In response, on 27 November 1934, army high command directed a group of military officers led by Captain Germán Busch to arrest the president and force his resignation.

Such outright insubordination in times of war could have easily merited a court martial or even execution but was not only permitted by Salamanca but allowed to stand, setting a precedent which emboldened the army to continue to test the president's authority.

[3] This permanent lack of cooperation between the government in La Paz and the military headquartered at Samayhuate, Villamontes erupted into a political crisis in August 1934.

By the second half of September, he indicated to Minister of War Luis Fenando Guachalla that there was "stubborn resistance" to introducing Bilbao Rioja to the General Staff.

The tirade reached its climax when Peñaranda himself began to raise his voice, leading the president's son, Rafael Salamanca, to intervene, brandishing his revolver.

Major newspapers such as El Diario and La Razón began to openly question Salamanca's war policy as a result.

Díaz Arguedas recounts that Busch told Peñaranda that the military "will not allow these politicians to insult you and dismiss you in the way they are doing it, because only we know of the hardships you have experienced in the campaign" and requested the general's "authorization so that we can apprehend them and expel them from the undeserved positions they occupy".

[14]By the end of the meeting, Peñaranda's dismissal was deemed an "outrage against the entire army" and the high command determined to depose Salamanca the following day.

[15] In a tragic twist, Peñaranda himself later wrote that "[...] I did not intend to remain in the position of general-in-chief; I would have resigned if it had not been for the insistence of the chiefs and officers that I stay".

It read: "To the nation: By virtue of inherent reasons that weigh on my mind, I resign and definitively abandon the position of Constitutional President of the Republic".

[19] Soon after Salamanca's deposition, the conspirators Peñaranda, Sanjinés, Rivera, Rodríguez, and Busch, joined by 14 other officers, deliberated on how to take power while maintaining a veneer of legality.

[21] After debating and discussing all viable options, it was ultimately decided that Vice President José Luis Tejada Sorzano would be allowed to assume office, with the inclusion of three military ministers in his cabinet.

[25] Nevertheless, the coup was a mortal wound to the traditional political system which had governed for decades and set the stage for its eventual downfall in 1936 and its permanent dissolution following the 1952 National Revolution.