Sazzad Haider
The most short-lived military coup attempt in Bolivian history failed on 26 June in just three hours.
Electronic media has played a major role in countering this subversive effort. The stricken president Luis
Arce was able to speak live on television from his palace.
The telecasted footage, filmed inside the presidential palace unfolded the coup attempt, President Arce
confronted Gen Zúñiga, ordering him to stand down and asking him to vacate his role.
In addition to Bolivia, it caused a wide reaction throughout the world. The Bolivian people took to the
streets to the streets in protest against the attempted coup. As the situation worsened, the army Chief
General Juan José Zúñiga broke off the battle. Zúñiga was arrested shortly afterwards on the same day.
Head of the Bolivian Navy, Vice-Adm Juan Arnez Salvador, has also been arrested.
Gen Zúñiga, who was first appointed commander of the Bolivian Army in 2022, two-days back of his
coup attempt, vowed to arrest the country's former president Evo Morales if Morales ran for office
again next year.
Both Mr Arce and his predecessor Evo Morales belong to the same political party, the political feuds
come after Morales tried to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term in 2019. Mr Morales went on
to win the vote, but he was forced out of office by military chiefs and Morales flee the country, was
exiled in Mexico.
The Centre-right Jeanine Áñez was the country's interim leader between 2019-20, the incumbent
president, Mr Arce, went on to win a re-run vote in 2020. The USA supported Jeanine was sentenced to
10 years in jail for a coup against her predecessor Mr. Morales.
The left-wing governments in Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia and, Centre-right President of Paraguay were
quick to condemn the coup attempt.
Washington did not condemn directly as saying "the United States is closely monitoring the situation in
Bolivia and urges calm and restraint."
Since 1946, Bolivia have been almost 40 attempted or successful coups.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of USA has been accused of its involvement with every coup
attempt in Bolivia.
Now, the United States does not have good relations with Bolivia's current leftist government. The US
has stated that it is monitoring the situation of the ongoing failed coup attempt – the US has not
condemned the coup attempt like its European allies. It would not be surprising if in the near future
Bolivian leaders, especially Evo Morales blames the United States for attempting to overthrow the
democratic government.
One of the biggest developments of this century is the political importance of social media—the latest
reflection of which is the recent failed coup in Bolivia. Since the second decade of this century, the
revolution of social media and cell phones has been seen. In 2010, Arab youth launched the Arab Spring
through cell phones. Mass movements erupted in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain against
corruption, economic woes and dictatorships. This movement started through mobile phone and social
media. Consequence of Arab Spring, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of
Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012, were deposed.
Another occurrence was staged in Turkey on 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces,
organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan.
Following the coup d'état, Erdoğan did a FaceTime interview with CNN Türk, in which he called upon his
supporters to take to the streets in defiance of the military-imposed curfew, saying "There is no power
higher than the power of the people. Let them do what they will at the public squares and airports."
Millions of supporters of Erdoğan, contacted each other over cell phone, organized themselves,
gathered at public squares and opposed the coup d'état. The civil resistance thwarted the coup and the
coup attempt failed because the plotters failed to secure control of the media. The Turkish government
alleged that Gülen- a terrorist organization led by Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish businessman and a well-
known Islamic scholar who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, was behind the coup (which Gülen denied) and
that the United States was harboring him.
In recent years, there have been military coups in African countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, etc.
Electronic media was used in all those countries during the uprising. But all those campaigns went in
favor of the insurgents. Because the majority of the people were on the side of the rebels and the
ousted statesmen in those countries were not democratically elected. After Bolivia and Turkey, it has
been proved that coup attempts cannot be successful if people support and electronic media are not
combined.
Therefore, now-a-days, camera can foil the infamous coup d'état.
