Gualberto Villarroel

Gualberto Villarroel was born on December 15, 1908, in Villa Rivero, Cochabamba. A heroic combatant in the Chaco War, he rose through the officer corps and aligned with nationalist and labor organizations. In December 1943, he seized power in a coup supported by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR).

Villarroel's government championed workers' unions and indigenous emancipation. In 1945, he hosted the historic First National Indigenous Congress in La Paz and abolished pongueaje and mit'aje (forms of unpaid indigenous servitude). Backed by oligarchic mining interests and opposition politicians, a violent uprising breached the presidential palace on July 21, 1946; Villarroel was murdered and hung from a lamppost in Plaza Murillo, becoming a lasting national martyr.