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.

[1] Since its assumption to power in December 1943, the government of President Gualberto Villarroel and his collaborators in the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) and the Reason for the Fatherland (RADEPA) military lodge had gradually eroded its initial reformist popularity through continuous and violent repression of members of the opposition, newspapers, and citizens critical of its actions.

The most recent crisis came when the teachers in La Paz, whose wages at the time sat at a meager $12.50 to $20 a month,[3] went on strike on 8 July, demanding a salary increase.

[3] The increasingly tense situation caused the government to suspend 16 July festivities celebrating the civic anniversary of La Paz.

[4] That night and in the early hours of 17 July, a group of twenty MNR members led by the minister of agriculture, Julio Zuazo Cuenca, stoned the UMSA, smashing its windows with rifles and rocks.

[3] The gesture galvanized university students who visited different neighborhoods and rallied La Paz citizens of all social sectors to their side.

Minor outbreaks of shootings broke out in some areas with rioters firing at the Calama Regiment barracks and the traffic section near the Rodríguez market.

[4] Speaking on the radio, Villarroel assured that the government was in full control of the situation and blamed the riots on the Rosca, the capitalist mining enterprises.

[7] United States Ambassador Joseph Flack described the situation from his vantage point in the U.S. Embassy: "We feel that we are in the middle of a war and it is impossible for anyone to leave the building".

[7] That night, Flack, along with the Brazilian ambassador Renato de Lacerda Lago, Peruvian ambassador Eduardo Garland Roel, Ecuadorian minister Hugo Moncayo, and papal chargé Gastón Mojaisky met with the acting foreign minister, Colonel José Celestino Pinto, in order to urge clemency for the students, something which Pinto suggested the president would be sympathetic to.

[4] By the afternoon, Flack described the Plaza Murillo as having become "an armed camp with light and heavy machine guns emplaced and several lend lease anti-aircraft pieces at strategic points with their muzzles depressed to body height".

The five military ministers (Gustavo Chacó of foreign affairs, Edmundo Nogales of government, José Celestino Pinto of defense, Antonio Ponce of public works, and Jorge Calero of education) all submitted their resignations in order to pressure the three of the MNR (Víctor Paz Estenssoro of finance, Germán Monroy Block of labor, and Julio Zuazo Cuenca of agriculture) to do the same.

In a meeting between Villarroel and Paz Estenssoro, the latter affirmed that the president's decision to request the MNR's resignation was an "ingratitude and a betrayal" and expressed his fear that "persecution against us will begin".

Among soldiers and officials in the Ministry of Defense, the general staff, as well as the Sucre and Loa regiments, there was resentment at the fact that full control of the army and now the government had been singularly handed to a few members of the RADEPA lodge.

At the end of the meeting, the newly appointed minister of defense, General Ángel Rodríguez, took these commanders to the Palacio Quemado to personally deliver their request to Villarroel.

The conclave ultimately dissolved with opinions entirely divided, though it was concluded that it would be difficult to maintain the president's situation without the full support of the army, taking into account that many of the troops who were quartered had relatives who had died in previous clashes.

Paz Estenssoro immediately dictated a set of telephone numbers to Block, which he wrote down on a piece of paper, and instructed him and Israel Camacho to go to the telephone exchange located in the same building as the Mayor's Office and cut off the Palacio Quemado phones from those of the general staff, the Defense Ministry, the Military Region, the Calama Regiment, the War Arsenal, and the police department.

When the MNR deputy Alfonso Finot informed Paz Estenssoro that this could endanger Villarroel and Nogales, he replied "It doesn't matter, screw them.

After Monroy Block and Camacho completed their task of cutting off the palace telephones, the MNR abandoned the Mayor's Office to seek asylum.

[16] As the demonstrations grew increasingly violent, Major Toledo, Director General of Transit and member of RADEPA, was murdered in the vicinity of Plaza San Pedro.

The palace was nearly empty, save for Villarroel, his aide Ballivián, undersecretary Uría, two or three ministers, the head of the Military House Colonel Luis Arce Pacheco, and Captain Ronald Monje Roca.

Villarroel had already bidden farewell to his collaborators and taken his coat when Colonel Nogales, his close friend and minister of government up until the day prior, expressed his opinion against the president's escape.

[12][21] It read: "With the desire to contribute to the tranquillity of the country I resign from the position of Constitutional President of the Republic in the person of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Nation".

[23] The Palacio Quemado was only minimally defended with its usual guard of 24 soldiers from the Sucre Regiment under the command of Second Lieutenant Federico Lafaye Borda and a few troops from the Motorized School led by Captain Fidel Téllez.

There are several accounts of what happened next: One claim is that one of the revolutionaries fired his submachine gun through the closed cupboard door upon hearing a noise and discovered the mortally wounded body of Villarroel when he opened it.

In the vicinity, Captain Ballivián, Undersecretary Uría, and the regime's press director, the journalist Roberto Hinojosa, met similar fates.

As Monje was ill and hence unable to assume leadership at the time, Superior District Court Dean Néstor Guillén was chosen to chair the junta in an interim capacity.

[25] The following day, a proper junta was formed with the participation of the magistrates Guillén and Cleto Cabrera García and the introduction of Montaño Daza and Raúl Calvimontes.

This included a commitment to respect domestic civil liberties as well as international agreements with other countries, and a pledge to call fresh, democratic presidential and legislative elections within three to four months.

[30] Villarroel's widow, Elena López, and their two children sought refuge in the La Paz Nunciature for some months before departing on 6 September to Argentina.