Background
Alfredo Ovando Candia was born on 6 April 1917 in Cobija.
Alfredo Ovando Candia was born on 6 April 1917 in Cobija.
Attended primary and secondary school in Sucre and La Paz and entered the military academy. In 1936 he graduated and subsequently received further training in the Higher War College and in Argentina. He was a major by 1948.
With the outbreak of the Chaco War, he briefly served at the front. After the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) victory in 1952, he was further promoted, rising to general of division by December 1962. He taught at the Higher War College, served as military attaché to Paraguay and Uruguay, was army chief of staff in 1957, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces by 1962. On December 24, 1964, he was promoted to general of the army.
Ovando was the military power behind the overthrow of the MNR in November 1964. He served as co-president of the military government until 1966. and he ruled alone until René Barrientos Ortuño took over in August. With the death of Barrientos in April 1969, Ovando permitted Vice President Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas to assume the presidency briefly, but carried out a coup against him on September 26, 1969.