Owando Candia, Alfredo

Alfredo Owando Candia was born on April 5, 1918 in Kobiha , Department of Pando , Bolivia ^[1] in the family of Maximo Owando and Mercedes Candia ^[2] . He was educated at the metropolitan college "Ayacuccio" and at the military college, which he graduated with honors. In 1934 - 1935, as part of the Bolivian army, he participated in the Chuck war against Paraguay . In 1936 he entered the Military Academy, after which in 1939 he held various posts in the Bolivian army, taught at a military college, where he received the academic title of professor .

In April 1952, Owando supported a general uprising that led to the power of the Nationalist Revolutionary Party . He led the reconstruction of the country's armed forces destroyed in the April battles, and in the same year received the rank of division general. He served as chief of the general staff of the armed forces, and since 1962 - the commander in chief of the armed forces of Bolivia ^{[1] [3]} .

In the struggle for power

When the 7th division rebelled against the unpopular president Victor Paz Estenssoro in the city of Cochabamba on November 3, 1964 and was supported by other military units, Owando Candia demanded that the president resign. The next day, Victor Paz flew to Peru , and General Owando took over the leadership of the military government junta. However, the former vice president General Rene Barrietos , a former influential political figure, also claimed power. On November 5, Alfredo Owando appointed him co-president of the junta, the next day they canceled the 1961 Constitution and restored the 1945 Constitution as amended in 1947 ^[4] . The situation was such that Barrientos, who had political experience, controlled only the Bolivian Air Force, and General Owando, previously not associated with politics, controlled the entire land army of the country ^[5] . Since none of them could prevail, and Alfredo Owando was not going to give up power, the generals had to compromise. On December 31, 1965, the junta announced the holding of general elections in July next year, in which Rene Barrientos was to be the government candidate.

Interim President

On January 4, 1966, General Owando took over as interim president of the country. In this post, Alfredo Owando guaranteed the victory of Barrientos in the elections of July 3, 1966 . On the eve of the election, he introduced the 2nd Infantry Division into the mining center of Oruro , and the mobile units of the government block of the Bolivian Revolutionary Front and the Bolivian Socialist Phalanx were sent to the countryside. International observers noted a lot of serious abuse - the destruction of ballots, intimidation of voters, falsification of voting results. Thus, General Rene Barrientos received the majority of votes, and Owando on August 6, 1966 transferred power to him as the constitutionally elected president of Bolivia ^[6] .

At the head of the army. The Epic of Che Guevara

Having stepped down as President Barrientos, Alfredo Owando remained commander in chief of the armed forces of Bolivia. The rivalry between the two leaders of Bolivia continued and with such a distribution of posts - the Bolivian press openly wrote that General Owando was unhappy with the state of affairs and could at any time eliminate Barrientos. Colonel Marcos Vazquez Sempertegi, chief of the army’s general staff, issued a statement saying that if General Owando seized power, he would oppose him. After some time, Owando removed Vazquez from his post and appointed the new chief of the general staff, Major General Juan José Torres ^[7] .

However, soon the differences of Owando and Barrientos faded into the background. On March 23, 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara’s detachment, the Army of National Liberation , carried out the first combat operation against the government army, killing 6 and capturing 14 troops. From the headquarters of the 4th Division in Camiri, the chief of the general staff Torres was informed about this, and he reported to Owando and the chief of military intelligence Federico Arana ^[8] . General Owando, as commander in chief, took charge of operations against the partisans, leaving the 4th division (headquarters in Camiri) and the 8th division (headquarters in Santa Cruz) of the Bolivian army in search of a detachment.

On April 10, Che Guevara’s detachment again entered the battle with the army, attacking two military columns from an ambush. The Bolivian army lost 10 people killed and 30 prisoners ^[9] . The next successful attacks of partisans on army units took place on May 8 and 30 ^[10] , but the Che Guevara detachment, which was divided into two parts and did not enjoy the support of the population, was doomed.

The Night of St. Juan

The clashes between the army and the partisans coincided with the massive discontent of the Bolivian miners, who protested against low salaries, poor nutrition and supplies. In the context of a guerrilla war, about the extent of which the authorities still could not obtain accurate information, General Owando, as commander in chief of the armed forces, ordered the army to occupy the mines and mining villages of Katavi and Siglo XX . On the night of June 25, 1967 , known in Bolivia as the "night of San Juan", the army captured the villages, launching repression against the miners. 20 people were shot, 70 people were injured. In a statement dated July 1, General Owando justified this action by the fact that the miners were preparing attacks on the barracks, and President Barrientos took full responsibility for what happened, but this did not convince the opposition. The “Night of Saint Juan” was the subject of litigation at the National Congress and was condemned by both political parties and the Catholic Church. The representative of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement Lama Pelaes called her “one of the most brutal crimes known in the history of the country” ^[11] .

Owando and Che Guevara

The “Night of St. Juan” did not bring the partisans of Che Guevara and the Bolivian left, and the army under the command of Alfredo Owando continued to search for Cubans in the jungles of the Chukisaka and Santa Cruz departments. To liquidate the Joaquin detachment, which had separated from the Che Guevara detachment, the Bolivian command developed Operation Parabano and threw aviation and parts of the 4th and 8th divisions into its search ^[12] . On August 31, the detachment was destroyed at the Jeso crossing ^[13] . On October 8, 1967, the remains of the Che Guevara detachment were destroyed in the hollow of the Quebrad de Huro, and he himself was captured ^[14] . At dawn on October 9, General Alfredo Owando, accompanied by Colonel Joaquin Centeno Anaya and Rear Admiral Ugarteche, arrived in the village of Igera , where Che Guevara was detained. After long radio talks with President Barrientos, they decided to shoot the prisoner ^[15] . Having come to power in 1969, Alfredo Owando will declare that the responsibility for the shooting of Che Guevara rests entirely with Barrientos's conscience, and that he himself opposed such an outcome of the case ^[16] .

On the verge of power

The rivalry between President Barrientos and Commander-in-Chief Owando began to increase again after Colonel Marcos Vazquez , the former chief of the General Staff, tried to overthrow both of them. The coup attempt failed, but Barrientos lost confidence in Owando and began to form "united mobile units for the protection of order and development . " Barrientos declared their task to fight the partisan movement, but in reality they should have become a guarantee of its security ^[17] . Relations between the two generals have deteriorated even more, but they nevertheless agreed that Owando will take office as president after the 1970 elections.

When President Barrientos’s helicopter crashed on takeoff from the Cochabamba airfield on April 27, 1969 , General Owando was in Washington, DC , at the invitation of General William Westmoreland . He immediately interrupted the visit and returned to La Paz, but civilian vice president Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas was already sworn in as president. This caused undisguised discontent of Owando, who said that if Siles moved away from the "revolutionary course", he would remove the president ^[18] .

In early May 1969, after two weeks of conflict between Siles and Owando, both met for a “friendly dinner” and agreed. After that, the military command issued a statement expressing support for the new president, and Siles Salinas held a press conference and said that we should no longer relate to this “unpleasant episode”. However, the truce was shaky. On July 21, 1969, Newsweek magazine noted that there were many dissatisfied with the policies of President Siles in the leadership of the Bolivian army, and they would like to replace him with Owando. In those days, preparations began for new elections, and General Owando was named the future presidential candidate ^[18] . But not everyone supported the new candidate: in September, supporters of the late Barrientos, led by Colonel Lechin, plotted to oust both Siles Salinas and Alfredo Owando. However, the latter was ahead of them ^[19] .

National Revolution

On September 26, 1969, General Alfredo Owando Candia made a military coup and was appointed President of Bolivia by the decision of the joint command of the three armed forces. In a message to the people, he stated that he was proposing "a popular, nationalist and revolutionary policy." “We need and we demand, on behalf of Bolivia, the energetic support of the workers, peasants, students, the middle strata who have so long been waiting for the realization of their aspirations and the satisfaction of their needs” ^[20] . On the same day, the “Revolutionary Mandate of the Armed Forces” was published, which stated:

Until December 1969, the Government of Owando introduced a state monopoly on the export of minerals, obliged exporters to transfer the received currency to the state, imposed a tax of 25% on the income of US mining companies, abolished the country's unprofitable oil code and repealed decree No. 07822 of November 1966, which abolished freedom trade unions. Owando declared his firm intention to “liberate the country from foreign domination, which has long been carried out in the economic, social, cultural and even political fields” . On October 16, Alfredo Owando passed Decree No. 08956, which nationalized the property of the Bolivien Gulf Oil, a US oil company. October 17 was declared the "Day of National Dignity of Bolivia . " In the first days of November, Owando led the army out of mining centers and mining villages. The Communist Party of Bolivia was legalized ^[21] . On November 16, 1969, Owando restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and the countries exchanged ambassadors. ^[22] Alfredo Owando brought in the government of young intellectuals José Ortiz Mercado, Edgar Camacho, Oscar Boniface, Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, Antonio Sanchez Lozada. He was supported by some members of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement and Christian Democrats ^[3] .

In one of his speeches, Owando recalled Che Guevara, saying that he “fought by other means for the ideal of the great Latin American homeland, for which we are fighting” ^[16] .

Right Opposition

At the same time, the government of Owando was criticized by a variety of political forces. Both the Social Democratic Party of Siles Salinas, the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement of Paz and the extreme right Bolivian Socialist phalanx were in opposition to the regime ^[23] . In December 1969, US Senator Pat Holt visited Bolivia, who then provided the secret report of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Commission. Holt argued that "in Bolivia there is a clear tendency to create an extreme left, nationalist and possibly communist government" and recommended that the US government "convince Owando to replace some of the most extremist members of his cabinet . " Later, on September 14, 1970, the Bolivian newspaper Presencia (La Paz) claimed that after this report, the Holt plan was developed in the United States to destabilize the regime of General Owando through an economic blockade and artificially dropping world tin prices ^[24] . In May 1970, the right wing of the army secured from Owando the resignation of the Minister of Mining and Oil Industry, Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, who insisted on the nationalization of the natural resources of Bolivia ^[25] . In July, the right-wing military, led by the commander of the land forces, General Rogelio Miranda, also secured the resignation of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, General Juan José Torres, known for his left-wing views.

Trade Union Congresses and Conflict with Trade Unions

The XIV Congress of Miners of Bolivia, held in April 1970, and the May IV National Congress of Bolivian Trade Unions, in which representatives of left-wing parties, including the Communists, openly participated, for the first time in their history proclaimed the construction of a socialist society in Bolivia as the ultimate goal of their struggle. The party representative of the Left Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, Juan Lechin , compromised with the right-wing parties, headed the Bolivian Workers' Center . President Owando and Army Commander-in-Chief Torres condemned the decisions of both congresses and stated that Bolivia was not ready to establish socialism. Owando called the position of the Congress of Trade Unions “anti-national,” and the Minister of the Interior, Colonel Juan Ayoroa, made direct threats to the unions. The "revolution" of General Owando did not receive recognition in the union environment, and the Government of Owando now could not count on the support of the trade unions, which had great influence ^[27] .

University Revolution

At the same time, pressure on the government on the left increased. The so-called "University Revolution" unfolded in the country. While almost half of the rectors of the universities of Bolivia held moderate left views, the bulk of the students were influenced by the extreme left organizations - the Left Revolutionary Movement, the Revolutionary Christian Democratic Party, the Trotskyist Revolutionary Labor Party and the “parallel” Bolivian Communist Party created by the followers of Mao Zedong ’s ideas ^[28] . In June 1970, after the assassination of student leaders Jenny Keller and Elmo Catalan , student unrest swept through the universities of the country and many student leaders called for an armed struggle against the government. The president himself issued a special statement accusing the anarchists of trying to create the conditions for his overthrow ^[29] . In July, armed units of the Bolivian Socialist phalanx with the consent of the army captured the capital's university, and held it for a week. At the same time, the right-wing circles of the army obtained from Alfredo Owando the resignation of the left-tuned information minister Alberto Baylei ^[30] .

Army of National Liberation. The Ghost of Che Guevara

Before the wave of the Student Revolution had subsided, in July 1970, the National Liberation Army , headed by Chato Peredo, founded by Che Guevara, resumed guerrilla operations. Partisans seized the village of Theoponte and took several specialists from the Federal Republic of Germany hostage. In exchange for them, the ANO demanded the surrender of all Che Guevara's associates captured at Barrientos. Alfredo Owando introduced a state of emergency in the country, again threw the army to suppress the rebel foci and declared three provinces a military zone. In August, the partisan movement, which was attended by about 100 people, mainly students from the left wing of the Christian Democratic Party, was suppressed, 40 prisoners were shot ^[31] .

Conflict in the Armed Forces and the overthrow of Owando

Owando was deprived of support - the left-nationalist circles considered him the dictator and murderer of Che Guevara, and the army officers who fought with the partisans of Che Guevara were simply a traitor ^[16] . In August 1970, General Rohelio Miranda, the commander of the ground forces, and the right-wing parties launched a campaign demanding the abandonment of leftist slogans and harsh guidance in the country of the established order. At the same time, Miranda and the resigned General Torres held a discussion in the press, setting out their views on the situation and the role of the army. Interior Minister Colonel Aioroa closed the reputed La Prensa newspaper. In early September, the right-wing organizations of the Confederation of National Defense, the Anti-Communist League, the Civil Revolutionary Guard and the Union of War Veterans in Chaco, with the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, held a demonstration in La Paz to protest against "castro-communism" and found some support from the population ^[31] . In response, the left began to create committees for the defense of the revolution. Owando left the police and army against left-wing demonstrators in La Paz, Oruro, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, resulting in bloodshed. He introduced a law that allowed expelling from the country at 24 o'clock any foreigner convicted of "anti-government" activities. The hunger strike of protest now qualified as a felony. On the basis of this law, the authorities arrested and expelled even a group of Catholic priests from the country ^[32] .

But even these measures did not strengthen the regime of General Owando. On September 14, former Information Secretary Alberto Bailey told Presencia that the US CIA was preparing a coup in the country. On September 25, it got to the point that newspapers published an appeal from retired generals and senior officers demanding the removal of Owando and a return to democratic rule. The President convened an emergency closed meeting of the army command and resigned, but it was not accepted ^[32] . On October 4 , when Alfredo Owando traveled to Santa Cruz, the commander of the ground forces, General Rogelio Miranda, declared disobedience to the president and demanded his departure. This time Alfredo Owando did not want to give up, returned to the capital and removed Miranda from his post. The two-day talks did not produce results - an armed conflict was brewing in the country between the two army groups.

On October 6, 1970, Information Minister Carlos Carrasco announced that President Alfredo Owando Candia had resigned to avoid a bloody clash. ^[33]

The resignation of General Owando, who took refuge in the Embassy of Argentina , did not prevent bloody battles involving tanks and aircraft. After some time, General Juan Jose Torres, who came to power, appointed the former president as ambassador to Spain . But already in 1971, the Torres government instituted proceedings against Alfredo Owando on charges of organizing the assassination of President Rene Barrientos. Owando, who was in Spain, refused to return to Bolivia to stand trial and resigned as ambassador to Madrid ^[34] . When Torres was overthrown, already the government of the new president, Hugo Banser, accused Owando of financial abuse and he remained to live in exile ^[3] .

Alfredo Owando returned to Bolivia in 1978 and supported the election bloc of the left parties - the Front for Democratic and National Unity ( Spanish Frente de Union Democratica Popular ) Hernan Siles Suaso . He condemned the 1980 coup , which cut off Hernan Siles, who won the election, the path to power.

Alfredo Owando Candia died on January 24, 1982 in La Paz from a stomach ailment. The New York Times , which reported on January 26, 1982 about his death in a short article, primarily mentioned his role in the defeat of Ernesto Che Guevara’s squad and his killing ^[35] .

Ten months later, the military voluntarily transferred power to Hernan Siles Suaso, in whose support Alfredo Owando spoke.

Alfredo Owando Candia was married to Elsa Elena Omiste Barrón , they had their only son, Marcelo Ovando Omiste ^[2] .

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• General Ovando Candia sobre las guerrillas (neopr.) . YouTube Date of treatment February 11, 2014.
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• GOBIERNO DE ALFREDO OVANDO CANDIA (Spanish) . Red Escuela Date of treatment February 11, 2014.
• Alfredo Ovando Candia (1965-1966) y (1969-1970) (Spanish) . Editorial LA PATRIA. Date of treatment February 11, 2014.