1920 Bolivian coup d'état was a bloodless takeover of power in
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
by the Republican party on July 12, 1920 which overthrew the previously ruling government of the Liberal Party and brought
Bautista Saavedra
Bautista Saavedra Mallea (30 August 1870 in Sorata – 1 March 1939) was a Bolivians, Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as the 29th president of Bolivia from 1921 to 1925. Prior to that, he was part of a governing junta from 1920 to ...
to power as President from 1920 until 1925.
Republicans were less united by a single ideology than a wide alliance of former Liberals and some Conservative elites who usually had some personal conflicts with the ruling Liberals and wanted to gain power for themselves. Soon after the coup, Republicans split in two new parties grouped around two leaders - Bautista Saavedra with his Republican Socialist Party and
Daniel Salamanca
Daniel Domingo Salamanca Urey (8 July 1869 – 17 July 1935) was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as the 33rd president of Bolivia from 1931 to 1934.
He was overthrown in a ''coup d'état'' on 27 November 1934, during the country' ...
, who established the
Genuine Republican Party
The Genuine Republican Party (, PRG) was founded in Bolivia in 1921 by José María Escalier and Daniel Domingo Salamanca Urey following a split in the Republican Party.
The Genuine Republican Party was formed by a conservative sector. The Rep ...
.
Saavedra legalized the right to strike and introduced government arbitration in labour disputes. In 1922 he caused a general strike after banning night taxis. The strikers won and taxi services were resumed and railroad federation was recognized as representative of railroad workers. This did not mean the end of violence. In 1923 a strike by miners in Uncia was repressed by force. A native uprising in the Altiplano region led by Jesus de Machacha was also suppressed in the same year. The tin boom came to end in 1925 and economic problems began.
Saavedra picked his successor
Hernando Siles Reyes
Hernando Siles Reyes (5 August 1882 – 23 November 1942) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 31st president of Bolivia from 1926 to 1930.
The founder of the Nationalist Party, he soon gravitated toward the Saavedrista faction of ...
, one of the leading Republicans, who was elected President in 1926 and was forced to resign in 1930 after he tried to get elected for the second term. Daniel Salamanca then assumed Presidency with the help of Liberal Party and soon led the country into the disastrous