President of Bolivia Luis Arce accused Elon Musk and Tesla of being involved in the so-called coup back in 2019 that ousted then-President Evo Morales.

At a joint press conference with the President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Bolivian President thanked Mexico for offering political asylum to Evo Morales and himself after the 2019 events, adding that the financial reason behind the overthrow of Morales was none other than Bolivia’s vast reserves of lithium, and Tesla, El Sol de Mexico reports.

Read Also: Tesla Has Started Accepting Bitcoin As Payment In The US, Says Musk

“There were statements by vice-presidential candidate Samuel Doria Medina who mentioned it would be very interesting if Tesla could come to Bolivia to industrialize lithium. A few weeks later, a statement by a senior Tesla manager was known on social networks saying that they are going to carry out a coup where necessary,” said Arce, who served as Minister of Finance between 2006 and 2017 in the Morales government.

Morales was forced to flee the country shortly after the 2019 elections, which ended in a contested vote count, protests, and even calls by the military for Morales to leave. Morales and his supporters said that the whole thing is a coup but he eventually, together with the Vice President, and the top Senate leaders, stepped down.

On July 25, 2020, Elon Musk also called it a coup and showed his support for it; Tesla’s CEO said back then that a second government stimulus package would not be “in the best interests of the people” when a Twitter user replied: “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people? the U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there.” Musk then responded:  “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it” but later deleted the tweet.

Morales nationalized Bolivia’s lithium reserves and had agreed with a German company for the production of batteries, but the deal never materialized because the government was overthrown. Musk was reportedly in negotiations to secure lithium deposits from South America for Tesla but Morales’ move to nationalize Bolivia’s reserves closed the door ever since.