1.

INTRODUCTION

Hearing about “military socialism” takes us back to the government of Colonel David Toro
and his group, who took the reins of the Bolivian government - a coup d'état - after the
defeat suffered by that country's army in its territorial dispute with Paraguay ( Chaco War
1932-35). These uniformed men put into practice a Nazi-fascist project which they
fraudulently described as socialist. Examples of these ideological falsifications in Latin
America include Prestes and Vargas in Brazil, Perón in Argentina, Velasco Alvarado in
Peru, Torres in Bolivia, and obviously Lieutenant Colonel Chávez in Venezuela.

“ Military socialism ” is an expression used in Bolivia to refer to the military governments

of David Toro (1936-1937) and Germán Busch (1937-1939).

The Bolivian socialist military regime established a tripartite alliance between the Army ,
the labor movement and the left-wing parties. An incipient experience of “co-government”
was tried with the labor unions, with the creation of the Ministry of Labor and the
appointment, in charge of it, of the union leader Waldo Álvarez .

Among the main achievements of the regime were the establishment of the Ministry of
Labor , the creation of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the nationalization of Standard
Oil , the Constitution of 1938, the Labor Code, the creation of the Mining Bank and the
decree that forced mining companies to deliver their foreign currency to the Central Bank.

At the international level, the regime was permeated by an illiberal atmosphere, which
implied, internally, the coexistence of Marxists and philo- fascists . Unlike what would
happen a decade later (with the emergence of anti-fascism ), in Bolivia in the 1930s, the
borders between the different figures of “ socialism ” (from national socialism to Marxism,
passing through moderate socialism) ), although they evidently existed, they did not
prevent these tendencies from expressing themselves, and fighting to impose their points
of view, within the same political space.

The period of the “ military socialist ” government extended from the coup d'état of May
17, 1936 until the death of Germán Busch on August 23, 1939 .

2. DEVELOPMENT

2.1 Background for the emergence of military socialism

One of the immediate antecedents to the emergence of military socialism will be the
Chaco War, whose conflict we already know will end up surrounding 234 km of our
territory; However, this conflict had certain successful actions such as the defense of
Boquerón and Villamontes, which left the national army in a very bad position and as a
consequence the appearance of military lodges and the legion of ex-combatants is
evident.
2.1.1 What did so-called military socialism consist of?

The government program implemented by David Toro is called military socialism, whose
main objective was to preserve and preserve that rigorous image of the armed forces.
However, it is stated that this program will be a shift to the left to some extent.

2.2 Beginning of military socialism with the government of David Toro

After the defeat in the Chaco War , Bolivia's traditional political system entered into crisis,
and old liberalism was displaced by new ideologies. The army , which had been removed
from political life during the liberal era, soon rebelled against the old order. After the end of
the Chaco War , the young officers emerged from the conflict without the guilt of having led
the country to disaster, and carrying a discourse of “national regeneration” that established
alliances with unionism and nonconformist intellectuals.

Veterans returning from the war in 1935 produced a burst of activity on the moderate left.
As the traditional parties were losing support, a whole set of new clubs and political
associations calling themselves “socialist” began to appear on the scene. Quickly, in the
first months of 1936 , a "Socialist Party" was formed, led by Enrique Baldivieso and Carlos
Montenegro , former members of the Nationalist Party , which had been created to support
the reformist presidency of Hernando Siles Reyes (1926-
1930). .https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialismo_militar - cite_note-klein1-2 The Socialist
Party soon found an ally in the Legion of Ex-Combatants for its aspirations of reform and
revolt against traditional leadership. The key figure and leader of the group of young
officers with a revolutionary mentality was Lt. Col. Germán Busch , who, however, not yet
feeling prepared to govern, would put Col. at the head of the revolutionary movement.
David Toro .

On May 17, 1936 , Busch , then Chief of the General Staff, carried out a coup d'état
against the government of the liberal José Luis Tejada Sorzano , in the midst of a general
strike carried out by the FOT (Federación Obrera del Trabajo) that Busch he refused to
repress. The coup d'état was supported by a coalition of young officers, socialists from
Baldivieso and socialist republicans from Saavedra . On June 20, Col. David Toro arrived
from Chaco and a military junta was established, chaired by him. Thus the new regime
was established, with a tripartite political-social base made up of the Army, two political
parties (the Socialist and the Socialist Republican) and the labor movement. Toro pointed
out that the Army's purpose was to create “a government of justice social, that puts an end
to the old methods and political systems", and defined the project as a " State Socialism ".

The new regime sought to align Bolivia with the theories of the modern social State , with
capacities for regulation and intervention in the economy.
The military government had to face the problem of inflation. Several price control and
anti-speculation laws were enacted, and state-subsidized food stores were established to
sell basic necessities.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Reform Commission, under the leadership of Vicente

Mendoza López , was advancing the design of the projected new Constitution. A sort of
syndicalist-corporate State mixed with the old system of political parties was contemplated.

But without a doubt the most important action of the Toro government was the
nationalization of the properties of the Standard Oil Company , by decree of March 13,
1937, and the establishment of a state oil company, called YPFB (Yacimientos Petroliferos
Fiscales Bolivianos) to operate as a state monopoly in oil production. These actions were
one year ahead of the famous similar, although larger, action by the Mexican government.

Around this time, an attempt was also made to create a “State Socialist Party” to
counterbalance the government's excessive dependence on the Army and to
institutionalize the achievements of the military government in a civilian party. But after the
fall of the Toro government this attempt collapsed.

In July 1937 , Busch was elected head of the Legion of Ex-Combatants , and this was
interpreted as a vote of no confidence toward Toro's leadership. The next day, Toro,
Peñaranda and Busch met in secret sessions and Busch announced to Toro that he no
longer enjoyed the confidence of the Army. Thus, two days later, on July 13, Toro
announced his resignation from the presidency and went into exile. Germán Busch himself
was left in charge of the government.

2.2 The government of Germán Busch

The Busch regime began in a contradictory manner. On the one hand, he appointed
Federico Gutiérrez Garnier as Minister of Finance, a rightist linked to oligarchic interests
as head of the association of large miners, who initiated a policy of economic cuts . Thus,
some social policies of the Toro era were reversed, such as food stores subsidized by the
State. But, on the other hand, on the political level the government became radicalized. In
August 1937 it was announced that elections would be called for a Constituent Convention
to draft a new Constitution (a measure that had been repeatedly delayed in the Toro era).
Elections were finally held in March 1938 , and, in line with corporate representation
projects, the Legion of Ex-Combatants and the Bolivian Workers' Union Confederation
were allowed to stand for election as such. Both organizations participated in the elections
united in a “Socialist United Front”, along with parties of the moderate left and even the
radical left .
The Busch regime began in a contradictory manner. On the one hand, he appointed
Federico Gutiérrez Garnier as Minister of Finance, a rightist linked to oligarchic interests
as head of the association of large miners, who initiated a policy of economic cuts . Thus,
some social policies from the Toro era were reversed, such as state-subsidized food
stores. But, on the other hand, on the political level the government became radicalized. In
August 1937 it was announced that elections would be called for a Constituent Convention
to draft a new Constitution (a measure that had been repeatedly delayed in the Toro era).
Elections were finally held in March 1938 , and, in line with corporate representation
projects, the Legion of Ex-Combatants and the Bolivian Workers' Union Confederation
were allowed to stand for election as such. Both organizations participated in the elections
united in a “Socialist United Front”, along with parties of the moderate left and even the
radical left .

This scandal, known as the “immigration affair,” strongly moved Busch, who concluded
that the country needed a profound moral purification. As a result, on April 24, 1939, he
announced the establishment of a personal dictatorship. The impending congress was
suspended and parliamentary elections, planned for May, cancelled. Although the 1938
Constitution was still nominally in force, the government assumed the right to govern by
decree.

One of the most important decrees of this period was the creation of the Labor Code on
May 24, 1939 . This Labor Code (or “Busch Code”, as it would also be called) was one of
the few successful and lasting reforms of the Busch regime. It provided government
regulations on employment contracts , workplace safety , paid vacations, accident
compensation, mandatory unionization, and collective bargaining . According to the
American historian Herbert S. Klein, the sanction of this Code was an important victory for
the Bolivian labor movement and the culmination of many years of popular struggles in
favor of social legislation, and was praised even by critics of the regime.
Another of the most important decrees after the declaration of the “dictatorship” by Busch
was that of June 7, 1939 regarding the delivery of foreign currency to the State by the
mining owners. The terms of the decree established that mine owners must deliver to the
Central Bank all of their foreign currency earnings resulting from the gross sale of their tin
exports before receiving permission from customs to export their minerals. Under the
terms of the decree, the State would pay mining owners half of their profits in bolivianos at
the legal exchange rate, while they could freely dispose of the other half in gold or foreign
currency, under certain controls.

This decree was inspired by Busch's fifth and last Minister of Finance, Fernando Pou Mont
, a young official with no political affiliation, and must be understood within a context in
which tin mining in Bolivia was dominated by the oligopoly of the “three great” magnates:
Patiño , Aramayo and Hochschild , 3 popularly known as “the mining thread.”
But before that decree could be put into effect, Busch learned of Hochschild's plans to
evade his measures. In a fit of rage, he ordered the arrest and execution of the tycoon. But
under pressure from foreign embassies and government ministers themselves, Busch had
to give in. He freed the imprisoned mining businessman and abandoned the idea of
executing him.

But despite all these important measures, the president felt that the government was not
moving forward. His government was dominated by the same men who had collaborated
with all previous governments in Bolivia, such as his finance ministers. He was still
dependent on the old oligarchy even to carry out routine administration. It is not entirely
clear whether Busch was murdered or committed suicide. The truth is that on August 23,
1939 he died from a gunshot to the temple. A long-time supporter of his government, and
author of the book The Suicidal Dictator about it, the writer Augusto Céspedes supports
the suicide thesis.

With Busch's death, the experiment in “military socialism” came to an end. He was
succeeded temporarily by General Quintanilla , who governed with the support of the
conservative Concordancia , and later, from April 1940, by General Peñaranda , elected
constitutional president in the elections of that year , supported by the same Concordancia
.

Although Busch's death put a temporary brake on the Army's experiment with political
reform, the period of “military socialism” had lasting effects, marking the end of an
important era in Bolivian political history and inaugurating another, dominated by
polarization. growing between traditional parties and the new reform-minded post-war
political generation.

2.3 First political parties in Bolivia

A pending story. According to various treaties and historical studies, Bolivia emerged in
1825 into constitutional and republican life without political parties. Then the presidency
was assumed by leaders, soldiers, among other influential figures. Or, in most cases, the
National Congress of the Republic (today the Plurinational Legislative Assembly) defined
the president. 132 years ago, the first political parties emerged in the country, between
Liberal and Conservative currents. While some proposed the recovery of the Coast, others
fought for the war with Chile to end.
"The formations emerged under the protection of a political, economic and/or social crisis
for which they offered a response," says an analysis by Salvador Romero Ballivian, former
president of the National Electoral Court.

Only in 1937, once the Chaco War was over, with a bloody and fatal outcome that
exposed the enormous weakness of a country managed by a small elite, did political
parties emerge. "Disappointed with the pre-war socioeconomic stagnation and the
insufficiencies of the elite during the war period, they opened themselves to winds of
renewal," the story says.
That milestone marked a rethinking for hundreds of intellectuals and new generations of
Bolivia, whose emergence of new leadership energized the sociopolitical situation of the
country until arriving with the National Revolution of 1952.

At the beginning of the 1940s, the main parties representing this generation were already
founded: the Partido Obrero Revolucionario (POR, 1938, José Aguirre), the Partido de la
Izquierda Revolucionaria (PIR, 1940, José A. Arce, Ricardo Anaya), the Bolivian Socialist
Falange (FSB, 1938, Unzaga de la Vega) and the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
(MNR, 1941, Víctor Paz, Hernán Siles, Wálter Guevara, Carlos Montenegro, Augusto
Céspedes).

Era of the National Revolution

The Revolution of 1952 made generous promises, upheld the values of equality, justice,
national liberation and progress. In this context, according to analysts, Bolivia is
experiencing the second generation of political parties, whose predominance in power was
marked around the MNR and its branches facing other emerging sectors of the left. But
this period was marked by successive military coups, with a strong polarization between
popular worker sectors and the right-wing military governments. At this stage is when new
political organizations appear such as the Socialist Party (PS, 1971, Marcelo Quiroga
Santa Cruz) and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR, 1971, Jaime Paz, Óscar Eid,
Antonio Araníbar). On the other hand, on the right wing, the then dictator Hugo Banzer
Suarez created Acción Democrástica Nacionalista (ADN, 1979).
After Bolivia's return to a long democratic period in 1982, a countless number of political
parties were established, not only left-wing and right-wing currents, but also the so-called
"centers." But the electoral strength of this period is accentuated in parties such as MNR,
ADN and the MIR; However, in a transversal way, parties such as Unidad Cívica
Solidaridad (UCS) with Max Fernández and Conciencia de Patria (Condepa) with Carlos
Palenque, among others, emerge.
In this democratic period, called the third generation, a party system was established that,
through five national electoral processes between 1985 and 2002, guaranteed the
governability of the country under agreements, coalitions and alliances, characterized as
"agreed democracy." This culminated in the crisis of October 2003, with the fall from power
of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada of the MNR and the entire MIR, UCS and NFR (New
Republican Force) coalition.

3. CONCLUSIONS

Socialmilitarism, understood as 21st Century socialism, is that of the man with a boot and
a gun who aspires to transform the country into a large barracks, with an olive green
uniformed thought. He is the one who forces us to shout socialism or death, the one who
advocates for a militarization of society (disciplined bureaucracy) in order to create a
parallel government structure, totally dependent on the designs of the Lieutenant Colonel.
It is the one that promotes rampant and unpunished corruption, the one that criminalizes
political dissidence, and imposes a savage and exploitative state capitalism. It is the one
that implements social espionage, and eliminates the principle of the presumption of
innocence, aspects contemplated in the new Law of the National Intelligence and
Counterintelligence System.

For a long time, Bolivian political history forged the stigma of a chronically unstable
country, dominated by civil and military bosses faced with provincial struggles and
stimulated by unlimited greed. Currently, without the military on the political horizon, the
situation does not seem to be better than when they left power in 1982. Not even the
National Revolution, inaugurated in 1952 and canceled by a military coup in 1964,
managed to build a stable society. On the contrary, its defeat produced the greatest
political turbulence capitalized by weak and fragmented military regimes that, at the drop
of a hat, They remained in power for almost two decades.