Juan Pereda Asbun

Juan Pereda Asbún (born June 17, 1931 in La Paz , Bolivia ; † November 25, 2012 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra , Santa Cruz Department , Bolivia) was a Bolivian politician who was Minister of Industry and Trade from 1973 to 1974 , Minister of the Interior from 1974 to 1977 and President of Bolivia from July 21 to November 24, 1978 .

Life

Pereda Asbún came from a middle-class family of Spanish immigrants and joined the armed forces after attending school . After training as an officer at the Air Force School (Colegio Militar de Aviación) , he studied aeronautical engineering in Argentina and Italy . Later he was an air force attaché at the embassy in Peru .

After the coup of Hugo Banzer on 23 August 1971 Pereda Asbún was a closest of the familiar and held from 1973 to 1974 the Office of the Minister of Industry and Trade. After a government reshuffle, he was Minister of the Interior between 1974 and 1977, before becoming Commander of the Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Boliviana) in 1977 . Support for Banzer Suárez lasted until 1978, when the president, under pressure from the country's political forces, called democratic elections and made Pereda Asbún his party's presidential candidate. Surprisingly, he emerged as the winner of the elections on July 9, 1978. However, on the basis of considerable allegations, the Tribunal Electoral found election fraud, whereupon President Banzer declared the election invalid. As a result, Pereda Asbún undertook a coup on July 21, 1978, occupied the presidential palace and took dictatorial control of the country. In the period that followed, the military and the National Democratic Action ADN (Acción Democrática Nacionalista) undertook a series of innovations that undermined the weak and fragile government of Pereda.

Ultimately, there was another military coup by David Padilla Arancibia on November 24, 1978 , which led to the end of Pereda's dictatorship and the initiation of democratic reform processes, which ultimately ended on August 6, 1979 with the election of Wálter Guevara Arze as president. Pereda Asbún himself then withdrew from political life.

Web links

• Biography in Biografías y Vidas
• Short biography in rulers.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Hugo Banzer Suarez	President of Bolivia 1978	David Padilla Arancibia