David Toro

He became major in 1925. He became a close associate of General Hans Kundt and President Hernando Siles.

Installed in the Palacio Quemado, Toro immediately faced a number of pressing crises, not least of which were a massive federal deficit stemming from the war and continued economic dislocation associated with the ongoing Great Depression. More narrowly, he tackled a dispute with the Standard Oil Corporation, which had been at least not supportive enough of Bolivia during the war and at most, downright duplicitous and disloyal to the country. Apparently, a number of grave irregularities had been committed, including alleged smuggling of Bolivian oil to Argentina, Paraguay's most steadfast (if always under the table) supporter. In March 1937, the Toro government nationalized all Standard Oil holdings in Bolivia to the rejoicing of much of the population. This nationalization would prove to be the first step toward the statism that would characterize Bolivian politics in subsequent decades. It was an unprecedented move in the region, pre-empting the larger Mexican oil expropriation under Lázaro Cárdenas a year later.

Moreover, the nationalization signalled the beginning of the end of the Oligarchic Republic, inaugurated in 1880 upon Bolivia's devastating loss to Chile in the War of the Pacific. This was a period of civilian control of Bolivian politics and little intervention of the army in the political process, except on brief occasions and always either on behalf of a civilian caudillo or in order to call elections. The Chaco War, however, had changed everything. Tens of thousands of Bolivian Indians had been conscripted to fight in the war and had made major sacrifices on behalf of a government that discriminated against them and barred them any meaningful participation in national affairs. Coincidentally, the 1930s had witnessed the onset of much political ferment throughout the world, and Bolivia was not completely at the margin of those trends. During the turbulent, crisis-racked decade, a number of Communist, Stalinist, Trotskyist, anarchist, and reformist parties had been created, and new currents of thought began to call for major changes in Bolivian society. Toro and the young officers who had installed him called their experiment "Military Socialism," but, fearful of the still considerable power of the economic elites, failed to go far enough with their reforms. Despite this, several progressive social reforms were nevertheless carried out during Toro's presidency.

A new Pay Raise Decree for government and private employees was issued, while to tackle inflation a number of anti-speculation and price control laws were decreed while State Food Stores were set up (a noted by one study) “to sell items of prime necessity at government-subsidized prices.” A special advisory commission was set up to study civil rights for women which came up with (as one study has noted) “a whole new set of juridical criteria that became decree laws a few months later.” Study commissions were set up to work on a complete labor code, together with worker savings plans and national social security programs. By the late Thirties and early Forties, these commissions succeeded (as noted by one study) “in creating a whole new body of advanced social legislation for Bolivia.” A minimum wage was effected while a Ministry of Labor was established. A decree was issued providing for the obligatory unionization of miners, craftsmen and factory workers, which radical left-wing elements in the new Labor Ministry used to promote the unionization of workers in the mining centers and cities. A Secretariat of Peasant Affairs was also set up within the Ministry of Labor, which helped set up the nation’s first legally recognized agricultural workers’ union.

A Supreme Decree of March 1937 allowed workers (as one study has noted) “to either remain in their position or resign with compensation in the event of a salary reduction,” while another decree issued that same month sought to ensure safe and healthy working conditions in mines through government supervision. In addition, a decree of June 1937 sought to ensure that those in need had access to credit. In addition, a decree of September 1936 specified 16 days as holidays. Marriages performed by clerics were legalized, the expulsion of colonos was prohibited if (as noted by one study) “they had worked on the haciendas for two consecutive or three discontinuous years,” and the organization of peasant sindicatos on church and municipal properties was authorized. In addition, a “free school” for the Checa ayllu in Loyaza Province was authorized, and pecuniary aid to teachers was provided.

In the end, Toro was caught between the cross currents of reformers from the left, and the interests of a mining magnate. On 13 July 1937, Toro resigned the presidency and Lieutenant Colonel Germán Busch assumed the presidency. Toro attempted to dislodge Busch from power a year after his ouster, but his coup attempt failed and he sought exile in Chile, where he died on 25 July 1977, at the age of 79.

One observer has described Toro as such:

Though one of the most astute political figures of his day, and also one of the most sensitive to the tone of contemporary political life, Toro was a pragmatic politician without fixed orientation or ideological commitment. Because of his own rather hedonistic nature and lack of ideological conviction, he never led but merely followed the major themes that others mapped out. Nevertheless, he always set his own style upon these developments, no matter how belated his commitment to them was, and he also attempted to fit these new ideas into a fairly coherent pattern. Because of these qualities, his regime set the tone for the entire period of "military socialist" rule. Though of a lesser stature than his martyred successor, Toro nevertheless had an important impact on the government of Germán Busch and the two together in their era of "military socialism" set the foundations upon which their civilian successors would build a lasting revolutionary society.