1971 Bolivian coup d'état

Following the uprising of October 7, 1970, General Juan José Torres came to power. Torres would form a left-wing nationalist government, with an "anti-imperialist" stance. Torres would try to form a co-government with the Popular Assembly, a workers' organization, the same sector that helped him come to power.

On January 10, 1971, there was an attempted coup against the Torres regime, led by Colonel Hugo Banzer, who was later exiled to Argentina.

According to the Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB), on August 18, 1971, Hugo Banzer entered Bolivia clandestinely, being arrested in Santa Cruz and later flown to the Carabineros barracks in La Paz.{{cite web|title=Hugo Banzer Suárez|url=https://www.cidob.org/lideres-politicos/hugo-banzer-suarez|website=CIDOB|date=6 August 1997 }}

The next day, August 19, a rebellion broke out in Santa Cruz led by the Nationalist Popular Front, a movement made up of the military and the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) and Bolivian Socialist Falange (FSB) parties. On August 20, Colonel Andrés Selich ordered the shooting of university students in Santa Cruz. The insurgents supposedly freed Banzer from prison and took over radio stations.{{cite web|title=Miners and peasants move against rebels in Bolivia|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/21/archives/miners-and-peasants-move-against-rebels-in-bolivia-bolivia.html |website=The New York Times|date=21 August 1971|access-date=29 November 2024}}

In the early hours of August 21, 1971, Juan José Torres and the Bolivian Colorados Regiment called for resistance to the coup. Many took to the streets with this objective, including the socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz along with other people and students, however, the lack of weapons and disorganization of these played against them.{{cite web|date=21 August 2020 |title=Golpe de Banzer de 1971: a 49 años, el dolor y la incertidumbre de las víctimas aún persisten |url=https://www.la-razon.com/nacional/2020/08/21/golpe-de-banzer-de-1971-a-49-anos-el-dolor-y-la-incertidumbre-de-las-victimas-aun-persisten/ |website=La Razón}} It is estimated that there were around 100 dead and 50 wounded.{{cite news|access-date=2023-09-27 |date=1999-11-05 |issn=1134-6582 |language=es |periodical=El País |title=Bolivia anuncia que no permitirá acciones judiciales contra Banzer |url=https://elpais.com/diario/1999/11/05/internacional/941756406_850215.html}} Many of Torres' military changed sides, with Rubén Sánchez Valdivia being the only loyal military man at the end. With this scenario, Torres was forced to flee and the rebels took the presidential palace. A triumvirate made up of Jaime Florentino Mendieta, Andrés Selich Chop, and Hugo Banzer Suárez himself took power. Later, the junta passed the presidency with full powers to Banzer.

Before the coup, Torres's government had been subjected to external pressure from the United States. U.S. ambassador Ernest V. Siracusa (who participated in the coup d'état against Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, then was expelled from Peru in 1968, accused of being a CIA man) ordered him to change his policy, threatening him with financial blockage. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank refused to grant Bolivia the loans necessary to pursue industrial development work.

On June 11, 1971, President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger discussed plans for a coup in Bolivia.{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve10/d101|title=101. Conversation Between the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and President Nixon|website=Office of the Historian|access-date=November 12, 2024}} Later in July, the 40 Committee approved covert funding towards Torres's opposition.{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve10/d76a|title=76a. Editorial Note|website=Office of the Historian|access-date=November 12, 2024}}

A week after the coup, The Washington Post published a report which claimed that U.S. Air Force Major Robert J. Lundin had advised the plotters and lent them a long-range radio. The report was never substantiated, however, and the State Department denied it immediately, asserting that the United States had no involvement in the overthrow of Torres.{{cite web|title=U.S. Denies Bolivia Role|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/30/archives/us-denies-bolivia-role.html|website=The New York Times|date=30 August 1971|access-date=29 November 2024}}

The Brazilian military government openly supported the Bolivian coup.{{sfn|Bandeira|2017}}{{Cite web |title=Como o Brasil ajudou no golpe na Bolívia |url=https://piaui.folha.uol.com.br/como-o-brasil-ajudou-no-golpe-na-bolivia/ |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Revista Piauí |date=4 February 2023 |language=pt}} Brazilian Air Force planes dropped weapons, including ammunition, rifles, and machine guns, to the rebels in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Additionally, troops from the II Army, commanded by General {{Ill|Humberto de Sousa Melo|pt|Humberto de Sousa Melo|lt=Humberto Melo|preserve=yes}}, were deployed to Mato Grosso, ready to intervene if necessary.{{sfn|Bandeira|2017}}

According to former U.S. ambassador to Argentina John Davis Lodge, the government of dictator Alejandro Agustín Lanusse was also involved in the coup.{{cite web|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB71/doc4.pdf|title=state|website=National Security Archive|access-date=November 14, 2024}}

After this, Hugo Banzer started a new military dictatorship in Bolivia for seven years that banned unions and civil rights, being a participant in the so-called Operation Condor, which killed or caused the disappearance of hundreds of people in Bolivia.

Juan José Torres, on the other hand, went into exile in Buenos Aires, where he was kidnapped and killed in 1976 as part of Operation Condor. Hugo Banzer was overthrown by a new military uprising in 1978.

• Coups d'état in Bolivia
• History of Bolivia (1964–1982)

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Dunkerley |first=James |author-link=James Dunkerley |url=https://archive.org/details/rebellioninveins0000dunk |title=Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggle in Bolivia, 1952–1982 |date=1984 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=9780860910893}}
• {{cite book |last=Bandeira |first=Moniz |author-link=Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jtY5DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22muni%C3%A7%C3%B5es+em+santa+cruz%22&pg=PT293 |title=Formação do império americano: Da guerra contra a Espanha à guerra no Iraque |date=2017 |publisher=Civilização Brasileira |isbn=9788520011041 |language=pt}}

{{Bolivian coups}}

{{Cold War}}

{{Presidency of Richard Nixon}}

{{Americas coup d'état}}

{{United States intervention in Latin America}}

Category:1971 in Bolivia

Category:1970s coups d'état and coup attempts

Category:August 1971 in South America

Category:Bolivia–United States relations

Category:Cold War in Latin America

Category:Conflicts in 1971

Category:Henry Kissinger

Category:Military coups in Bolivia

Category:Cold War conflicts

Category:United States involvement in regime change