(29 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz, Bolivia - 28 June 2024
1. Relatives of people detained on accusations that they participated in a failed coup wait to visit their loved ones
2. Satusa Apaza waits in line to visit her relative
3. Apaza holding a bag with food for her relative
4. A sign reads (Spanish) "prison cells"
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Angela Aramayo, wife of a detained soldier:
"It's not possible. I ask you for mercy. Mercy and justice for our husbands. We are mothers; we have children. We only worked for the army, and our husbands just followed orders."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz, Bolivia - 27 June 2024
6. Various of police presenting detained soldiers in connection with the coup
ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz, Bolivia - 28 June 2024
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Nubia Barbery, wife of detained Col. Raul Barbery Muiba:
"They have been deceived. They had told them that it was going to be a (military) exercise but they (the generals) had held a meeting and a conspiracy and our husbands have fallen like cannon fodder. They have presented them as criminals, not even a rapist (is presented like this). My husband is not a criminal, my husband has been deceived."
8. Police headquarters
9. Police
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Daniela (No Surname Given), mother detained soldier Luis Domingo Balanza:
"We are devastated. Let them judge those who have really conned all this. My son is innocent and I will always say so."
11. Various of police standing outside houe
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Eduardo del Castillo, Bolivian government minister:
"Surely there must be some anger among these people (relatives of detainees). We know that it is not a normal or regular situation that the wives of these soldiers are used to. However, we need to give a guarantee of non-repetition to the Bolivian people. We need to sentence those people who were active participants, the masterminds, the direct perpetrators, the accomplices, the concealers of this group of people who dared to try to assault power through force."
13. People protest outside the police headquarters where the detainees are jailed chanting UPSOUND (Spanish) "Zuniga coup plotter, the people are angry"
14. A protester holds a sign that reads (Spanish) "Zuniga traitor and coup plotter, the state should be respected"
15. Protest outside the police headquarters
STORYLINE:
Families of the people detained on accusations that they participated in a failed coup attempt in Bolivia stood in protest outside the jail where their loved ones are kept.
They say they knew nothing of a plot in the lead-up to Wednesday’s spectacle.
Many families of those detained say their loved ones were “following orders” or told they were carrying out a “military exercise.”
On Friday, the government announced additional arrests of soldiers, bringing the total up to 21, including former Gen. Juan José Zuñiga, who led the failed coup.
Images from Bolivia shocked the world on Wednesday as an armored car rammed into the government palace in La Paz, the country's seat of government, and military officers fled after embattled President Luis Arce said his government was not backing down.
The general, who was sacked by Arce amid the chaos, claimed that he stormed Arce's government office to earn him political favor at a time of deep economic discontent in Bolivia, stirring doubt in many.
Around 200 military officers took part in the attempted coup, Bolivia’s ambassador to the Organization of American States said Thursday.
AP Video by Victor R. Caivano, Carlos Guerrero and Alex Mamani
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