A week after an alleged coup attempt in Bolivia, confusion and conspiracy theories reign

LA PAZ, Bolivia — A plan to stage a coup against Bolivia’s president was not what Gen. Tomás Peña y Lillo was expecting when he entered the military headquarters in La Paz last Wednesday. An armored vehicle and military police form outside the government palace in what President Luis Arce said was an attempted coup, at Plaza Murillo in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. “First I believed the government and felt solidarity, but now I don’t know what to say.” Bolivian President Luis Arce raises a clenched fist surrounded by supporters and media, outside the government palace in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. He also claimed Zúñiga had sought to burnish his political credentials in recent weeks, touring the country and referring to himself as “planetary leader.” Bolivian Minister of Government Eduardo del Castillo presents a diagram of the presidential palace, a week after armed forces took the building over in what he and President Luis Arce called a failed coup, during a news conference in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. A woman sits at the entrance of a restaurant in La Paz, Bolivia, Friday, June 28, 2024, two days after Army troops stormed the government palace in what President Luis Arce called a coup attempt.