THE rift between Bolivia’s current and former presidents Luis Arce and Evo Morales has dramatically widened — with the latter joining accusations that Mr Arce staged last week’s attempted military coup.

Mr Morales, who was overthrown in a military coup himself in 2019, was previously a close ally of Mr Arce, a longtime minister in his government who was elected president after a year of mass mobilisations forced the coup regime of Jeanine Anez to hold elections. 

He returned to the country from forced exile the day after Mr Arce’s election — but has since fallen out with him, both seeking the 2025 nomination for the presidency from their Movement Towards Socialism party and dividing it into “Evista” and “Arcista” factions, though they are not clearly differentiated on policy.

On Sunday he publicly backed claims by the now arrested military chief General Juan Jose Zuniga that last Wednesday’s march on the presidential palace by soldiers was a piece of street theatre designed to boost Mr Arce’s popularity, though at the time Mr Morales had been one of the first to demand a popular mobilisation to beat the coup.

The president “disrespected the truth, deceived us, lied, not only to the Bolivian people but the whole world,” he declared.

Mr Arce retorted that his former boss should not “make another mistake.

“Clearly what happened was a failed military coup. Do not side with fascism and those who deny what happened. Those responsible … will be prosecuted, as was the case with the conspirators of the 2019 coup.”

Minister for the Presidency Maria Nela Prada added that Mr Morales should not become a “puppet of imperialism, that intends to plunder our country.”

The heated exchanges reflect anxiety over the loyalties of the military. After its 2019 coup, in which the US and British governments were implicated, the Anez regime shot dead hundreds of democracy protesters, most from indigenous backgrounds. The coup was racially charged, with white supremacist leader Luis Camacho leading supporters who stormed the presidential palace and tore down the indigenous Pachamama flag, and was widely blamed on Western determination to control Bolivia’s lithium reserves, with electric vehicle tycoon Elon Musk declaring “we will coup whoever we want.”