MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia recalls ambassador from Buenos Aires

La Paz also summoned Argentine ambassador Marcelo Massoni to express its “energetic rejection” of the Casa Rosada statements

The Bolivian Government Tuesday summoned its ambassador from Buenos Aires for consultations following Casa Rosada's allegations that the June 26 attempted coup d'état in La Paz was staged by President Luis Arce Catacora to improve his dwindling public image.

“Our ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in Argentina, Ramiro Tapia, was summoned in consultation to be present at the seat of government,” Presidential Spokeswoman María Nela Prada confirmed. The Bolivian Foreign Ministry also summoned the Argentine ambassador in La Paz, Marcelo Massoni, to express its “energetic rejection of the statements” made by the Argentine president.

Bolivia condemned the “unfriendly and reckless” remarks by the Libertarian administration. It also rejected this possibility saying it constituted “an unacceptable denial” of the events after the Office of President Javier Milei (OPRA) repudiated “the false denunciation of a coup d'état made by the government of Bolivia on Wednesday, June 26, and confirmed as fraudulent on the day of the date.” The document also noted that the Argentine government had remained calm because it knew through intelligence reports that “the arguments did not fit with the socio-political context of the Latin American country.”

At first, however, Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino had written on social media that “Governments, whether good or bad, like it or not, can only be changed at the ballot box. They are not changed through violent coups d'état. Democracy is not negotiable.”

Argentine Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni also ruled out any diplomatic conflict saying that Buenos Aires had merely described General Juan José Zúñiga's uprising. The army officer claimed he had acted on Arce's request to increase his popularity and former President Evo Morales said Arce had lied “to the world.”

The Bolivian case adds to Milei's spree of badmouthing foreign political leaders following his feuds with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, so much so that, instead of attending the July 8 Mercosur Summit in Asunción to avoid sitting next to the Workers' Party leader, he might be traveling to Brazil for an encounter with former President Jair Bolsonaro.