The history of Bolivia from 1964 to 1982 is a time of periodic instability under various military dictators. On November 4, 1964, power passed from the elected leader of the Bolivian National Revolution, Víctor Paz Estenssoro, to a military junta under vice-president General René Barrientos. Barrientos was elected president in 1966 but died suspiciously in a helicopter crash in 1969 while touring the countryside and visiting the indigenous people of Bolivia. This led to a coup in September 1969 by General Ovando, who was overthrown in October 1970 by General Rogelio Miranda, who was overthrown a couple of days later by General Juan José Torres, who in turn was overthrown in August 1971 by Hugo Banzer Suárez. Banzer ruled for seven years, initially from 1971 to 1974, with the support of Estenssoro's Nationalist Revolutionary Movement. In 1974, impatient with schisms in the party, he replaced civilians with members of the armed forces and suspended political activities. The economy grew impressively during Banzer's presidency, but demands for greater political freedom undercut his support. He called elections in 1978, and Bolivia once again plunged into turmoil. Juan Pereda ruled for only four months in 1978, but his ascent to the presidency marked the beginning of an even more unstable period in Bolivian history, with nine civilian and military presidents in little over four years (1978–1982). 1982 marked the return to a democratically elected government, with Guido Vildoso as president.
The Barrientos presidency
On November 4, 1964 René Barrientos Ortuño (president, 1964–65; co-president, May 1965 – January 1966; and president, 1966–69) and General Alfredo Ovando Candia occupied the presidential palace and declared themselves co-presidents. But as the crowd, which had gathered outside the palace, persisted in shouting its preference for the more charismatic Barrientos, Ovando allowed Barrientos to assume the formal title alone. At the same time, he occupied the post of commander in chief of the armed forces.Maria Luise Wagner. "The Barrientos presidency". In Hudson & Hanratty.
Barrientos, a Quechua-speaking general, insisted that his assumption of power was not a counterrevolutionary move and promised to restore the Bolivian National Revolution to its "true path", from which the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, MNR) had deviated during its twelve-year rule. His government continued many of the policies of the second Víctor Paz Estenssoro administration, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stabilization plan and the Triangular Plan. The emphasis on reducing social costs remained in effect. In May 1965, the army forced Barrientos to accept Ovando as his co-president as a reward for suppressing an uprising by miners and factory workers.
The economy improved during the Barrientos regime at a growth rate averaging 6.5% yearly. The rise of tin prices resulted in the first profit for the Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Corporación Minera de Bolivia, Comibol) in 1966. They contributed to increased production in the medium-sized mines that had remained private. Barrientos encouraged the private sector and foreign investment and gave Gulf Oil Company permission to export petroleum and natural gas from Bolivia.
In 1966, Barrientos legitimized his rule by winning the presidential election. He formed the Popular Christian Movement (Movimiento Popular Cristiano, MPC) as his base of support. Although the MPC was unsuccessful, he won the election with a coalition of conservative politicians, the business community, and the peasants.
Barrientos's efforts to build support in the countryside succeeded at first with the signing in February 1964 of the Military-Peasant Pact (Pacto Militar-Campesino). Under the agreement, the campesino militias agreed to adopt an anti-leftist stance and to subordinate themselves to the army. However, his attempt to impose taxes on peasants resulted in a violent response and loss of support in rural areas.
Determined to keep the labor sector under control, Barrientos took away most of the gains it had achieved during the MNR's rule. He placed Comibol under the control of a military director and abolished the veto power of union leaders in management decisions. The president also cut the miners' pay to US$0.80 a day, reducing the mining workforce and the enormous Comibol bureaucracy by 10%. Finally, he destroyed the Bolivian Labor Federation (Central Obrera Boliviana, COB) and the mine workers' union, suppressed all strike activity, disarmed the miners' militias, and exiled union leaders. Military troops again occupied the mines, and in 1967 they massacred miners and their families at the Catavi-Siglo XX mines.
Barrientos could not wholly silence the labor sector; miners led the growing opposition to his rule. The various groups opposing his rule joined in denouncing Barrientos's selling of natural resources to the United States under favorable terms. They resented his invitation to United States private investment in Bolivia because he offered greater privileges to foreign investors. The defection of Barrientos's close friend and minister of interior, Colonel Antonio Arguedas, to Cuba after his announcement that he had been an agent for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) aroused national indignation. The military also resented the crucial role of United States officers in the capture and killing of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967 in Bolivia, where he had tried to start a guerrilla movement.
The death of Barrientos in a helicopter crash on April 27, 1969, initially left control in the hands of his vice president, Luís Adolfo Siles Salinas (1969). Real power, however, remained with the armed forces under its commander in chief, General Ovando, who took power on September 26, 1969, in a coup that reformist officers supported.
Revolutionary nationalism: Ovando and Torres
Ovando (co-president, May 1965 – January 1966, and president, January–August 1966 and 1969–70) annulled the 1970 elections, dismissed the Congress, and appointed a cabinet that included independent reformist civilians who had opposed Barrientos's policies. Ovando hoped to gain civilian and military support with a program of "revolutionary nationalism", which he had outlined in the "Revolutionary Mandate of the Armed Forces".
Revolutionary nationalism reflected the heritage and rhetoric of the military reformist regimes of the past and the spirit of the 1952 Revolution. It also showed the influence of the Peruvian government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado. Many Bolivian officers believed that the military had to intervene in politics to lead the country toward reform because civilian governments had failed in that undertaking. They were convinced that it was in the main interest of the armed forces to end underdevelopment, which they saw as the cause of insurgency. The military would, therefore, fight on the internal frontiers against social injustice and economic dependence.Maria Luise Wagner. "Revolutionary nationalism: Ovando and Torres". In Hudson & Hanratty.
Despite highly popular measures, such as the nationalization of the holdings of the Gulf Oil Company, Ovando failed to gain popular support. Popular enthusiasm over the nationalization was short-lived. Disagreement over compensation, a boycott of Bolivian crude oil on the international market, and a general economic downturn became divisive factors. Even though Ovando legalized the COB and withdrew troops from the mining camps, lasting worker support for the regime was not ensured. Frustrated expectations, broken promises, and the massacre of miners by the military in Catavi in 1967 had radicalized the workers, who now refused to cooperate with the military government.
While the left became radicalized, the right became weary of Ovando's vacillating statements, which included the suggestion that private property be abolished. Even when Ovando moved right during the last months of his regime, he was unable to enlist the support of the conservative groups in the country because this move only emphasized his weakness.
Ovando's reform program also polarized the military. Reformist officers, concerned about the decline in popular support for the military since the Barrientos regime, shifted their support to the more radical General Juan José Torres (1970–71), whom Ovando had dismissed as his commander in chief, the right backed General Rogelio Miranda.
The chaos surrounding the overthrow of Ovando highlighted the division in the armed forces. Military officers demanded the resignation of Ovando and Miranda after a failed coup attempt by the latter on October 5, 1970. A triumvirate, formed on October 6, failed to consolidate support. On October 7, as the country moved toward civil war after the COB had declared a general strike, General Torres emerged as the compromise candidate and became president of Bolivia.
The main feature of Torres's presidency was a lack of authority. Rather than taking the initiative on policies, Torres primarily reacted to pressure from different groups. His minister of interior, Jorge Gallardo Lozada, labeled the Torres government the "ten months of emergency".
Torres hoped to retain civilian support by moving to the left. He nationalized some United States property, such as the waste-processing operation of the Catavi tin mines and the Matilde zinc mine, and he ordered the Peace Corps, a United States program, out of Bolivia. While limiting United States influence in Bolivia, Torres increased cooperation with the Soviet Union and its allies in the economic and technical sectors.
However, because of his lack of a clear strategy and political experience, Torres soon alienated all sectors of Bolivian society. He found it difficult to organize groups on the left because they confronted him with demands he could not meet, such as giving them half of all cabinet seats. The workers, students, and parties of the left wanted a socialist state and saw the Torres government only as a step in that direction. In June 1970, the Torres regime established the Popular Assembly (Asamblea Popular) in an attempt to form an alternative popular government. Consisting mainly of representatives of workers' and peasants' organizations, the Popular Assembly was intended to serve as a base for the radical transformation of society. However, the left remained divided by ideological differences and rivalry for leadership. They could not agree on controversial issues dealing with full worker participation in state and private enterprises, the creation of armed militias, and the establishment of popular tribunals having legal jurisdiction over crimes against the working class. No consensus was achieved, and many delegates, resenting the lack of power to enforce the resolutions and running short of funds, returned home prematurely. The Popular Assembly did, however, succeed in weakening the government by creating a climate in which popular organizations acted independently from the state.