MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia says BA's remarks regarding coup were “unfriendly and reckless”

Milei's Office said it remained calm during the “fake” uprising because it was known in Buenos Aires that it was not real

Bolivia's Foreign Ministry Monday said that comments from the Office of Argentine President Javier Milei on the June 26 attempted coup d'état in La Paz were “unfriendly” and “reckless.” Casa Rosada had contended that the military uprising had been staged and therefore calling it a revolt was a “false denunciation.”

”The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia strongly rejects the unfriendly and reckless statements made by the Office of the President of the Argentine Republic (OPRA), in its communiqué dated June 30, regarding the failed military coup d'état that occurred on June 26, 2024, with the participation of a group of insubordinate military personnel who surrounded the Bolivian Government Palace, knocking down the entrance and attempting to seize power by force of arms,” the Bolivian Government stressed in a statement.

On Sunday, Milei's Office of the President of the Argentine Republic (OPRA) “repudiated the false denunciation of a coup d'état made by the Bolivian Government last Wednesday, June 26” on the grounds that it was “fraudulent.”

“The story disseminated was not very credible and the arguments did not fit with the socio-political context of the Latin American country,” the OPRA argued. Bolivia's “ruling political party [MAS - Movement Towards Socialism] controls the Legislative Branch, the Judiciary Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Armed Forces,” the Argentine administration contended.

The Bolivian administration of President Luis Arce Catacora insisted that the landlocked country “has sovereignly decided to live in a democracy with intercultural characteristics, therefore defending it before any military act that threatens with tanks of war and armed soldiers the Government constituted by the vote of the people, is clearly a coup d'état.”

La Paz also regretted foreign meddling in internal affairs such as in 2019 when former President Evo Morales was forced to leave office and the military pushing his departure had been furnished with weapons and logistics.

The “uninformed and tendentious assertions” about the possible existence of political prisoners, or the possibility of the non-existence of a failed military coup d'état, constitute an excess and unacceptable denialism, Bolivia's Foreign Ministry pointed out.

The Bolivian Government also invited all foreign powers to stay informed and respect the sovereignty of other states, as per the Charter of the United Nations and International Law.

The OPRA also claimed it knew all along that the events in Bolivia were a mise-en-scene thanks to “intelligence reports,” due to which the Argentine Government kept calm and serene “in the face of the denounced facts.”

Milei's administration also claimed that Bolivia's democracy was indeed in danger albeit not from a military uprising “but because historically socialist governments derive in dictatorships” as it happened in “Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and North Korea.”

Argentina also underlined the alleged existence of over 200 political prisoners in Bolivia, including former interim President Jeanine Áñez Chávez and Santa Cruz State Governor Luis Fernando Camacho Vaca.

In doing so, Argentina also demanded Arce's administration “to guarantee the rule of law in its territory.”