vatican had stripped the society’s ministers of all authority.
Undeterred, Lefebvre illicitly ordained four bishops in 1988, resulting in immediate excommunication.
‘Force this through’
By threatening to ordain more bishops, the society risks undoing efforts to improve relations with the Vatican under recent popes.
Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication in 2009 and his successor Francis said SSPX priests can celebrate marriages in traditionalist churches under some circumstances.
But since Leo was elected last year, “they haven’t stopped criticizing the pope,” Martin Dumont, head of the Institute for Research on the Study of Religions at the Sorbonne University, said.
And any fresh attempt to ordain new bishops would be seen by Rome as a direct threat to the unity of the Church.
“The act they are about to commit is schismatic in spirit,” Dumont said.
The society’s decision to forge ahead with ordaining its own bishops has not come as a surprise.
“They are trying to force this through, but it’s been in the works for several years now,” Dumont said.
SSPX, which has 720 priests but now only two bishops, claims its survival is at stake.
It needs more bishops because it has around 600,000 followers worldwide and the number is “growing in a number of countries,” notably France, Germany and the United States, Dumont said.
‘Bridge the gap’
Leo is keen to preserve Church unity and has made concessions toward traditionalists, notably by authorizing use of the Tridentine mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, head of the Vatican’s department for doctrinal matters, has offered to meet with the society in Rome on February 12, it said.
“Rome has always extended a hand, saying: ‘Come back, we are ready to welcome you,’” Dumont said.
A canon lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity said one solution could be to “find bishops to bridge the gap between the two sides.”
But he warned the bishop question masked “a much deeper problem,” namely “the fact that they do not recognize the Second Vatican Council.”
Pushing through with the ordination of new bishops means one thing only, the lawyer said.
“Canon law is very clear: if bishops ordain other bishops without a papal mandate, they are automatically excommunicated,” he said.
It reignites a long-standing power struggle between Rome and traditionalists who are angered by threats to old-age rites, such as the use of Latin in church.
The Switzerland-based Society of Saint Pius X, which has about 600,000 followers worldwide, said this week it would go ahead with the ordinations on July 1, after a diplomatic outreach came to nothing.
The society (SSPX) said it had asked for an audience with the US pontiff, who was elected in May, but received an unsatisfactory response.
Ordaining bishops without the Vatican’s approval would mean excommunication — being expelled outright from the Catholic Church.
It would not be the first time: the society was founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but clashed with Rome almost immediately.
It rejected the reforms introduced under the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which sought to bring the Church into the modern era, including by restricting the Tridentine mass.
SSPX refused to stop performing the mass, which is conducted in Latin by a priest who keeps his back to the congregation, in a ceremony marked by incense and Gregorian chants.
By 1975, the Vatican had stripped the society’s ministers of all authority.
Undeterred, Lefebvre illicitly ordained four bishops in 1988, resulting in immediate excommunication.
‘Force this through’
By threatening to ordain more bishops, the society risks undoing efforts to improve relations with the Vatican under recent popes.
Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication in 2009 and his successor Francis said SSPX priests can celebrate marriages in traditionalist churches under some circumstances.
But since Leo was elected last year, “they haven’t stopped criticizing the pope,” Martin Dumont, head of the Institute for Research on the Study of Religions at the Sorbonne University, said.
And any fresh attempt to ordain new bishops would be seen by Rome as a direct threat to the unity of the Church.
“The act they are about to commit is schismatic in spirit,” Dumont said.
The society’s decision to forge ahead with ordaining its own bishops has not come as a surprise.
“They are trying to force this through, but it’s been in the works for several years now,” Dumont said.
SSPX, which has 720 priests but now only two bishops, claims its survival is at stake.
It needs more bishops because it has around 600,000 followers worldwide and the number is “growing in a number of countries,” notably France, Germany and the United States, Dumont said.
‘Bridge the gap’
Leo is keen to preserve Church unity and has made concessions toward traditionalists, notably by authorizing use of the Tridentine mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, head of the Vatican’s department for doctrinal matters, has offered to meet with the society in Rome on February 12, it said.
“Rome has always extended a hand, saying: ‘Come back, we are ready to welcome you,’” Dumont said.
A canon lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity said one solution could be to “find bishops to bridge the gap between the two sides.”
But he warned the bishop question masked “a much deeper problem,” namely “the fact that they do not recognize the Second Vatican Council.”
Pushing through with the ordination of new bishops means one thing only, the lawyer said.
“Canon law is very clear: if bishops ordain other bishops without a papal mandate, they are automatically excommunicated,” he said.
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