Importance of the Dictatorship of General Barrientos (1964-1982)

The government of this general of the Bolivian army who grew politically after the workers' revolution of the 50s inaugurated a long season of successive military dictatorships in Bolivia and which initially had the support of the States Joined.

The beginning of a violent stage

General Barrientos (1964-1969), General Ovando (1969-1970), Juan José Torres (1970-1971), and Hugo Banzer (1971-1978); between 1978 and 1982 there was a string of 8 presidents who alternated between the dictatorship and the democracy and problems such as the repressive violence of the state and drug trafficking became more acute.

Acting as vice president, Barrientos overthrew President Víctor through a military coup. Paz Estenssoro and in 1966, through a fraudulent election, he was elected as president constitutional.

Ally of the peasants who were a crucial support for his arrival and maintenance in power, and of the United States, Among his first measures are the privatization of the tin mines and the suppression of all sources revolutionaries.

The workers and miners were his main enemies and detractors.

He ordered the execution of Che Guevara

With the objective of banishing the foundations of the revolution, in 1967, the Bolivian army under the command of Barrientos, faced the guerrilla of the Argentine Ernesto Che Guevara, recognized for his participation in the Cuban Revolution.

In Bolivia he did not have the same luck as in Cuba and ended up brutally assassinated by order of Barrientos.

Although the reorganization of the Bolivian army had the economic and military aid of the United States to recover the force lost in the years of the workers' revolution, the annihilation of Che was carried out by a Bolivian mission and the participation of the CIA in he.

The decision of the military leadership at that time, and of President Barrientos himself, was to execute Guevara the day after his capture.

Exponential growth of drug trafficking and systematic violation of human rights

Throughout the dictatorial period, the violation of the human rights It was growing and becoming more violent and extended every year.

During the Barrientos government, there was a former German soldier and Nazi figure, Kalu Barbie, nicknamed the Lyon butcher for the atrocious torture he inflicted on him. to French prisoners, who in Bolivia called himself Klaus Altman, and who was appointed in charge of the Bolivian Naval Society and adviser to the security services. intelligence.

As expected, if one takes into account his resume in France, in Bolivia he also produced a massacre with his cunning actions against opponents of the Barrientos regime.

This German soldier is also blamed for starting the illegal trade in arms and drugs, which with the time would be the economic bastions on which the dictatorships that for 18 years ruled the country.

Barrientos died in 1969, while he was in office, in a helicopter accident, although some suspect that it was an attack.

A political cycle sustained only by the world situation that left the country in a pressing crisis

The continuation of the process was catastrophic for Bolivia in all aspects, because at the beginning of the 1980s the international value of tin, which in times of the Barrientos government and his successors was very high and allowed the country to develop like never before, it dropped remarkably, and this led to a crisis sharp economics.

The military efforts were chaotic, violent, and very bad from the economic level, only the high price saved them in the world of minerals such as tin but when it fell its enormous deficiencies were revealed administrative.

Added to this was hyperinflation, record foreign debt, and a sharp drop in export earnings.

As the only resource available to get fresh dollars, the government turned to the illegal business of the cocaine that would bring him serious differences with whoever was his ally in previous decades: the United States Joined.

Towards the end of Banzer's administration, which was the longest of the cycle, the repression was fierce, the political parties and the unions, there were no civil rights, and the mining centers were militarized.

For the country, the consequences of this dark period were difficult to overcome because the economic backwardness and divisions were impressive.

In any case, beginning in 1982, Bolivia resumed the democratic path and began through the various governments on duty to defuse some of the bombs planted by the military: drug trafficking on the rise and crisis economic.