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Police officers at their headquarters in Cochabamba, November 8, 2019. REUTERS / Danilo Balderrama

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Friday denounced a coup " in progress " after the mutinies of at least three police companies, a rebellion against which the power excludes for the time being to send the army.

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Friday denounced a coup " in progress " after the mutinies of at least three police companies, a rebellion against which the power excludes for the time being to send the army.

" Sisters and brothers, our democracy is in danger because of the current coup d'etat that violent groups have launched against the constitutional order. We denounce to the international community this attack on the rule of law, "the left-wing Amerindian president said on Twitter after an emergency meeting with several ministers and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. General Williams Kaliman.

Hermanas y hermanos, nuestra democracia está in riesgo por el golpe de Estado that han puesto in march grupos violos that atentan contra el orden constitucional. Denunciamos ante the comunidad internacional este atentado contra el Estado de Derecho.

Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) November 9, 2019

" I call on our people to take peaceable care of democracy and the political constitution of the state (CPE) to preserve peace and life as the supreme property above all political interest ," he said. Morales in another tweet.

Convoco a nuestro pueblo has cuidar pacíficamente the democracia y the CPE para preservar the paz y the vida como well supremos por encima de cualquier interés político. The unidad del pueblo will be the guarantor for the welfare of the Patria and the social paz.

Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) November 9, 2019

Defense Minister Javier Zavaleta assured him that there was no question of a military intervention against the mutineers at the moment: " No military operation will be conducted at the moment, it is totally excluded " , did he declare.

►Also read : In Bolivia, endless violence between supporters and opponents of Evo Morales

Seventeen days after the start of protests against the re-election of Mr. Morales, at least three police units mutinied, in the city of Cochabamba, in the center of the country, first, then in Sucre, south , and in Santa Cruz in the east, a rich region and an opposition stronghold. Scenes of fraternization between police and opposition protesters were observed in the capital.

" We mutinied, " said a police officer, his face concealed in front of the journalists at the headquarters of the Tactical Police Operations Unit (UTOP) in Cochabamba. " We will be on the side of the people, not with the generals, " added one of his colleagues, also masked. For the Minister of the Interior, Carlos Romero, it is an ill-being of the forces of the order which expresses itself and the situation can not be related to a mutiny, reports our correspondent in La Paz, Alice Campaignolle .

" People are with you "

On live television footage, twenty or so agents climbed to the top of the police headquarters building, waving the Bolivian flag, while dozens of young opponents cheered them from the street. The demonstrators blew up firecrackers in a festive atmosphere and hoisted a Bolivian flag on a flagpole, singing the national anthem.

In addition to the mutinies in these three cities, dozens of police marched Friday night with opposition demonstrators shouting slogans hostile to Mr. Morales on Prado Avenue, the main artery of La Paz. Local TV stations also showed images of demonstrators shaking police hands in the center of the capital, a contrast with the previous three nights when the two sides clashed. In La Paz, the police retreated to their barracks and a crowd sang: " Police friends, people are with you. "

Luis Fernando Camacho, the most visible and radical regional leader of the Bolivian opposition, last Saturday asked the military and the police to join the opposition in this crisis triggered by the controversial re-election of Evo Morales during elections of 20 October. Camacho was at a rally in the southern part of La Paz on Friday afternoon when news of the Cochabamba mutiny spread. The crowd cheered standing and began to sing at his sight.

►Also read: Presidential election in Bolivia: "the weakest support ever received" by Morales