Bolivia, 1946 — popular revolt
Event Summary
Between July 8 and July 21, 1946, escalating strikes and street fighting in La Paz culminated in the overthrow and lynching of Bolivian President Gualberto Villarroel. What began as a teachers' strike over wages grew into a full uprising as university students and organized labor armed themselves and clashed with government forces. On July 21 a mob stormed the presidential palace, the Palacio Quemado, seized Villarroel, and hanged his body from a lamppost in the adjoining Plaza Murillo, an act consciously echoing the killing of Mussolini the year before.
An interim junta drawn from the striking groups and chaired by magistrates of the La Paz district court took power, beginning the conservative sexenio period that lasted until 1952.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
14507211946
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Gualberto Villarroel, President of Bolivia (overthrown, killed and hanged in Plaza Murillo).
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; killed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →