1. Gualberto Villarroel Lopez was a Bolivian military officer who served as the 39th president of Bolivia from 1943 to 1946.
22 Facts About Gualberto Villarroel
1. 2.
Gualberto Villarroel was born on 15 December 1908 in Villa Rivero, Cochabamba Department.
3.
Gualberto Villarroel was the son of Enrique Casto Villarroel and Maria Lopez.
4.
Gualberto Villarroel graduated in 1924, going on to enroll in the Military College of the Army in 1925, graduating with the rank of second lieutenant as part of the Perez Tercero Infantry Regiment in 1928.
5.
Gualberto Villarroel saw action in the Chaco War against Paraguay.
6.
Gualberto Villarroel caught the attention of Hans Kundt, commander-in-chief of the army, who highlighted the young man's creativity in combat.
7.
Gualberto Villarroel participated in the final defense of Villamontes in 1935.
8.
Gualberto Villarroel became a member of RADEPA, an open-military faction of young officers founded in 1934 by Bolivian prisoners of war in Paraguay.
9.
Gualberto Villarroel, in turn, was seen as "a Mussolini of the Andes" and a puppet of Buenos Aires.
10.
Hence, Gualberto 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.
11.
Gualberto Villarroel received full command from the junta as de facto provisional president.
12.
In November 1944, Gualberto Villarroel repealed the law prohibiting indigenous people from entering the main squares of La Paz.
13.
Gualberto Villarroel called legislative elections to be held on 2 July 1944 which resulted in a clear victory for the MNR in the Constituent Assembly.
14.
Gualberto 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.
15.
The conservative backlash against Gualberto Villarroel did not take long to appear, fed by the considerable resources of the private mining interests.
16.
Once the facts were discovered, Gualberto Villarroel maintained that he had not ordered the executions.
17.
Some versions indicate that several crimes carried out during the Gualberto Villarroel government were carried out by RADEPA, without the knowledge of the president.
18.
That same day, Gualberto Villarroel requested the resignation of Minister of Agriculture Zuazo and met with Minister of Finance Paz Estenssoro to request the removal of the MNR party from government, facilitating their asylum in foreign embassies.
19.
Gualberto Villarroel's body was one of many to be hung in the square, inspired by the hanging and desecration of the corpse of Benito Mussolini the year prior.
20.
Gualberto Villarroel was discovered in a cupboard in the Office of Administrative Reorganization and Efficiency.
21.
Whatever the case, Gualberto Villarroel died within the Palacio Quemado and his body was thrown through a window onto Ayacucho Street in the Plaza Murillo.
22.
Gualberto Villarroel was then lynched in the street, his clothes torn and his mutilated, almost naked corpse hung on a lamp post.