Troops and armored vehicles disperse as Bolivia arrests army chief leading coup attempt

• In breakneck developments over a handful of hours, video footage showed armored vehicles and troops led by army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga appearing to encircle the government seat of President Luis Arce.
• "The country is today facing an attempted coup d'etat," Arce said, according to a CNBC translation.
• Government Minister Eduardo del Castillo later confirmed the arrest of Zuniga and of former navy Vice Admiral Juan Arnez Salvador.

Bolivian forces have arrested the general accused of attempting a coup against the country's government on Wednesday, crowning an hours-long overture by armed soldiers who stormed the national palace.

In breakneck developments over a handful of hours, video footage showed armored vehicles and troops led by army chief General Juan Jose Zuniga appearing to encircle the government seat of President Luis Arce, who called the demonstration an attempted putsch.

"The country is today facing an attempted coup d'etat," Arce said, according to a CNBC translation. "We need the people of Bolivia to mobilize and organize against the coup and in favor of democracy."

Top ministerial official Maria Nela Prada shared video footage of the Plaza de Murillo, the central square of the seat of government in La Paz, where she reported the presence of tanks and troops acting in an "irregular manner" as they controlled access to the site.

"We want to denounce this coup attempt, this rupture of constitutional order, and in this moment, of course, as we have always said, the people are alert — the Bolivian people are alert — and the organizations as well, to defend our democracy," she said, according to a CNBC translation.

The president named three new army, navy and air commanders, with Jose Wilson Sanchez taking