2024 Bolivia Coup D'état Attempt

Submission 62

Overview

The 2024 Bolivia Coup D'état Attempt refers to a failed coup d'état in Bolivia in late June 2024, orchestrated by General Juan José Zúñiga, commander of the Bolivian Army. During the events, José sent troops to seize Plaza Murillo in La Paz, the country's administrative capital, and storm the Casa Grande del Pueblo, the presidential palace. The coup attempt received widespread international attention and press coverage, as well as discussions online. A conspiracy theory revolving around the coup also went viral on Twitter / X and other platforms, with many users speculating that Bolivia’s rich lithium mineral reserves were desired by the United States and that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to instigate the coup d'état. However, these theories were also pushed by some of the United States' biggest adversaries such as Russia and Iran, leading some critics of the theory to dismiss them.

Background

On June 26th, 2024, Bolivia President Luis Arce denounced, via his X^[1] account, an attempted coup d'état by the Bolivian army. The tweet (seen below) amassed over 1.6 million views and 20,000 likes in a day.

Translation: "We denounced some irregular mobilizations of units of the Bolivian Army. Democracy must be respected."

According to the BBC,^[2] Bolivian police arrested the leader of the coup d´état attempt hours after the presidential palace in La Paz was stormed by soldiers. The leader, General Juan José Zúñiga, said he wanted to "restructure democracy" in Bolivia and that while he respected President Luis Arce "for now," there would be a change of government.

The Guardian posted a video on YouTube^[3] explaining the failed coup in Bolivia, which amassed more than 32,000 views and 460 likes in a day (seen below).

Developments

CIA Involvement Conspiracy Theories

As the news about the failed coup in Bolivia went viral on social media, some netizens started to theorize that the U.S. and the CIA had supposedly influenced the incident, purportedly due to Bolivia's large lithium mineral reserves, which is a key ingredient for batteries set to power the next generation of electric vehicles.

For instance, on June 26th, 2024, X^[4] user @sacedator tweeted about the mineral, alleging it is "the cause of the more than likely stellar participation of the CIA in the coup d'état in Bolivia." The post (seen below, top) amassed more than 4,700 likes and 1,400 reposts in a day.

On the same day, journalist @anyaparampil,^[5] who works for the far-left publication The Grayzone, tweeted, "Dear CIA: your coups don’t work anymore," referencing past U.S. involvement in regime change in Latin America.^[6] The post (seen below, bottom) received over 18,000 likes and 4,700 reposts in a day.

Others online pushed back against the conspiracy theory as it continued to spread online. For example, a thread on the subreddit /r/SocialDemocracy^[10] on June 26th inquiring about whether people thought the CIA was involved in the coup received numerous top-voted replies from Redditors who expressed doubt in the theory or said it was misinformation. The thread received over 50 replies in less than 24 hours.

On June 27th, 2024, X^[9] user @gayest_tone criticized those who "jumped to Bolivia being a CIA op," receiving over 6,400 views and 500 likes in eight hours (seen below).

The conspiracy theory of the CIA's rumored involvement was also covered in the international press. For example, Newsweek^[11] published an article on June 27th discussing the theory under the headline "Bolivia Coup Sparks CIA Conspiracy Theories."

The Times Of India YouTube channel also uploaded a video on June 27th, 2024, discussing numerous countries and their leaders, such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, criticizing the coup, some of which attempted to blame "foreign entities" for the bid.

Online Reactions

The failed coup in Bolivia was widely spread on the internet, as citizens shared the friction between Bolivian troops and protesters. For example, TikToker^[7] @sanilarena posted a video captioned "What happened in Bolivia made me realize how important mass organizing is. The US is way too divided to create an impact that would lead to real changes." The post (seen below, left) received roughly 6,600 plays and 800 likes in a day.

Some jokes and memes about the coup d'état also were shared on TikTok. For instance, on June 26th, TikTok user @mx_maps1^[8] posted a map of Latin America captioned, "Is there an attempted coup d'état happening in your country?" The video (seen below, right) amassed over 37,000 plays and 1,200 likes in a day.