User:Krisgabwoosh/Germán Busch

Víctor Germán Busch Becerra (23 March 1903 – 23 August 1939) was a Bolivian military officer and political leader who served as the 36th president of Bolivia from 1937 until his death in 1939.

Busch was born in either El Carmen del Iténez or San Javier and raised in Trinidad. He attended the Military College of the Army and served with distinction in the Chaco War, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He became the protégé of Colonel David Toro and took part in the military-led ousters of presidents Daniel Salamanca and José Luis Tejada Sorzano. In 1936, Busch handed power to a junta chaired by Toro, only to seize power himself just a year later.

A war hero, drawn in by the reformist social movements of the time, Busch developed upon Toro's History of Bolivia (1920–1964)#Radical_military_government. He convened the 1938 National Convention and enacted a new progressive constitution, which formalized labor rights, recognized the communal lands of indigenous peoples, and established a national claim on the country's natural wealth. Pando was created as Bolivia's northernmost department, while in the south, a peace treaty ceded the Chaco Boreal to Paraguay.

Busch's erratic temperament and political inexperience made him unable to unite the disparate factions of the left. Dissatisfied with the slow pace of reforms and facing a resurgent right-wing backed by the mining oligarchy, he suspended democracy and declared a dictatorship in 1939. In the months that followed, Busch issued a slew of executive decrees, implemented a new labor and school code, and forced mining corporations to exchange their foreign export earnings for national currency. By late 1939, the pressures of governing and a deep personal depression led Busch to take his own life at his home in Miraflores.

An enigmatic figure who originated from outside the political realm, Busch's legacy is wrapped in legend and controversy, even about his birthplace. His sudden and unexpected demise is still disputed in the popular imagination as either suicide or an assassination. Busch upended the oligarchy's firm grip on power and laid the groundwork for many reforms later elaborated upon during the Bolivian National Revolution. Scholars often cite Busch as the most significant president of the immediate post-war period.

Birthplace and lineage
Germán Busch was born on 23 March 1903, the ... of ... children born to Pablo Busch ... and ...

... The backgrounds of Busch's parents siblings – as with his own – contain many unknowns.

Family and relations
Busch's sister, Elisa, married Alberto Natusch Velasco. Their son – Busch's nephew – Alberto Natusch Busch, pursued a career as an officer in the Army; he was minister of agriculture during the dictatorship of Hugo Banzer and led a quixotic coup d'état in 1979 that placed him as president for just sixteen days that November.

Marriage and in-laws
Shortly after the wedding, Busch was assigned to a garrison on the outskirts of Cochabamba, where his meager second lieutenant's salary placed him and Carmona in economic hardship. To get by, they relied on the generosity of Busch's friend, Ángel Jordán, and were able to sublease two rooms in the apartment of Raquel Tejada Albornoz, a relative of Liberal politician José Luis Tejada Sorzano. The couple developed a friendly bond with Tejada, and with her daughter, Lidia Gueiler Tejada, whom Busch affectionately called "his little sister". Carmona was already pregnant when the two moved in, and gave birth to Busch's first son and namesake, Juan Germán, on 28 December 1928. Their second child, Orlando, followed eleven months later.

1936 coup d'état
La Calle 17 May 1937

Busch in the Toro government: 1936–1937
La Calle 4 March 1937

Early acts: 1937–1938
(Somewhere in this section) ...

Arguedas had been a vocal detractor of Busch's regime and had, since 1937, taken to penning a series of "open letters" in the liberal newspaper El Diario, in which he criticized the president's handling of policy. In his second letter, published 4 August 1938, Arguedas issued "derogatory" remarks toward the "caste of ex-combatants of the Chaco" and made vague allusions to acts of corruption among cabinet ministers. The note incensed Busch, who had the writer brought to his office that same day.

Arguedas arrived at the Palacio Quemado around noon. The writer Augusto Guzmán states that Busch demanded Arguedas retract his allegations but was denied. The two men then irrupted into an argument: "you are a scoundrel!", Busch remarked, and Arguedas responded in kind. At that point, the president grabbed Arguedas by his lapel and struck him twice in the face, leaving the 59-year-old writer bloodied and bruised. To avoid public scandal, the Propaganda Department was forced to issue an edict ordering outlets to censor "publications that affect the prestige of the government [and] the honorability of its representatives".

Despite these measures, word of the incident soon spread, sparking a wave of indignation among the public. Scattered protests took place in major cities, and foreign press outlets carried the story across the continent; "it was the international infamy of the year", states Brockmann. (B) In one instance, it took the first lady's personal intervention to prevent the palace guard from firing on students demonstrating outside government headquarters.

In his biography of Busch, Augusto Céspedes states that Busch later expressed "sincere regret" over what transpired and recognized the "indignity of his act".

Executive reforms
A definition of Rosca is contained at the beginning of Cespedes's book.

Contemporary analysis
Augusto Céspedes, in the opening of his book, El presidente colgado, states that "Busch's suicide was so opportune for the large miners that even today it makes one presume a strategic assassination".

In his tome of historical anecdotes, writer Antonio Paredes relates that during the few months of his dictatorship, it was not uncommon for Busch to draw a pistol to his temple and exclaim to those present: "What would the people say if I pulled the trigger?". According to Brockmann, between 1938 and 1939 alone, Busch attempted to take his own life at least six times. "So when you add up the police records, the testimony of the witnesses, you realize that he had a significant tendency toward suicide".

Ideology and personality
Historian Carlos Mesa describes Busch as "an impulsive president, with personal outbursts of great generosity and great intransigence".

Historical evaluations
"above all, obsessed with the destiny of the country" (B15)

Currency and postage
https://www.oxigeno.bo/53178

https://www.la-razon.com/politico/2019/10/02/dos-nuevos-disparos-sobre-la-historia-de-german-busch/

http://www.gacetaoficialdebolivia.gob.bo/normas/verGratis_gob/45904

https://oxigeno.bo/pol%C3%ADtica/24790

https://www-cambridge-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/851CD57BE7A163FFDCB92A3F32F62155/S0003161500013213a.pdf/social-constitutionalism-in-latin-america-the-bolivian-experience-of-1938.pdf