BOLIVIAN President Luis Arce angrily called accusations that he was behind an attempted coup against his government “lies” on Thursday. Mr Arce said the general who led it acted on his own and vowed he would face justice.

Mr Arce’s comments, his first to the press since Wednesday's failed attack, came after General Juan Jose Zuniga alleged without evidence that the president had ordered the mutiny in a ruse to boost his flagging popularity.

This fuelled speculation about what really happened, even after the government announced an initial wave of arrests of 17 people, most of them military officers.

Opposition senators and government critics have promoted Gen Zuniga’s conspiracy theory, calling the mutiny a “self-coup.”

The claims have been strongly denied by Mr Arce and his government. “I am not a politician who is going to win popularity through the blood of the people,” he said on Thursday night.

Mr Arce's supporters rallied outside the presidential palace on Thursday, giving some political breathing room to the embattled leader as authorities made more arrests.

Among those detained was former navy Vice-Admiral Juan Arnez Salvador, who was taken into custody the day before.

All face charges of armed uprising and attacks against government infrastructure and penalties of 15 years in prison or more, said the country’s attorney general Cesar Siles.

A further four people were arrested yesterday, bringing the total to 21. Government minister Eduardo del Castillo said the group included military officers and the driver of an armoured vehicle which had rammed the governmental palace.

“He had the audacity to use an armoured vehicle against the patrimony and put the life of the president at risk,” Mr del Castillo said.

Previous arrests included a man who officials say was gathering intelligence in the plaza outside the palace with a bullet-proof vest, and another military sergeant who was communicating through the app FaceTime and other social media.

The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock and bewilderment on Wednesday as military forces appeared to turn on Mr Arce, seizing control of the capital’s main square with armoured vehicles, repeatedly crashing a small tank into the presidential palace and unleashing tear gas on protesters.