A series of increasingly violent general strikes and protests occurred in La Paz, Bolivia, between 8 and 21 July 1946 and culminated in the lynching and hanging of President Gualberto Villarroel. What started as teachers' strikes demanding increased wages quickly escalated as university students, organized labor workers, and civilians clashed with municipal police and armed, pro-government civilians. By the end, interim control of the country was handed to a junta of representatives of the three striking groups chaired by independent magistrates of the Superior Court of Justice of the judicial district of La Paz.
The July Crisis
Background Since its assumption to power in December 1943, the government of President Gualberto Villarroel and his collaborators in the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) and the Reason for the Fatherland (RADEPA) military lodge had gradually eroded its initial reformist popularity through continuous and violent repression of members of the opposition, newspapers, and citizens critical of its actions. The most vile incident came in November 1944 when a group of arrested coup-plotters were executed without trial, being thrown to the bottom of a ravine near Chuspipata and Challacollo.
Dissatisfaction reached its peak in July 1946. The most recent crisis came when the teachers in La Paz, whose wages at the time sat at a meager $12.50 to $20 a month, went on strike on 8 July, demanding a salary increase. The government refused, stating that an increase in wages would cause inflation. This, despite the fact that an estimated 56% of the national budget was being spent on the army alone. On 10 July, students of the Higher University of San Andrés (UMSA) staged their own protests in support of the teachers. The police dispersed the demonstration concentrated in the Plaza Murillo with rifle and machine gun fire, leaving 3 dead and 11 wounded. The burial of the dead the following day inspired new rallies which resulted in more casualties.
Stoning of the UMSA The increasingly tense situation caused the government to suspend 16 July festivities celebrating the civic anniversary of La Paz. That night and in the early hours of 17 July, a group of twenty MNR members led by the minister of agriculture, Julio Zuazo Cuenca, stoned the UMSA, smashing its windows with rifles and rocks. Although the rest of the city was heavily guarded, eyewitnesses recounted that there was not one policeman or soldier in sight during the half-hour-long attack.
The gesture galvanized university students who visited different neighborhoods and rallied La Paz citizens of all social sectors to their side. The crowd converged in the city center where shouts of "Down with the MNR!" and "Down with the military boot!" were levied at the Palacio Quemado, the government palace. Minor outbreaks of shootings broke out in some areas with rioters firing at the Calama Regiment barracks and the traffic section near the Rodríguez market. During one rally, police shot and killed Bergel Camberos, a student of the Pedro Domingo Murillo Industrial School.
Turning point That afternoon, MNR leadership expelled Zuazo Cuenca from the party for his role in leading the attack against the university. However, on 18 July, the government issued morning press denied the official statement announcing Zuazo Cuenca's expulsion from the party. At around 6 a.m., police attempted to forcefully enter the UMSA despite their presence being officially banned by the university's autonomy. They were, however, blocked by students with small arms who barricaded the entrances. Tensions finally reached their height at around 10 a.m. when sporadic shooting and violence between police and students broke out. Despite the police focus on the students, little more than a dozen of the roughly 400 demonstrators were armed. Further, shortly after the shooting started, pro-government civilians armed with rifles were allowed into the city. The students now demanded the removal from the Cabinet of all members of the MNR. At 11 a.m., the high command of the MNR summoned its members to the Legislative Palace to assess the precarious situation. By noon, all streets in the city center were rendered too dangerous to traverse and what few businesses that had been open in the morning were closed. That day, the first clashes took place in the transit building, causing 10 casualties.
By the afternoon, the army, which up until then had remained relatively distant from the situation, had begun to play an increasingly important role. At this point, however, it was under instructions to fire only defensively or in the occasion that important properties such as the market had been occupied by students. In a bid to disperse the growing crowds, Villarroel ordered the Loa 4th Infantry Regiment and the Bolívar 2nd Artillery Regiment to march into the city. Speaking on the radio, Villarroel assured that the government was in full control of the situation and blamed the riots on the Rosca, the capitalist mining enterprises.
United States Ambassador Joseph Flack described the situation from his vantage point in the U.S. Embassy: "We feel that we are in the middle of a war and it is impossible for anyone to leave the building". Flack also protested that two armed policemen had invaded the embassy in order to set machine guns up on the roof. That night, Flack, along with the Brazilian ambassador Renato de Lacerda Lago, Peruvian ambassador Eduardo Garland Roel, Ecuadorian minister Hugo Moncayo, and papal chargé Gastón Mojaisky met with the acting foreign minister, Colonel José Celestino Pinto, in order to urge clemency for the students, something which Pinto suggested the president would be sympathetic to. The meeting with the foreign delegates was followed by a meeting between Villarroel and the rector of the UMSA, Héctor Ormachea, after which the president ordered that all university students arrested in the clashes be released.
The night of 18 July saw heavy snowfall cover the city. At 1:30 p.m. on 19 July, in a single column, the Loa Regiment and the Lanza 5th Regiment of Cavalry descended on La Paz with orders to occupy some corners of the city. Municipal police had disappeared from sight, replaced entirely by troops. During a demonstration at the Plaza Murillo, two revolver shots were fired at the army chiefs who were standing on the balcony of the Palacio Quemado. One bullet grazed Colonel Francisco Barrero while another hit Colonel Pinto in the leg. A fraction of the Loa was ordered to march towards the Plaza Murillo but upon arrival, it could be seen that the organized demonstration was dissolving, so the intervention of the military was no longer necessary. By the afternoon, Flack described the Plaza Murillo as having become "an armed camp with light and heavy machine guns emplaced and several lend lease anti-aircraft pieces at strategic points with their muzzles depressed to body height". At 6 p.m., demonstrators attempted to reenter the Plaza Murillo. Despite Pinto's motion to the troops not to fire, shooting nonetheless broke out with grave casualties among both the protesters and the soldiers. The battle ended when the demonstrators withdrew. A radio statement later announced that thirty-two men had been arrested in the Hotel Paris for having fired into the crowd in order to inculpate the government.
MNR resigns The railway workers had now joined the students, issuing an ultimatum demanding the removal of the MNR from Villarroel's cabinet. Some fairly important workers' syndicates had also called their own general strikes. Given the situation, Villarroel was advised to separate his government from the MNR in order to reassure the country. The five military ministers (Gustavo Chacó of foreign affairs, Edmundo Nogales of government, José Celestino Pinto of defense, Antonio Ponce of public works, and Jorge Calero of education) all submitted their resignations in order to pressure the three of the MNR (Víctor Paz Estenssoro of finance, Germán Monroy Block of labor, and Julio Zuazo Cuenca of agriculture) to do the same. However, they refused to follow suit. In a meeting between Villarroel and Paz Estenssoro, the latter affirmed that the president's decision to request the MNR's resignation was an "ingratitude and a betrayal" and expressed his fear that "persecution against us will begin". In the end, Paz Estenssoro agreed to submit the MNR's resignation the following day in exchange for safety guarantees. At 10 p.m., a radio statement announced the president's intent to form a new, all-military cabinet.
On the morning of 20 July, Zuazo Cuenca, Monroy Block, and La Paz mayor Juan Luis Gutiérrez Granier met at the home of Paz Estenssoro. There was a delay in the drafting of the MNR resignation and it would not officially arrive until 7 p.m. However, before even receiving it, the president appointed a new cabinet made up of one general, three colonels, three lieutenant colonels and a major. However, dissatisfaction continued due to the fact that at least two of the new military ministers were MNR supporters. On the contrary, the new cabinet aroused misgivings in a sector which had so far been loyal to the Villarroel regime: the armed forces. Among soldiers and officials in the Ministry of Defense, the general staff, as well as the Sucre and Loa regiments, there was resentment at the fact that full control of the army and now the government had been singularly handed to a few members of the RADEPA lodge. The opinion increasingly grew that the president should resign.
Army intervention At 8 p.m., the commanders of the Lanza and the Sucre regiments as well as the commander of the Military Geographical Institute met in the general staff and submitted a formal request that the President resign from office. At the end of the meeting, the newly appointed minister of defense, General Ángel Rodríguez, took these commanders to the Palacio Quemado to personally deliver their request to Villarroel. At 11 p.m., Rodríguez made Villarroel known of the military's request for his resignation. According to Rodríguez: "The president did not expect this coup. His bewilderment was distressing, but he reacted immediately and with a calm attitude said: If I no longer have support, I am ready to resign. The presidency is a terrible burden." Villarroel summoned his cabinet and about 40 military chiefs and officers, representatives of all the military units and institutions of La Paz. The tense meeting lasted from 11 p.m. on the 20th to 3 a.m. on the 21st. At one point, the president's aide-de-camp, Captain Waldo Ballivián, burst into the room and pointed his revolver at Captain Milton López, accusing him of being a traitor for having called the general staff by telephone to request more military officers attend the meeting to impose a majority that would force Villarroel's resignation. Finally, President Villarroel agreed to resign with Vice President Julián Montellano as his successor. However, all those present rejected this because Montellano belonged to the MNR, and the people at that time did not want any hint of that party in government. The conclave ultimately dissolved with opinions entirely divided, though it was concluded that it would be difficult to maintain the president's situation without the full support of the army, taking into account that many of the troops who were quartered had relatives who had died in previous clashes.
Flight of the MNR