With latest coup fizzling out, Bolivia indicates clear break from its turbulent past

New Delhi: Proudly bearing the name of South America's liberator Simon Bolivar, it will celebrate the bicentenary of its freedom in 2025, but Bolivia's 200 years have been eventful, with at least 190 revolutions or coups, mostly led by the military, from soon after its independence to the 1980s.

However, with the latest attempt by Army chief Juan Jose Zuniga fizzling out in a few short hours amid widespread public protests, condemnation by national - including political rivals - and international leaders, and above all, President Luis Arce's spirited confrontation with him, further changes of leadership by force of arms no longer seem feasible. Nor will such attempts gain political support.

As Arce, surrounded by soldiers, forthrightly told off Zuniga. "I am your captain, and I order you to withdraw your soldiers, and I will not allow this insubordination." his estranged mentor and former President Evo Morales came out in his support, and so did Arce's jailed predecessor Jeanine Anez who denounced the attempt and championed elections for change of governments.

An element of discordance has been injected, though, with the arrested Zuniga now alleging the coup was staged in connivance with Arce to boost his popularity, drawing a strong rebuttal from the President. Nevertheless, the manner in which the people mobilised in protest and the political condemnation are telling.

Even the example of the last coup - 40 years back - is telling.

While the accession of Anez as Bolivia's 66th President in 2019 following widespread protests over the re-election of Morales was also termed a coup - and the country's second woman leader is serving a ten-year prison sentence for conspiracy and terrorism, the 1984 coup was the previous - and equally shortlived - attempt by the military to gain power.

The bid by a small group of right-wing military and police officers, who abducted Hernan Siles Zuazo from the presidential palace, had ended in a matter of hours as they failed to gain support from the rest of the armed forces - or for that matter, the US.

This came barely two years after the military, in a unique move, itself decided in 1982 to restore civilian rule.

This episode ended a turbulent period in Bolivian history, where military coups followed military coups, with nine Presidents between 1978 and 1982, against just one in the earlier 1970s. But then, Hugo Banzer, a military dictator from 1971 to 1978, became a democratically elected President in 1997 and held office till 2001.

Banzer's accession ended another spell of military rule and instability after (civilian) President Víctor Paz Estenssoro, elected in 1960 was deposed by his own Vice President - and soldier - Rene Barrientos and air force chief General Alfredo Ovando in November 1964.

Barrientos was elected as President in his own right in 1966 but died in April 1969 in a helicopter crash allegedly masterminded by Ovando. Notably, it was under Barrientos, that famed revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, who was trying to kindle a revolution in the country, was arrested and executed - on his direct orders.

He was succeeded by his civilian Vice President Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas, who was overthrown by Ovando in September 1969. Ovando went to be deposed himself in October 1970 by a coup led by all three armed forces chiefs, but the military triumvirate did not last even a day before Ovando loyalists regained power. However, Ovando agreed not to become President again, entrusting the post to his loyalist Juan Jose Torres, who lasted less than a year in the post before being overthrown by Banzer.

The same story of coups, interspersed with small periods of civilian rule, stretched back to the 1930s when the country's defeat to Paraguay in the Gran Chaco war - and subsequent loss of territory - caused resentment among the officer cadre.

Not that the country had fared much better under the military - Bolivia became a landlocked country in the 1880s when it had to cede its territory giving it access to the Pacific Ocean to Chile after the latter defeated the combined Peruvian and Bolivian forces in the War of the Pacific (1879-84).

But what caused the regular incidences of military takeovers in Bolivia?

Most of the time, it was personal ambition or opposition to the political course of a particular dispensation or the tensions between political factions and social classes. Economic distress - as touted in the present case by Zuniga, or military defeats, involving loss of territory, also played a role, as seen above.

In the 20th century, the Cold War's geopolitical calculations, especially to counter leftist-leaning leaders or uprisings, were also a cause.

Zuniga's claim may gain adherence from Ence's opponents but it was the public reaction that is significant.