US Coup Bid In Bolivia Over Lithium? Bolivia President's Warning Months Before Showdown With General

US Coup Bid In Bolivia Over Lithium? Bolivia President's Warning Months Before Showdown With General.

A Bolivian general, Juan Jose Zuniga, recently stripped of his military command, was arrested in La Paz late on Wednesday after an apparent coup attempt.

Speaking to the media before being arrested, Zuniga alleged that President Luis Arce himself had requested him to stage the coup attempt to "push up his popularity," without offering evidence. 👀

Inside the presidential palace, Arce swore in José Wilson Sanchez as the military commander, Zuniga's former role. He called for calm and order to be restored after residents took to the streets.

Russia condemned the attempted military coup in Bolivia and warned against foreign interference in the South American country. The US had "helped engineer" the attempted coup in Bolivia, Russia's state news agency TASS quoted an expert as saying. The claim comes as President Luis Arce had warned in March that Bolivia's vast Lithium reserves were in "the US Southern Command's crosshairs".