| Wálter Guevara | |
| Order: | 54th |
| Office: | President of Bolivia |
| Status: | Interim |
| Vicepresident: | Vacant |
| Term Start: | 8 August 1979 |
| Term End: | 1 November 1979 |
| Predecessor: | David Padilla |
| Successor: | Alberto Natusch |
| Office1: | President of the Senate |
| Term Start1: | 19 November 1979 |
| Term End1: | 17 July 1980 |
| Predecessor1: | Leónidas Sánchez Arana |
| Successor1: | Julio Garrett Ayllón |
| Term Start2: | 2 August 1979 |
| Term End2: | 8 August 1979 |
| Predecessor2: | Julio Campero Trigo |
| Successor2: | Leónidas Sánchez Arana |
| Office3: | Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship |
| President3: | René Barrientos |
| Term Start3: | 4 August 1967 |
| Term End3: | 7 February 1968 |
| Predecessor3: | Alberto Crespo Gutiérrez |
| Successor3: | Tomás Guillermo Elío Moldiz |
| President4: | Hernán Siles Zuazo |
| Term Start4: | 14 November 1959 |
| Term End4: | 10 June 1960 |
| Predecessor4: | Víctor Andrade Uzquiano |
| Successor4: | Carlos Morales Guillén |
| President5: | Víctor Paz Estenssoro |
| Term Start5: | 12 April 1952 |
| Term End5: | 23 January 1956 |
| Predecessor5: | Tomás Antonio Suárez |
| Successor5: | Manuel Barrau Peláez |
| Office6: | Minister of Government, Justice, and Immigration |
| President6: | Hernán Siles Zuazo |
| Term Start6: | 17 August 1958 |
| Term End6: | 12 November 1959 |
| Predecessor6: | Marcial Tamayo |
| Successor6: | Carlos Morales Guillén |
| Office7: | Secretary-General of the Junta |
| President7: | Gualberto Villarroel |
| Term Start7: | 11 February 1944 |
| Term End7: | 5 April 1944 |
| Predecessor7: | Augusto Céspedes |
| Successor7: | Office abolished |
| Birth Name: | Wálter Guevara Arze |
| Birth Date: | 11 March 1912 |
| Birth Place: | Cochabamba, Bolivia |
| Death Place: | La Paz, Bolivia |
| Spouse: | Lola Anaya Rosa Elena Rodríguez Rivas |
| Parents: | Wálter Guevara Victoria Arze |
| Awards: | Order of the Condor of the Andes Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany |
| Education: | Higher University of San Andrés University of Chicago |
| Signature: | Signature of Walter Guevara Arze (1912-1996).svg |
Wálter Guevara Arze (March 11, 1912 in Ayopaya Province, Cochabamba Department, Bolivia – June 20, 1996 in La Paz, Bolivia) was a Bolivian statesman, cabinet minister, writer, and diplomat, who served as the 54th president of Bolivia on an interim basis in 1979.
Guevara was born in Ayopaya Province, Cochabamba Department on March 11, 1912. Trained as a lawyer and economist, he studied in the United States. He co-founded the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) in 1941, alongside Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Hernán Siles, and others. When the MNR came to power following the 1952 Bolivian Revolution, Guevara served as minister of foreign relations in the cabinet of President Paz Estenssoro (1952–56). He was then appointed Minister of Interior by President Siles (1956–60). Often seen as the third-highest leader in the MNR hierarchy (after Paz and Siles), the relatively conservative Guevara clashed repeatedly on ideological grounds with Juan Lechín and others associated with the Left wing of the party. Fully expecting to be the party's official candidate for president in 1960, he left it abruptly to form his own political organization when Paz Estenssoro decided to return to Bolivia and run for re-election. The party Guevara founded was the Partido Revolucionario Auténtico, in whose representation he ran for president in 1960, finishing second to Paz. In 1964, Guevara supported the military coup d'état that toppled the MNR from power, and once more served as Minister of Foreign Relations, this time to President René Barrientos.
The long years in exile following the establishment of the 1971-78 dictatorship of General Hugo Banzer brought Guevara closer to the main body of the MNR, by now divested of its more left-leaning elements, including Siles and Lechín. When democratic elections were at long last called again in 1978, Guevara ran as Paz Estenssoro's vice-presidential running mate. Their ticket finished second. When that electoral contest was annulled due to evidence of fraud, a second one was held a year later. Guevara this time did not run on the main formula, but was elected Senator in representation of the MNR alliance. Soon, he was proclaimed President of the Senate by his peers. Since no presidential candidate in the 1979 elections had received the necessary 50% of the vote, it fell to Congress to decide who should be first executive. To the surprise of many, it could not agree on any candidate, no matter how many votes were taken. Positions hardened, and no solution seemed possible, until an alternative was offered in the form of the President of the Senate, Wálter Guevara, who was named temporary Bolivian president in August 1979 pending the calling of new elections in 1980.
Guevara's tenure was short and difficult. Faced with a mounting economic and fiscal crisis, the new president declared that it might be advisable to extend his mandate by an extra year in order to allow him to confidently take the adequate measures. This was seen by many as a naked power grab and his popularity plummeted to the point that he had to resort to a purely technocratic cabinet in the absence of any congressional support. This impasse was taken advantage of by some conspiratorial members of the military, who were displeased with the fast pace, the tone, and the results of the democratic restoration.
On November 1, 1979, General Alberto Natusch surprisingly toppled President Guevara in a bloody coup d'état that was resisted by the urban population. Natusch did take possession, but not without considerable bloodshed. Moreover, the citizenry continued to resist, led by a nationwide labor strike called by the powerful Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) of Juan Lechín. In the end, Natusch was able to occupy the Palacio Quemado for only sixteen days, after which he was forced to give up his quixotic struggle. The only face-saving concession he extracted from Congress was the promise that Guevara not be allowed to resume his duties as president. This condition was accepted and a new provisional president was found in the leader of the lower congressional house (the House of Deputies), Mrs. Lidia Gueiler.
Guevara, although bitter by the strange circumstances that surrounded his ousting, resumed his position as president of the Senate on 19 November[1] and continued to support Paz Estenssoro in subsequent elections (1980, 1985). In 1982 he was appointed Bolivian Ambassador to Venezuela. In 1989 (already quite elderly) he again ran for office, this time as vice-presidential running mate to the MNR's Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Although they received a majority of the votes, Sanchez and Guevara did not accede to the Quemado, as Congress selected as president the third-place finisher, Jaime Paz.
Guevara then retired from public life and died in La Paz on June 20, 1996.