Who is Juan José Zúñiga? The Bolivian general who planned the coup attempt

As an attack on the Bolivia government continues to unfold in the country’s capital, La Paz, questions are circulating as to who could be behind the attempted coup. Former General Juan José Zúñiga, thought to be the leader of the insurrectionist movement, was spotted face to face with Bolivia’s President Luis Arce in front of the presidential palace.

The Bolivian newspaper El Deber has reported that after taking Murrillo Square, Zúñiga said that he and some military factions were “going to recover this homeland.”

Zúñiga is an opponent of former Bolivian President Evo Morales, who still holds significant weight within the country’s political landscape. The current President forms part of the same political party as Morales. Over nearly two decades, the party has been in charge, and strong and militarized opposition has developed. The anti-Morales camp showed its strength in 2019 when the country held elections and temporarily seized power, sending Morales fleeing to Mexico after offering him political asylum.

One of the demands made by Zúñiga after launching the attack on Tuesday shows his proximity to the leaders who led what the Morales camp describes as a coup in 2019, calling on them to be released from prison.

Zúñiga goes public with his attacks

On 25 June, Zúñiga was relieved from duty after launching a series of political attacks on Morales, who plans to seek another term as president in 2025. After being fired, he continued his attacks on Morales publically. El País, the Spanish newspaper, reported that in a television interview, he said that Morales “could not be the president of this country again” and that he would not permit him to “trample on the constitution and disobey the public’s mandate.”

Morales reposted the interview and noted that “the type of threats being made by the Commander General of the Army, Juan José Zúñiga, has never been said during democracy.” He added that the comments had to be disavowed by Zúñiga, as well as the Minister of Defense Luis Fernando López Julio and President Arce.

Though the 2019 elections were controversial, subsequent investigations have found that Morales’ party did win, meaning that the general may be attacking the public by launching the attack that he has.

Morales and his supporters in Bolivia and across Latin America have condemned the military leader’s actions and are asking the international community to support the government against the attackers.