SUMMARY
Bolivia is a country with a long history of conflict, with numerous successful and failed attempts to overthrow the government by violent means. Additionally, deaths stemming from non-state conflicts have contributed to the country’s total toll of fatalities from organized violence.
Since 1989, Bolivia has experienced only the non-state category of organized violence, as defined by the UCDP.
2021
In 2021, a non-state conflict between Brazilian criminal groups Bonde dos 13 and Comando Vermelho became active for the first time. In February, a minor part of the conflict’s fatal violence which has otherwise been confined to Brazil, spilled over the border to Cobija, a northerly border town in Bolivia. It was the only organized violence in Bolivia registered by UCDP during the year.
Clashes between indigenous groups
The single peak in organized violence in Bolivia since 1989 is the result of a non-state conflict over arable land between two indigenous groups, the Laime and the Qaqachaca. The conflict between the groups became active for its first and only year in 2000, as clashes from January to July in the regions of Oruro and Potosi in south-western Bolivia caused the toll of battle-related deaths to exceed the 25 fatality threshold. During this period of inter-group fighting the Laime received support from other Bolivian indigenous groups, including the Aymara and the Jucumani.
Conflicts before 1989
Between 1946 and 1988, a conflict over government power was active during four years: 1946, 1949, 1952 and 1967.
The popular revolution of 1946
In July 1946 (the first year of UCDP data) the Bolivian government headed by President and military man Gualberto Villarroel was overthrown by the PRM (Popular Revolutionary Movement), an anti-fascist coalition bringing together oppositional political groups. The conflict was the first intra-state conflict experienced by Bolivia after the Second World War, and the first organized violence in Bolivia recorded by the UCDP. It was caused in part by popular discontent with the Villarroel administration’s violent repression of the political opposition, as well as the inclusion of members of the then pro-fascist MNR (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, Nationalist Revolutionary Movement) in Villarroel’s cabinet. Villarroel was killed in the conflict by the PRM as they stormed the presidential palace in the capital La Paz on 21 July, following violent confrontations with units of the Bolivian military. Subsequently, a new government assumed power in the form of a PRM junta.
The failed revolution of 1949
In 1949, the conflict over government power again reached the level of minor intrastate conflict, as the MNR staged a revolt against the Bolivian government headed by acting president Mamerto Urriolagoitía in an attempt to return to power. The attempted revolt lasted from 27 August until mid-September, and began with simultaneous rebel uprisings in multiple cities. Over the course of the revolt, the rebels briefly seized several smaller towns, and the cities of Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosi, and Santa Cruz, which became the revolt’s headquarters. MNR rebels also announced over radio the appointment of a new Bolivian government to be headed by MNR leader Victor Paz Estenssoro, something that never became a reality. During the revolt, the MRN rebels fielded a small air force which attempted several bomb raids on Oruro and government seat La Paz, but these proved inconsequential for the outcome of the conflict. Crucially, rebel ground forces never reached La Paz which allowed the actual Bolivian government to mobilize its forces and fight back, eventually recapturing most lost population centers in a series of battles and routs. By mid-September, Bolivian government forces appeared poised to attack the last remaining rebel stronghold, Santa Cruz. However, the last remaining rebels left the city, scattering before the arrival of government troops. It ended the attempted revolt, and kept some of the forces and leadership intact for future action.
The national revolution of 1952
That future action would come in 1952, when – having been denied government power despite receiving a majority of the votes in the 1951 presidential elections – MNR again rebelled. In three days of fighting in April 1952, MNR did what it failed to do in 1949, defeating the government forces and ousting the regime in La Paz. With MNR standing victorious, leader of the movement, Victor Paz Estenssoro became the new President of Bolivia. This springtime violence, often called the National Revolution, caused the Bolivia: Government conflict to cross the 25 fatalities threshold and be recorded as active in UCDP data. During the 12-year MNR rule that followed, the regime introduced universal adult suffrage, carried out a sweeping land reform, promoted rural education, and nationalized the country’s largest mineral mines; in essence introducing populist reforms more sweeping than previously seen in the modern history of the region.
1967 guerilla conflict
Nonetheless, increasing internal factionalism led to the MNR’s weakening which was taken advantage of in a bloodless military coup in 1964, which successfully ousted President Paz Estenssoro and installed a military junta. The military rule was challenged in 1967 when a leftist guerrilla movement by the name ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, National Liberation Army) emerged in south-eastern Bolivia, led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The ELN’s armed struggle reached the level of a minor armed conflict that same year, but was successfully contained by the government in October 1967 when Guevara was executed by USA-trained Bolivian security forces. The military leadership continued to rule Bolivia until the mid-1980s when multi-party elections were reintroduced in Bolivia.
