23 Facts About Carlos Quintanilla

Carlos Quintanilla Quiroga was a Bolivian military officer who served as the 37th president of Bolivia from 1939 to 1940.

When President Busch committed suicide on 23 August 1939, Carlos Quintanilla declared himself Provisional President of the Republic.

Carlos Quintanilla was born on 22 January 1888 in the city of Cochabamba.

Carlos Quintanilla was the son of Jenaro Quintanilla and Carlota Quiroga.

Carlos Quintanilla graduated with the rank of second lieutenant of the army in 1911 at age 23.

In Bolivia, Carlos Quintanilla became an instructor at the Military College of the Army.

Carlos Quintanilla again traveled to Germany in 1922, by which time the war in Europe had ended.

Carlos Quintanilla continued his studies in the 5th Infantry Division in Grafenwohr.

Carlos Quintanilla was reincorporated into the Bolivian army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1926 by President Hernando Siles Reyes who appointed him to be the Bolivian military deputy in Germany.

Already in 1929, Carlos Quintanilla sent a general report to his superiors, warning about the situation of the country and the army.

Carlos Quintanilla returned for a final time to Bolivia in 1931 and went on to command the First Division of the Bolivian Army in addition to being Deputy Chief of the General Staff.

In July 1932, President Daniel Salamanca summoned General Carlos Quintanilla to replace General Filiberto Osorio as Chief of Staff of the Bolivian Army following his resignation.

However, Osorio and Carlos Quintanilla reached a prior agreement and proposed to Salamanca that Osorio would withdraw his resignation and Carlos Quintanilla would take command of the Bolivian forces in the southeast of Chaco.

In retaliation, President Salamanca ordered General Carlos Quintanilla to seize the Paraguayan forts Corrales, Toledo, and Boqueron.

Days prior, Carlos Quintanilla had received reliable notice that the Paraguayans would attack with 6,000 men, which he rejected as impossible.

Osorio was replaced as Chief of the General Staff by Jose Leonardo Lanza while Carlos Quintanilla was replaced by Bernardino Bilbao Rioja.

Whatever the case, a lack of support from other officers and the intervention of former president Ismael Montes forced Toro and Carlos Quintanilla to retract their attempted insubordination.

Busch, despite his experience of governing the army, was politically naive and allowed Carlos Quintanilla free rein to oust the younger liberal officers from their position of power.

Months later on 4 December, by simple decree Carlos Quintanilla amended article 90 of the 1938 Constitution, outright abolishing the vice presidency claiming that the office was "not justified either by public needs or by the political tradition of the country".

The proposal failed and became the subject of mockery and popular epigrams deriding the idea with Carlos Quintanilla himself being awarded the derogatory nickname of "El Loco Mariscal" as a result.

Carlos Quintanilla agreed to reinstate Bernardino Bilbao to his post as commander-in-chief of the armed forces within ten days, promised to maintain Sinforiano Bilbao as director of the Military College, and pledged not to sanction any retaliatory measures against any of the military elements that participated in the uprising.

However, when Carlos Quintanilla woke up at 5 am he was surprised by troop movements in the plaza and ordered them to withdraw.

Carlos Quintanilla died in his native Cochabamba on 8 June 1964, at the age of 76.