Gualberto Villarroel

Villarroel saw action in the Chaco War (1932–35) against Paraguay. He caught the attention of Hans Kundt, commander-in-chief of the army, who highlighted the young man's creativity in combat. As part of the 8th Ayacucho Infantry Regiment, he participated in the battles of Cañada Strongest and Ybybobó being promoted to captain in 1935.[4] He also participated in the final defense of Villamontes in 1935.

After Bolivia's disastrous defeat in the conflict, he became convinced that the country needed profound structural changes and supported the progressive Military Socialist regimes of David Toro and Germán Busch. Following Busch's suicide in August 1939, conservative forces reasserted themselves, took power, and won the 1940 elections in which the traditional parties linked to the country's big mining interests triumphed at the polls with General Enrique Peñaranda.

According to Bolivian journalist Augusto Céspedes, "The coup surprised no one more in Bolivia than the United States Ambassador." The U.S. government had enjoyed good relations with the Peñaranda administration which had brought Bolivia into World War II as an Allied Power and pledged the country's tin resources to the war effort. The fall of Peñaranda alarmed the State Department which immediately suspended diplomatic relations with Bolivia and refused to recognize the Villarroel government.[9] In 1941, Peñaranda had used the fabricated[10] story of a "Nazi Putsch" in Bolivia to suppress the MNR, causing the U.S. to suspect them of having pro-Nazi affiliations.[11] Villarroel, in turn, was seen as "a Mussolini of the Andes" and a puppet Buenos Aires. The government of Argentina under the fascist-leaning President Pedro Pablo Ramírez was the only in Latin America to recognize Villarroel.[12]

The newly installed Villarroel government within hours of its assumption to power sought to reassure the U.S. of its desire for good relations and support of the war effort. In an interview, Paz Estenssoro assured that "the new Government does not alter Bolivia's international position at the side of the United Nations."[8] Negotiations over tin sales, vital to the Bolivian economy, rested on recognition by the United States. Hence, Villarroel's government committed to negotiations over the exclusive sale of quinine, the nationalization of German and Japanese companies, and a new tin contract at hopefully higher prices.[12]

Despite their efforts, the view by the U.S. that Villarroel and the MNR were, in fact, a pro-fascist regime resulted in Secretary of State Cordell Hull issuing a memorandum on 10 January describing their pro-Axis sympathies. By 28 January, all 19 American governments (except Argentina) had publicly refused recognition of the Villarroel regime.[13] While on 11 February Villarroel removed three cabinet members including two top MNR leaders, Carlos Montenegro and Augusto Céspedes, the U.S. maintained that the composition of the revolutionary junta precluded recognition and that "it is not felt that these shifts have materially altered the character of the Junta."

Under the mounting weight of U.S. pressure, the remaining MNR ministers, Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Rafael Otazo, and Wálter Guevara resigned on 5 April 1944.[5] Gualberto Villarroel received full command from the junta as de facto provisional president.[14] Later that month, Minister of Labor Víctor Andrade publicly denied the charges of Nazism and called on the U.S. to recognize the new government.[15] These events led the U.S. to send Avra M. Warren, U.S. Ambassador to Panama, to La Paz to give advice on recognition. On 23 May, Warren recommended the immediate recognition of the Villarroel government due to the fact that "there is now no MNR official in any position of prominence in Bolivia."[16]

Víctor Paz Estenssoro would later explain that the persistent obstacle to achieving the long-awaited goal of recognition between the two capitals ended up being the MNR's call for a ban on Jewish immigration to the country. While the U.S. saw it as a sign of antisemitism, Paz Estenssoro maintained his party's opposition was due to the "serious problems relating to subsistence and housing" it created.[17] The MNR would return to Villarroel's cabinet, with Víctor Paz Estenssoro as Finance Minister, in late December 1944.

Villarroel at the opening of the Indigenous Congress, May 1945

Faced with enemies on both the left and right, Villarroel strove to build a base of support among the long marginalized indigenous populace of Bolivia. In November 1944, Villarroel repealed the law prohibiting indigenous people from entering the main squares of La Paz.[18] Not long after, on the initiative of peasant leaders such as Francisco Chipana Ramos, the president agreed to sponsor a fully indigenous congress to be held in early 1945. The government gave credentials to some 1200 community delegates and settlers to attend the congress. Between 10 and 15 May 1945, a combined group of 1500 delegates and their families would hold the First Indigenous Congress in Luna Park in La Paz.[19]

The congress, led by its Aymara president Francisco Chipana and Quechua vice president Dionsio Miranda, would result in important legal reforms among the indigenous community. Namely, the congress brought forth the abolition of the pongueaje, an obligatory form of unpaid servitude by indigenous peasants in haciendas.[19] Also abolished were "personal services" such as domestic service and transporting and selling a landlord's produce which came in addition to cultivating fields. The abolition of pongueaje also saw the end of state authorities illegally including jobs such as mail delivery within the domestic servant system.

The emphasis by the press on the "authentic native" dress, language and rural labor, marked the indigenous peoples as a distinct group within the Bolivian nation.[18] Though he worked closely with Villarroel's government during the congress, Chipana presented the event as controlled by the delegates themselves while sidelining more radical demands for redistribution of the land. Despite this, the conservative landlords refused to accept even Villarroel’s moderate changes to the labor regime, but ongoing indigenous peasant mobilization would enforce the new laws.[19]

Portrait of Villarroel as President by Luis Walpher, 1954

Villarroel called legislative elections to be held on 2 July 1944 which resulted in a clear victory for the MNR in the Constituent Assembly. In turn, the assembly proclaimed Gualberto Villarroel the constitutional President of the Republic on 5 August 1944.[20] He formally accepted the title the following day. Villarroel enacted a number of far-reaching reforms, including official recognition of worker unions with the establishment of the Federation of Miners, the beginning of construction of the nation's first oil refinery and the establishment of a retirement pension.[21] Villarroel is quoted as once saying "I am not an enemy of the rich but I am more a friend of the poor."[22]

In his push for further reforms, he called a National Convention to rewrite the constitution in 1944. As part of this process, the convention proclaimed Julián Montellano, an MNR member of the Chamber of Deputies from Oruro, vice president on 3 November 1945.[23] Montellano took office three days later. That same month, the new constitution was sanctioned by the National Convention on 23 November and promulgated by Villarroel on 24 November. The Political Constitution of 1945 maintained the same formal structure and even number of sections, denominations, and articles as the 1938 Constitution promulgated during the presidency of Germán Busch, although with the introduction of further reforms.

The conservative backlash against Villarroel did not take long to appear, fed by the considerable resources of the private mining interests. Moreover, the workers themselves decided to exercise their new rights to protest to demand further concessions causing the government to adopt repressive measures to maintain control.

Allegedly among these repressions was the attempted assassination of José Antonio Arze, a prominent Bolivian sociologist and Marxist and head of the Revolutionary Left Party (PIR). While Arze had initially presented his sympathy for the 1943 coup, he refused to supply the Villarroel regime with civil support from the PIR unless the new government got rid of "fascist" elements. The result of this was his arrest and confinement for a few months after which he was released.[24]

Three years after the executions, the newspaper La Razón printed a report on the victims of Chuspipata.

In La Paz in the early morning of 9 July 1944, an unknown assailant shot Arze twice outside his house. While one bullet missed his head by millimeters, the other lodged itself in his thorax, leaving him incapacitated and in hospital for several months. The attempt on the life of the influential leftist politician was a cause of grave concern among academics which, given the previous animosity between the two, suspected government involvement in the incident. In an attempt to push against this notion, a government delegation including Villarroel himself, accompanied by Foreign Minister Enrique Baldivieso, visited Arze at his hospital, showing concern for his health. A subsequent liability trial against the Villarroel regime failed to reach a concrete conclusion as to whether Villarroel or RADEPA had instigated the assassination attempt.[24]

In the same month as the shooting of José Antonio Arze, was the kidnapping of the prominent tin baron Moritz Hochschild. The mining businessman had been arrested in La Paz after being linked to a series of actions threatening the stability of the government months prior. However, on 30 July 1944, he had been cleared of charges and released. The same day, he was intercepted by RADEPA agents while attempting to leave the country through the Chilean consulate. Hochschild's whereabouts were unknown for 17 days. The initial decision to eliminate him was reversed due to international pressure and the intervention of diplomatic representatives of Argentina, Chile, and the United States which ultimately secured Hochschild's release on 15 August.[25]

The harsh repressions on the opposition inevitably resulted in the development of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. The attempted coup in Oruro, headed by Colonel David Ovidio, resulted in failure and its perpetrators were arrested. Following this, the decision was made to impose the maximum penalty of death, without trial and without discretion on the conspirators. On the night of 19 November, four of the conspirators, Miguel Brito, Eduardo Paccieri, Fernando Garrón, and Humberto Loaiza were shot near Challacollo. The rest, two senators: Luis Calvo and Félix Capriles; two former ministers of state: Carlos Salinas Aramayo and Rubén Terrazas; and a military man: General Demetrio Ramos were executed near Chuspipata.[26] The latter executions were particularly brutal as the condemned were shot and their bodies thrown off a 3,000-foot (910 m) ravine.[27] The government announced the executions through a note signed by Major Jorge Eguino on 21 November 1944.

Once the facts were discovered, Villarroel maintained that he had not ordered the executions. However, as head of government, he took responsibility for what happened. Some versions indicate that several crimes carried out during the Villarroel government were carried out by RADEPA, without the knowledge of the president.[27] Whatever the case, the executions shocked the population. In 1977, writer Roberto Querejazu would claim that "if the Catavi massacre was the flag raised by the MNR and the RADEPA in their revolt against Peñaranda, the 'crimes of Challacollo and Chuspipata' became those of the PIR and the traditional parties to drag public opinion against Villarroel.”[26]