50th anniversary of Hugo Banzer’s coup d’état in Bolivia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Today marks the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état orchestrated by Colonel Hugo Banzer against leftist President Juan José Torres in Bolivia, an event that marked the implementation of the sinister Condor Plan in the country.

On August 18, 1971 Banzer secretly entered Bolivia but was arrested in Santa Cruz and flown to the Carabineros barracks in La Paz. Three days later, a military triumvirate was set up and granted him the presidency. Thus Banzer would rule Bolivia with an iron fist for 7 years until he was overthrown by a new military coup.

The repressor, who democratically became Bolivia’s president in 1997, was never prosecuted for human rights violations and died in 2001 while still in office.

Military commander Juan José Torres took power on October 7, 1970 through a popular uprising with the participation of workers, peasant organizations, the university movement and a loyal sector of the army. After the coup against his government he fled Bolivia and in May 1973 he co-founded the National Left Alliance (ALIN).

On June 2, 1976 Torres was kidnapped and assassinated in Buenos Aires as part of the so-called Condor Plan, which included the dictatorships of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The coup against Torres was clearly supported by the U.S. government, which sent military aid to Bolivia.

During his 7-year dictatorship, Banzer set in motion a repressive mechanism far more fierce than that of his predecessors, suppressing trade unions, stripping the population of civil rights and militarizing the country’s mines. The dictator was replaced by a military junta that remained in power for 4 years before being overthrown in 1982. That year Bolivia initiated a series of democratic governments amidst a severe economic crisis.

Banzer became president of Bolivia in 1997 with 22% of the vote after failed attempts to come to power with his Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) party. During his constitutional mandate he ordered the eradication of coca plantations, the traditional economic livelihood of Bolivian peasants, and a series of adjustment measures that further impoverished the population.

Banzer died in August 2001 of cancer, one year short of completing his mandate, at the age of 75 and without ever being brought to justice. In 2014, Amnesty International (AI) called for the investigation of human rights abuses committed in Bolivia between 1954 and 1982 (including the dictatorships of René Barrientos, Alfredo Ovando and Banzer). The organization denounced that over 350 people were murdered or went missing during those years.