Bautista Saavedra, a populist, represented middle-class and resented the old party's close ties to the powerful tin barons.
His appeal to urban middle-class artisans, small merchants, and laborers generated a nonestablishment political base and a new class consciousness.
During the rule of Bautista Saavedra and Hernando Siles Reyes, the Bolivian economy underwent a profound change.
Hernando Siles Reyes's 4 years of inconsistent rule and unfulfilled promises of radical changes frustrated workers and students.
This development worried the Socialist Party, which charged that Saavedra was not without responsibility for the war nor was he innocent of the killings of miners and peasants in Uncía, Llallagua, Catavi and Jesús de Machaca.
The coup was led by Colonel Germán Busch Becerra, and he was supported by the Republican Socialist Party.