Government Junta of Bolivia (1946–1947)

[1] On 21 July 1946, weeks of increasingly violent protests and strikes led by teachers and students of the Higher University of San Andrés (UMSA) resulted in full-scale riots in La Paz.

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.

[4] Guillén was joined by five other court judges: Cleto Cabrera García, Juan Armaza Ribert, Carlos Pacheco Núñez, Pacífico Ledezma, and Daniel Guisbert.

The 1938 Constitution (including modifications made by the Constituent Assembly in 1945) was to be respected, the call for new elections was reiterated, and broad amnesty for all those implicated in the previous days events was declared.

A third unnamed judge was intended to occupy the agriculture and public works portfolios though ultimately those offices were assigned to Guillén and Cabrera García respectively.

On 27 September, a disgruntled and visibly mentally disturbed[12] retired army lieutenant by the name of Luis Oblitas entered the Palacio Quemado seeking an audience with the president in order to request his reinstatement in the ranks of the armed forces.

After waiting unattended in the anteroom for some time, Oblitas stormed into the president's office where Monje was with his public works minister Carlos Muñóz Roldán and demanded that his request be immediately heard.

[12] Once local press reported news of the attempt on the president's life, a crowd began to gather at the Plaza Murillo which soon swelled to some 80,000 people.

[14] Eventually, rumors that the incident had been a conspiracy by the RADEPA and MNR to regain power caused the crowd to grow agitated leading to a mob forcing their way into the prison.

Oblitas was dragged out of his cell and into the plaza where he was shot dead by Carlos Meyer before being hung on one of the lampposts in a manner similar to the fates suffered by Villarroel and others just months prior.

[13] Unsatisfied, the mob then turned their attention to Captain José Escobar and Major Jorge Eguino who were also imprisoned in the panopticon awaiting trial for their role in the 1944 Chuspipata massacre during the Villarroel regime.

[13] Though Monje attempted to calm the mob from the palace balcony stating that "my life is unimportant,"[14] his calls were ignored and the crowd turned its attention to the embassies where many members of the previous government had taken refuge.

[18] On the date of the election, Enrique Hertzog of the Republican Socialist Unity Party narrowly defeated the Liberal Luis Fernando Guachalla by margin of just 443 votes.