Background
Juan José Torres was born on 5 March 1921 in Sacaba.
Juan José Torres was born on 5 March 1921 in Sacaba.
Although in his youth he had been a militant of the conservative Bolivian Socialist Falange and had led a military unit against the Ché Guevara guerrilla insurgency in 1967, he emerged as an idealistic politician of the left.
When General Alfredo Ovando Candía seized power in September 1969, Torres became commander-in-chief of the armed forces but was removed in July 1970, under conservative pressure. In the confusion after the fall of Ovando during October 4-7, 1970, Torres assumed power, beginning a new, but brief, experiment in populist politics.
Torres went into exile and ultimately was assassinated in Buenos Aires in 1976.
From the start, the Torres government was the object of sharp internal and external opposition. Relations with the United States were strained and aid was cut, although a decree on February 8, 1971, provided a $78 million compensation to Gulf Oil. Hugo Banzer Suárez, dismissed head of the army's military college, organized a successful revolt during August 19-21. Despite bloody worker and student resistance, the ultraconservative military won out, since General Torres refused to arm civilians.