The stated reasons for the golpe were the alleged desire of President Guevara to extend his term beyond that established by Congress in order to enact long-term measures designed to stave off a growing economic crisis.

Far more likely, it was a traditional right-wing coup staged by officers who had served in the long dictatorship of General Hugo Banzer (1971–78) and who had much to lose by an ongoing congressional investigation of alleged criminal and economic misdeeds committed during the "Banzerato."

In any case, the population resisted the Natusch coup rather heroically, led by a nationwide labor strike called by the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) of Juan Lechín.

Wálter Guevara In the end, Natusch was able to occupy the Palacio Quemado for only sixteen days, after which he was forced to give up his quixotic struggle.

Almost universally reviled for the bloodshed he unleashed in the name of his personal ambitions, Colonel Natusch withdrew from public life.