Throughout his political career, Gosálvez held various ministerial officers and diplomatic posts as a member of the United Socialist Party.

[2] In 1920, Gosálvez participated in the foundation of El Hombre Libre, a newspaper which voiced its support for radical elements of the Bolivian left-wing.

In 1927, he was a member of the Bolivian delegation to the Sixth Pan American Conference in Havana, Cuba where he presented a project to the assembly regarding the guarantees of the rights of women.

[1] During the Chaco War on 14 December 1934, Gosálvez was appointed Minister of National Defense by President José Luis Tejada Sorzano, a position he held until 5 August 1935.

[4] In May 1936, the PSU supported the coup d'état which toppled Tejada Sorzano and brought Colonel David Toro to power as the head of a civil-military junta.

[3] After that, Gosálvez briefly left political activity, declining the invitation given by Toro on 17 October to attend as Minister Plenipotentiary the peace conference between Bolivia and Paraguay in Buenos Aires.

[1] When Toro was overthrown by lieutenant colonel Germán Busch on 13 July 1937, Gosálvez returned to ministerial politics as Secretary-General of the Junta and later Minister of Government, Justice, and Propaganda.

[3] While in these offices, he was the acting Foreign Minister on two separate occasions in the absence of both Enrique Baldivieso and Eduardo Díez de Medina.

The loose united front he worked to form quickly collapsed when Vicente Leyton, his successor as Government Minister, refused to join it.

[11] Nevertheless, as no candidate reached an outright majority of the popular vote, the decision to elect the president was ultimately up to the National Congress to choose between the top three contenders.

It is perhaps surprising, then, that Gosálvez chose to withdraw his name from consideration, the second time in a row a second place candidate would do so after Luis Fernando Guachalla in 1947.