First they heard sirens. Then, looking out at Bolivia's main political square on Wednesday, Bolivia's top ministers saw armored vehicles and soldiers pouring out their doors in a sight that the interior minister later said sent chills down his spine.
Within moments, President Luis Arce told his aides, “We are facing a coup!” before heading to the presidential palace to confront the generals who were trying to remove him from power.
The coup attempt failed after just three hours and ended with the arrest of the general, whose attack appears to have been motivated, at least in part, by anger at having been fired by President Arce the previous day.
But Arce's problems, or the challenges facing Bolivia, are by no means over.
Arce, 60, a former finance minister, took office as president in 2020 in democratic elections that seemed to represent the start of a new, more hopeful chapter in the country after a period of intense political turmoil.
In addition to the dispute with the former generals, President Arce now faces a struggling economy, intensifying protests, criticism over the jailing of political opponents and divisions within his own party.
But perhaps his biggest challenge will be the ongoing battle with his one-time mentor, former President Evo Morales, a titan of Bolivian politics who is no longer in power and is battling with Arce over who will be the party's candidate in next year's presidential election.
Morales, 64, is the first indigenous president of a country with a large indigenous population. Elected in 2006, he was a socialist and leader of the so-called Pink Wave of leftist politicians that swept much of South America in the 2000s.
He made history by incorporating broad swaths of Bolivian society into politics, but he fled China following contested elections in 2019 and chose Arce as his candidate to represent the party in new elections in 2020.
In an interview with The New York Times that year, Arce described Morales as a “historic figure” in their political movement but said he would not have a formal role in the government.
To Arce, who served in the Morales administration at the time during a period of strong economic growth fueled by high commodity prices and the country's vast natural gas reserves, the transition of power seemed like a success.
But now, after his time in exile, Morales “is really determined to return to the presidency,” said Gustavo Flores Macias, a Cornell University political science professor who specializes in Latin American politics. “He understands that he was exiled in an illegal way and believes he has the right to be a candidate again. Arce, on the other hand, sees it in a totally different way.”
In Bolivia, a landlocked nation of 12 million people, Mr. Morales, Mr. Arce and their supporters have long sought to position the country as a left-wing counterweight to U.S. power.
The country could also play a major role in the fight against climate change because of its vast reserves of lithium, which is crucial in the world's transition to electric vehicles.
Wednesday's coup attempt was led by Juan José Zúñiga, who served as army commander until Tuesday night. Interior Minister Maria Nela Prada said in an interview that President Arce fired General Zúñiga because he made political statements in a television interview in which he declared that “Mr. Morales cannot be president of the country again” and suggested the military would enforce his claim.
Until then, “Mr. Zuniga was a trusted aide to President Luis Arce and the most trusted man in the military,” said former defense minister Reimi Ferreira. But the general's dismissal appears to have completely changed the situation.
About three o'clock in the afternoon of the following day, General Zuniga, accompanied by the chiefs of the Navy and Air Force, and a large number of soldiers, appeared in the country's main political square, which is home to the presidential palace and the important government building called Casa Grande del Pueblo.
Prada said President Arce and his cabinet members were preparing to begin a meeting at Casa Grande and watched in stunned amazement as soldiers occupied the square below.
Mr Arce, wearing a thick black jacket and glasses, marched to the presidential palace and, with Mr Prada at his side, faced the general in a green uniform and bulletproof camouflage vest as a crowd of military police surrounded them.
“This is your captain!” Prada shouted, pointing at the president.
“There's no turning back!” Zuniga's supporters shouted.
Mr. Arce told the general to turn back.
“That's an order, General,” he continued. “Do you hear me?”
“No,” Zuniga replied.
Then came a critical moment, Prada said: The head of the air force seemed to have second thoughts and decided to withdraw his support for the coup, he explained. The police refused to join in. And finally, the new commander of the army ordered the tanks and troops to withdraw.
At least 12 people suffered gunshot wounds during the melee, Prada said. Seventeen people have now been arrested, including Zuniga. Bolivia's ambassador to the Organization of American States said Thursday that around 200 military officers had taken part in the attempted coup.
But while President Arce, widely known in the country as “Lucho”, was successful in thwarting the coup, removing Morales from power could prove more difficult.
Morales, a former leader of the country's coca growers, still maintains some support among voters and members of his party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS), with recent polls showing that he has 100% of the votes. Nineteen percent of respondents supported Mr Arce and 9 percent supported Mr Morales.
Arce could legally run for a second term in next year's elections, scheduled for late 2025. It is unclear whether Morales will be able to run.
Bolivian law prohibits candidates from running for more than two consecutive terms. Morales served three terms as president, exploiting a legal loophole to successfully persuade the court to let him run a third time. But when he tried to run a fourth time, elections became so contested that he was ousted in the chaos that it led to his ouster.
Bolivia's Constitutional Court has the final say on whether Morales will be re-elected.
The country's economic problems include fuel shortages, high inflation and a lack of access to US dollars, which have sparked protests led by truck drivers, who play a key role in the country's commerce.
In Congress, some of Arce's party have aligned with the opposition to block his policies, and critics accuse him of going after opponents, including prominent politician Luis Fernando Camacho, who has been in pretrial detention since December 2022 on sedition and terrorism charges..
Carlos Romero, who served as interior minister under Morales, said the former president's relationship with Arce was now “at its worst” and that casting doubt on the legitimacy of Morales' candidacy was “part of the government's political strategy to disqualify him.”
Romero said Wednesday's coup attempt was “so clumsy and improvised” that it must have been “an agreement with the central government,” repeating Zuniga's claim shortly before his arrest that the coup attempt was a ploy concocted by Arce to make himself look like a hero.
The Arce government denies the allegations, saying there is no evidence to support them.
Carlos Mesa, a former president and leader of the country's main opposition party, said he believed Arce was already trying to gain political advantage from the attempted coup “by sacrificing himself.”
Appearing on a balcony overlooking the main political square where hundreds of supporters had gathered on Wednesday night, President Arce announced that the country's “coup plotters” had been defeated.
“Thank you Bolivians!” he exclaimed.
And the crowd cried out, “Lucho! Lucho! Lucho!”
Jorge Valencia contributed reporting.