Bolivia, 2024 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 26 June 2024 General Juan Jose Zuniga, a dismissed Bolivian army commander, led armored troops in seizing the Plaza Murillo in La Paz, ramming an armored vehicle into the doors of the presidential palace in a dramatic but short lived coup attempt against President Luis Arce, before withdrawing within hours amid domestic and international condemnation. Bolivia was gripped by a deepening economic and political crisis, driven in large part by a bitter feud within the ruling MAS party between Arce and his former ally, the ex president Evo Morales, ahead of the 2025 election. Days before, Zuniga had publicly threatened to arrest Morales if he ran again, provoking a scandal that led to his dismissal as army chief.
On 26 June, army units mobilized and occupied the central plaza that houses the executive and legislative branches; Zuniga's troops and armored vehicles massed as one rammed the palace gate. But the coup collapsed quickly: Arce confronted Zuniga inside the palace, named a new military high command that ordered the troops to stand down, and rallied Bolivians to defend democracy. Zuniga withdrew and was arrested that evening.
He then made the startling claim that Arce himself had ordered the mobilization as a staged self coup to boost his popularity, an accusation Arce categorically denied.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
14506262024
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Luis Arce faced down General Zuniga's June 2024 armored assault on the palace; Zuniga withdrew and was arrested.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Associated Press (AP)
NBC News
Wikipedia
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →