User:Krisgabwoosh/Germán Busch 2

For the Bolivian province, see Germán Busch Province.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Busch and the second or maternal family name is Becerra.

Lieutenant General Germán Busch OCA OSC
Portrait by Luigi Domenico Gismondi, 1937
36th President of Bolivia
In office 13 July 1937 – 23 August 1939
Vice President	Vacant (1937–1938; 1939) Enrique Baldivieso (1938–1939)
Preceded by	David Toro
Succeeded by	Carlos Quintanilla
Other offices President of the Government Junta In office 13 July 1937 – 28 May 1938 Preceded by David Toro Succeeded by Office dissolved In office 17 May 1936 – 20 May 1936 Provisional Preceded by Office established Succeeded by David Toro Chief of the General Staff In office 29 May 1936 – 13 July 1937 President David Toro Minister Gabriel Gosálvez Oscar Moscoso Preceded by David Toro Succeeded by Froilán Calleja
Personal details
Born	Víctor Germán Busch Becerra (1903-03-23)23 March 1903 El Carmen, Beni, or San Javier, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Died	23 August 1939(1939-08-23) (aged 36) La Paz, Bolivia
Cause of death	Suicide by gunshot
Resting place	General Cemetery of La Paz
Spouse	Matilde Carmona Rodó ​ ​ (m. 1928)​
Children	Bertha Germán Orlando Waldo Gloria
Parent(s)	Pablo Busch Wiesener Raquel Becerra Villavicencio
Relatives	Alberto Natusch (nephew)
Education	Military College of the Army
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Bolivia
Branch/service	Bolivian Army
Years of service	1927–1937
Rank	Lieutenant general (posthumous)
Commands	Chief of the General Staff
Battles/wars	Chaco War Battle of Boquerón Battle of Alihuatá Battle of Gondra
Awards	Order of the Condor of the Andes

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 or San Javier and was 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 and given command of the general staff. He became the protégé of Colonel David Toro and took part in the military-led ousters of presidents Daniel Salamanca and José Luis Tejada. In 1936, Busch ceded power to a military junta chaired by Toro, only to seize control himself a year later.

A war hero, drawn in by the reformist social movements of the time, Busch developed upon Toro's military socialist ideology. 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 sovereign claim on the nation'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 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 came 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.

Background and early life: 1903–1922

Birthplace and lineage

Further information: Birthplace of Germán Busch

Germán Busch was born on 23 March 1903, the son of Pablo Busch Wiesener and Raquel Becerra Villavicencio. His father was a German-born physician from Königsaue who immigrated to Bolivia during the Amazon rubber boom. An eccentric and philanthropic figure, described by Augusto Céspedes as a "mix of curandero, explorer, and sheriff", the elder Busch gained a storied reputation in the remote departments of eastern Bolivia and was subprefect of Ñuflo de Chávez Province. (?) Little is known of Becerra's background; conflicting sources name either Santa Cruz de la Sierra or Trinidad as her birthplace. Contemporary biographer Carlos Montenegro traced her lineage to a criollo family whose ancestors settled the Real Audiencia of Charcas in the eighteenth century but cites no source.

Details of Busch's background remain a subject of academic dispute. Established historiography states that he was born in San Javier de Chiquitos, Santa Cruz, but that narrative has since been reexamined. Historians in Beni, namely Rogers Becerra and Arnaldo Lijerón, assert that Busch was born on an hacienda near El Carmen del Iténez while the family navigated the Río Blanco bound for San Javier. Lijerón bases his research on oral history compiled by Becerra and several testimonies validated by a notary public. Historian Robert Brockmann states that this account tracks with the family's itinerant lifestyle. He lends particular credence to claims that Raquel often recounted that Busch was born in Beni: "No one could know better than the mother, no one, where her son was born."

For docent Darwin Pinto Cascán, the Beni hypothesis relies on "rumors and contrived documents". Proponents of the historical claim cite Busch's baptismal certificate, dated 25 August 1903, and the will and testament of his father as primary sources of evidence of his being born in San Javier. Defenders of the Beni claim correlate Busch's delayed baptism with the travel time from El Carmen to San Javier and question the veracity of the will. For Brockmann, the confusion arises from the "ambiguous" manner in which Busch conveyed his "camba" origins. Busch declared himself either beniano or cruceño depending on the context; at least once, he is quoted as saying: "I was born in Santa Cruz".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfQwGlG9AVU 15:13

Family and relations

Busch and his sisters, c. 1932

Busch was the youngest of five siblings and had several younger half-siblings from his father's other relationships.

Presidency: 1937–1939

Chris Rock–Will Smith slapping incident (Arguedas-Busch)

References

Works cited

Print publications

• Chester, Edmund A. (15 June 1939). "Bolivia's President Admits Frankly He's a Dictator – and He 'Explains' Just Why". The Daily Times-News. Burlington. Associated Press. pp. 1, 15.
• Lora Callejas, Marco (14 November 2021). "La vida después de la muerte del legendario Germán Busch" [Life After the Death of the Legendary Germán Busch]. Ahora el Pueblo (suppl.) (in Spanish). La Paz. pp. 6–7.
• Ortega, Erick (2 October 2019). "Dos, nuevos, disparos sobre la historia de Germán Busch" [Two New Shots at the Story of Germán Busch]. La Razón (suppl.) (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 3 October 2019.

Academic journals

• Lijerón Casanovas, Arnaldo (June 2011). "Tte. Gral. Germán Busch Becerra: La estirpe beniana del héroe legendario" [Lt. Gen. Germán Busch Becerra: The Benian Lineage of the Legendary Hero]. Fuentes (in Spanish). 5 (14). La Paz: 19–30. ISSN 1997-4485 – via SciELO.
• Pinto Cascán, Darwin (June 2023). "El origen del héroe: Germán Busch y su fundamentado nacimiento en Santa Cruz" [Origin of the Hero: Germán Busch and His Well-Founded Birth in Santa Cruz]. Aportes (in Spanish). 1 (34). Santa Cruz de la Sierra: 101–115. doi:10.56992/a.v1i34.414. ISSN 2306-8671.

Bibliography

Individual chapters

• Baptista Gumucio, Mariano (2003). "El vicepresidente de la república entre la catalepsia y el servicio público" (in Spanish). In Aliaga Palma, Cordero Carraffa & Mesa Gisbert 2003, pp. 17–70.

Biographies of Germán Busch

• Brockmann, Robert (2017). Dos disparos al amanecer: Vida y muerte de Germán Busch (in Spanish) (1st ed.). La Paz: Plural Editores. ISBN 978-99954-1-768-0. OCLC 1004307669.
• Céspedes, Augusto (1968). El dictador suicida: 40 años de historia de Bolivia (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). La Paz: Librería Editorial Juventud. OCLC 555817706.
• Lora Callejas, Marco (2018). Germán Busch: El Centauro del Chaco. La legendaria vida y obscura muerte del héroe boliviano (in Spanish). La Paz: Scorpio. ISBN 978-99974-79-79-2. OCLC 1083341157.
• Montenegro, Carlos (2015). Baptista Gumucio, Mariano (ed.). Germán Busch y otras páginas de historia de Bolivia (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). La Paz: Librería Editorial LewyLibros.

General reference

• Aliaga Palma, Gustavo; Cordero Carraffa, Carlos; Mesa Gisbert, Carlos, eds. (2003). El vicepresidente: ¿La sombra del poder? (in Spanish). La Paz: Vicepresidencia de la República. OCLC 250237362.
• Carmona vda. de Busch, Matilde, ed. (1986). Busch: Mártir de la emancipación nacional (in Spanish). La Paz: Editorial Aeronáutica – FAB. OCLC 16523036.
• Hollweg, Mario Gabriel (1995). Alemanes en el Oriente boliviano: Su aporte al desarrollo de Bolivia (1534–1918) (in Spanish). Vol. I. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Imprenta Ed. Sirena. OCLC 365239192.
• Mesa Gisbert, Carlos D. (2016). Presidentes de Bolivia: Entre urnas y fusiles. El poder ejecutivo: Los ministros de Estado (in Spanish) (5th ed.). La Paz: Editorial Gisbert. ISBN 978-99974-834-8-5.

Further reading

External links

• Profile of Germán Busch in the Government Gazette of Bolivia (in Spanish).
• Photographs of Germán Busch in the digital archive of the La Paz Municipal Government. (in Spanish).
• Germán Busch at FamilySearch.
• Germán Busch at Find a Grave (cenotaph).

Category:Germán Busch Category:1903 births Category:1939 deaths Category:1939 suicides Category:20th-century Bolivian politicians Category:Bolivian military personnel of the Chaco War Category:Bolivian people of German descent Category:Bolivian people of Spanish descent Category:Heads of state who died by suicide Category:Leaders who took power by coup Category:Military College of the Army alumni Category:Presidents of Bolivia Category:Suicides by firearm in Bolivia Category:Toro administration personnel [[:Category:]]