Bolivia's Barracks Blast: Investigators Found 'Boosters' and a Grenade Depot, VP Won't Call It 'Just Fireworks'

A forensic expert and firefighters check damages following an explosion at an army barracks the night before, in Viacha, Bolivia, on September 5, 2026. At least two people were killed and 81 injured in a powerful explosion at a military facility storing pyrotechnic material in Bolivia, police said in an updated toll, adding that the cause of the blast remains under investigation. (Credit: Photo by AIZAR RALDES / AFP via Getty Images)

• The first blast is linked to old, previously confiscated pyrotechnic material; investigators have since found "boosters" — explosive multipliers — mixed in at the site, and a damaged grenade depot sat just behind the blast zone, but officials say the cause of the second, much larger explosion is still unconfirmed.
• Bolivia's Army has identified 19-year-old conscript Wilson Copa Mamani as the third confirmed fatality from Friday's double explosion at the Bolívar barracks in Viacha, with 13 soldiers — 12 conscripts and one sergeant first class — still unaccounted for.
• The confirmed injury count has climbed to 84, and Viacha's municipal government has declared three days of official mourning as crews keep digging through the rubble.
• Some international outlets reported "at least 10 dead" in the first hours after the blast, a figure Bolivian authorities never confirmed; the officially verified toll, backed by multiple local newsrooms, stands at three dead as of Sunday.

Three days after twin explosions tore through a munitions maintenance yard at the Bolívar Mechanized Artillery Regiment in Viacha, Bolivia's Army has put a name to a body pulled from the wreckage: Wilson Copa Mamani, a 19-year-old conscript who had been on the military's own list of missing soldiers. His death raises the confirmed toll to three, while search crews continue combing the ruins for 13 uniformed personnel still not accounted for, according to an Army statement reported by Los Tiempos.