Lynching of Gualberto Villarroel

Date: July 21, 1946 • Location: La Paz, Bolivia

After weeks of unrest, rioters lynched Bolivian president Gualberto Villarroel, desecrating and hanging his corpse in the streets of La Paz.

A series of increasingly violent general strikes and protests occurred in La Paz, Bolivia, between 8 and 21 July 1946 and culminated in the lynching and hanging of President Gualberto Villarroel. What started as teachers' strikes demanding increased wages quickly escalated as university students, organized labor workers, and civilians clashed with municipal police and armed, pro-government civilians. By the end, interim control of the country was handed to a junta of representatives of the three striking groups chaired by independent magistrates of the Superior Court of Justice of the judicial district of La Paz.