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Bolivia Coup Attempt Fails After Military Assault on Presidential Palace
People wave Bolivia’s national flag as they yell at the military police during a coup attempt against the government of Bolivian President Luis Arce by military units led by General Juan Jose Zuniga, in La Paz, Bolivia, June 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Sara Aliaga
Bolivian armed forces pulled back from the presidential palace in La Paz on Wednesday evening and a general was arrested after President Luis Arce slammed a “coup” attempt against the government and called for international support.
Earlier in the day, military units led by General Juan Jose Zuniga, recently stripped of his military command, had gathered in the central Plaza Murillo square, home to the presidential palace and Congress. A Reuters witness saw an armored vehicle ram a door of the presidential palace and soldiers rush in.
“Today the country is facing an attempted coup d’état. Today the country faces once again interests so that democracy in Bolivia is cut short,” Arce said in comments from the presidential palace, with armed soldiers outside.
“The Bolivian people are summoned today. We need the Bolivian people to organize and mobilize against the coup d’état in favor of democracy.”
A few hours later, a Reuters witness saw soldiers withdraw from the square and police take control of the plaza. Bolivian authorities arrested Zuniga and took him away, though their destination was unclear.
Inside the presidential palace, Arce swore in José Wilson Sanchez as the military commander, Zuniga’s former role. He called for calm and order to be restored.
“I order that all personnel mobilized on the streets return to their units,” Sanchez said. “We entreat that the blood of our soldiers not be spilled.”
The United States said it was closely monitoring the situation and urged calm and restraint.
Tensions have been building in Bolivia ahead of general elections in 2025, with leftist ex-President Evo Morales planning to run against former ally Arce, creating a major rift in the ruling socialist party and wider political uncertainty.
Many do not want a return of Morales, who governed from 2006-2019 when he was ousted amid widespread protests and replaced by an interim conservative government. Arce then won election in 2020.
Zuniga said recently that Morales should not be able to return as president and threatened to block him if he attempted to, which led Arce to remove Zuniga from his post.
Ahead of the attack on the presidential palace, Zuniga had addressed reporters in the square and cited growing anger in the landlocked country, which has been battling an economic slump with depleted central bank reserves and pressure on the boliviano currency as gas exports have dried up.
“The three chiefs of the armed forces have come to express our dismay,” Zuniga told a local TV station, calling for a new cabinet of ministers.
“Stop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army,” he said in full uniform, flanked by soldiers, insisting the action being taken was supported by the public.
Zuniga told reporters later on Wednesday that Arce had on Sunday asked him to “raise something up” to boost his popularity, without offering evidence.
Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo later said Zuniga was seeking to court popular support and that the nine people injured in the attempt proved “this was not a drill.”
‘STRONGEST CONDEMNATION’
Morales, head of the ruling MAS socialist party, said that his supporters would mobilize in support of democracy.
“We will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate people,” Morales said.
Bolivia‘s public prosecutor’s office said it would launch a criminal investigation against Zuniga and others involved in the attempted coup.
Public support for Arce and Bolivia‘s democracy has poured in from regional leaders and beyond.
“We express the strongest condemnation of the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia. Our total support and support for President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on X.
Even conservative political opponents of the government in Bolivia condemned the military action, including ex-President Jeanine Anez, who was imprisoned in 2022 amid political turmoil.
“I fully reject of the mobilization of the military in the Plaza Murillo attempting to destroy constitutional order,” she wrote on X. “The MAS with Arce and Evo must be got out through the vote in 2025. We Bolivians will defend democracy.”
The post Bolivia Coup Attempt Fails After Military Assault on Presidential Palace first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UAE Locates Body of Missing Chabad Emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan
Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan. Photo: @Chabad/X.
JNS.org – The body of Chabad emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who went missing in the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 21, has been located by UAE intelligence and security services, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign ministry said in a joint announcement on Sunday morning.
“Israel’s mission in Abu Dhabi has been in contact with the family from the beginning of the incident and continues to support them during this difficult time. His family in Israel has also been informed,” the statement read.
“The murder of Tzvi Kogan, of blessed memory, is a heinous act of antisemitic terrorism. The State of Israel will utilize all available means to bring the perpetrators to justice,” it continued.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in response to the announcement that, “I mourn with sorrow and outrage the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan,” adding, “This vile antisemitic attack is a reminder of the inhumanity of the enemies of the Jewish people.”
The murder “will not deter us from continuing to grow flourishing communities in the UAE or anywhere—especially with the help of the dedicated commitment and work of the Chabad emissaries all over the world,” the statement continued.
Herzog thanked UAE authorities for their swift action on the case, and expressed his confidence that they would bring the murderers to justice.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with Rabbi Kogan’s wife and family. May his memory be a blessing,” the statement concluded.
Chabad said in response to the news that, “With great pain we share that Rabbi Zvi Kogan, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Abu Dhabi, UAE, was murdered by terrorists after being abducted on Thursday.”
The PMO said on Saturday evening that the Mossad was investigating the incident and reminded Israelis that the National Security Council (NSC) advisory for the Arab Gulf state was level 3, a moderate travel warning “with a recommendation to avoid any non-essential travel to the country, and for those who are in the country–take extra precautions.”
Kogan stopped communicating with his family on Nov. 20. He reportedly failed to arrive at meetings previously scheduled on that day, and his wife contacted the Chabad security officer, who notified authorities about his disappearance. He reportedly went missing from a location about an hour and a half from Dubai.
He was an emissary for the Abu Dhabi Chabad branch and ran a kosher supermarket in the UAE.
Chabad is one of the largest religious Jewish organizations in the world, with branches in scores of countries.
According to Channel 12, Kogan is believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by an Uzbek cell operating on behalf of Iran. His body was discovered in Al-Ain, an inland oasis city on the eastern border with Oman. The authorities found signs of violence on the body, and there were also indications of a struggle in Kogan’s car.
Kogan was found in his car in Al-Ain, with his phone turned off. Initial investigations revealed that three Uzbeks followed him after he left the supermarket, and they are suspected of being responsible for his murder. The use of Uzbek militants by Iran is a known tactic.
Israeli authorities are aware that the Uzbeks traveled to Turkey, and Israeli security agencies are coordinating with Turkish officials to uncover the truth. A delegation from Israel has been sent to the UAE to oversee the investigation.
An Israeli who lives in Abu Dhabi and is acquainted with Kogan told Ynet that the rabbi “is a nice guy who is very active in the community. His family is ruined, and the Israeli and Jewish community is appalled. Kogan was the assistant of Chabad’s chief rabbi in the Emirates, and formed and managed the kosher supermarket of the community.”
Kogan married two years ago, and his wife is the niece of Gabi Holtzberg, a Chabad emissary who was murdered in Mumbai in 2008.
Relations between Israel and the UAE were normalized in the fall of 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords. Despite criticisms from Abu Dhabi of Jerusalem’s conduct during its ongoing war against Iranian-backed terrorist groups, a senior Emirati official said late last month that normalization was not at risk.
The post UAE Locates Body of Missing Chabad Emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Benjamin Netanyahu was burned in effigy on the streets of Montreal during a Friday night riot
Justin Trudeau condemned for subsequently attending a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto.
The post Benjamin Netanyahu was burned in effigy on the streets of Montreal during a Friday night riot appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Report: IDF targets Hezbollah chief in Beirut
Illustrative. Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon October 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
JNS.org – A massive explosion in a building in Beirut on Saturday killed 11 people and wounded dozens in what Arab media said was a failed Israeli attempt to kill Hezbollah’s head of operations, Muhammad Haydar.
Israel did not immediately claim responsibility specifically for the explosion early on Saturday in the eight-story building in the Lebanese capital’s Basta neighborhood. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said only that Israel struck an unspecified target in Beirut, the fourth strike in the city in a week.
Basta is situated in the city’s center. The bulk of Israel’s strikes in Beirut have been in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, a Hezbollah stronghold in the city’s south.
Lebanese media reported that at least 63 people were wounded in the strike.
Avihai Edraei, the head of the Arabic-language department of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, posted a tweet on X on Saturday calling on residents of Dahiyeh to evacuate their homes. They are living near Hezbollah installations, he said, against which “the IDF will act in the near future.”
The targets of Saturday’s strikes “were located by Hezbollah in the heart of the civilian population. Prior to the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians,” the IDF wrote in a statement. A headquarters, a weapons depot, “and additional Hezbollah terror infrastructures” were attacked, the statement said.
According to Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, Israel has killed 2,450 terrorists in Lebanon and Syria. Lebanese health authorities said that 3,365 people have died in strikes by Israel. Those data do not distinguish between terrorists and civilians. On the Israeli side, terrorists have killed 121 people, with 76 of them being soldiers.
The post Report: IDF targets Hezbollah chief in Beirut first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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