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.
Under Torres, organized labor created a Popular Assembly, two-thirds of the delegates representing urban unions and the rest from leftist parties and peasant organizations. It was intended to be a “dual power.” Although the Assembly adjourned without major policy changes, it permitted the radical parties a greater influence on politics than at any time in the past.
In April 1971 Torres pardoned imprisoned guerrilla activists. The lease of the Matilda zinc mine by U. S. Steel was cancelled and the Popular Assembly directed the U. S. Peace Corps to leave Bolivia. Torres sought agreements with the Eastern Bloc countries and received promises of Soviet and East European economic assistance.
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.
