MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. An attempted coup d'·tat in Bolivia could have been related to lithium mining, President Luis Arce has said in a commentary to RT.

He explained that economic issues were often behind coups d'etat in Latin American countries.

"In the recent case, it was because of lithium. We are now negotiating a long-term contract for a lithium-related project. We have never dismissed the version that there are internal and external interests in the coups d'etat," Arce said.

On June 26, a group of Bolivian military officers led by General Juan Jose Zuniga, who was removed as army commander on June 25, occupied the square in front of the government building in La Paz. The president called the military's actions an attempted coup d'·tat and swore in the new leadership of the armed forces. Commander-designate Jose Wilson Sanchez Velasquez ordered all soldiers to return to their units, after which they began to leave the square. Zuniga was detained.