Armed troops occupied the Plaza Murillo in La Paz, the political heart of the country, but withdrew amid domestic and international pressure and after the appointment of a new military high command.

The coup followed weeks of political and economic unease, as a split in the ruling party between former president Evo Morales and incumbent Luis Arce hampered the government's ability to address a looming financial crisis.

Early on 26 June, Bolivian Army units began irregular mobilizations, culminating by mid-afternoon in the complete occupation of Plaza Murillo.

[2] Despite continued economic turmoil and political instability, the return to civilian rule mostly closed the cycle of volatility that caused the country to experience a multitude of attempted and successful revolutions and coups d'état in the two centuries since independence.

[6] Antecedents to the most recent crisis stem back to 2019, when the then-president, leftist leader Evo Morales, sought reelection to a controversial fourth term in office.

[8] The growing schism culminated in 2023, with Arce's expulsion from the MAS party and Morales's announcement of his candidacy in the 2025 presidential election[9] – even as the Constitutional Tribunal revoked a previous ruling enabling him to run indefinitely.

The charged political atmosphere was compounded by a growing economic crisis, with gridlock in parliament crippling the government's ability to manage Bolivia's financial woes.

Amid a faltering approval rating,[11] roadblocks led by Morales supporters, and rising economic protests from outside labor groups, Arce called on the Armed Forces to defend him from "sinister plans that seek a soft coup or to shorten [his] term".

[13] The general's comments provoked a wave of criticism from supporters of Morales and the opposition,[14] and by the next day, sources consulted by El Deber claimed that Zúñiga had been relieved of command.

[16] By the morning of 26 June, the situation surrounding Zúñiga's apparent removal remained unclear, with the general participating in an official military event, where he granted ranks to new members of the Army Intelligence Branch.

[1] By 11:00 a.m. BOT, however, unofficial reports indicated a level of discontent within the Armed Forces over the fact that Zúñiga had still not made his official resignation available to the president,[18] and sometime thereafter, he was summoned to government headquarters to be formally relieved of his post.

[21] Finally, at about half past two in the afternoon, armed troops began seizing control of Plaza Murillo, the political center of Bolivia, where both the executive and legislative branches are headquartered.

[18][27] In a tense exchange inside the building, Arce confronted Zúñiga face-to-face, demanding the military return to its barracks: "... you are carrying out a coup against the Bolivian people!

The general – surrounded by soldiers and flanked by the heads of the Air Force and Navy, Marcelo Zegarra and Juan Arnez – replied with a stern, "no".

[21] The coup, by now, had started to stall, a fact Zúñiga later attributed to the delay of units arriving from Viacha and the lack of Air Force support.

[34] Back inside the palace, the only commander yet remaining was Zegarra, who – depending on the narrative – either faltered at the last minute or was unaware of the military's ultimate objective from the start.

[38] By that point, the Bolivian Workers' Center – the largest trade union in the country – had declared an indefinite nationwide general strike and called on labor groups to march on La Paz in defense of the government.

"Over the booming of tear gas being fired at pro-democracy protesters",[40] Arce swore in José Wilson Sánchez, Renán Ramírez, and Gerardo Zavala as heads of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, respectively.

Despite Zúñiga's overtures towards the release of political prisoners,[42] both Jeanine Áñez and Luis Fernando Camacho – each incarcerated for their roles in the 2019 crisis – also repudiated the military's actions.

Héctor Arce, the Bolivian ambassador to the organization, thanked the body for its support, adding that "strong international condemnation" was one reason the coup ultimately failed.

[28] Following his arrest, Zúñiga claimed that on 23 June, he met with Luis Arce, who allegedly ordered him to deploy tanks in the streets for an attempted self-coup, stating it was necessary to boost his popularity.

[56] Arce also described allegations of a self-coup as lies and said that retired military personnel and civil society figures were also involved in the coup attempt,[57] later adding that Zúñiga was planning to install himself as president.

[61] On 28 June, Zúñiga, Arnez, and Alejandro Irahola, the former head of the army's mechanized brigade, were placed under a six-month pre-trial detention in the Chonchocoro maximum-security prison outside La Paz.