![]() It was from this position that he began to negotiate with the new political forces of protest and reform unleashed by the war to which he felt a strong affinity. By 1935 Busch was able to consolidate his growing power and popularity by capturing the top army command itself, when he became chief of the general staff and active head of the La Paz garrison. Because of his prominence as a well-known field officer, Busch played a leading role in the overthrow of President Daniel Salamanca in 1934 and was rewarded by his fellow conspirators with important staff positions. Although at the beginning of the war members of the officer corps were largely subservient to civilian authority, by the time peace came again they found themselves in open conflict with their civilian superiors. As was also to be expected, this previously apolitical officer began to become ever more involved in the political machinations of the army itself. With few real heroes on whom to bestow their adoration, the Bolivian public especially adulated this seemingly shy but effective military commander. Through his prominent leadership in several important engagements and especially in the last great defensive operation at Villamontes, Busch also achieved national prominence. ![]() A full lieutenant at the opening of hostilities, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel by the end of the war. He thus rose rapidly in the front line command. Impetuous and intelligent, he was a rarity in the slack and corrupt Bolivian officer corps. ![]() At the outbreak of the Chaco War he was given a front line position and greatly distinguished himself in the difficult battle of Boquerón. For the next several years Busch carried out important geographical survey work in the Gran Chaco, for which he was highly honored. Although Busch himself at this time seems to have been apathetic toward politics, his association with Toro led to his removal from the general staff in the revolution of 1930. Graduating in 1927, he was appointed to the general staff in 1929 and became a close associate of David Toro, the most brilliant and politically astute of the younger officers. ![]() Unlike his European-educated father, Germán Busch felt little inclination toward the liberal professions, and in 1922 he entered the Colegio Militar. The future dictator of Bolivia was born in the lowland province of Santa Cruz in March 1904 to a German physician who had married a Bolivian. Though his attempt at radical change led to frustration, the political movements which flourished under his regime and the legislation which his government carried to completion created a crucial background for the rise of revolutionary parties after the defeat of the “military socialist” experiment. Following the government of Colonel David Toro, who had attempted to establish a union of radical officers and reformist civilian parties, Busch tried to carry this “military socialist” movement to completion through the establishment of a partyless dictatorship. 1 Few such men, however, have equaled the naïveté or achieved the revolutionary mystique of Colonel Germán Busch, president and dictator of Bolivia from 1937 to 1939. M ore than once during the twentieth century, radical army officers in Latin America have seized the reins of government and attempted to reform the national socio-economic structure by authoritarian rule.
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