Severo Fernández overthrown by José Manuel Pando

Background. Severo Fernández Alonso, a Conservative, served as president from 1896. Tensions arose when the Radicatory Law proposed installing the executive capital in Sucre, causing unrest in La Paz. Pando, leader of the Liberal Party and Federalists, rose against the government in 1898, gaining support from Aymaras and Colonel Pablo Zárate Willca. The conflict escalated into a civil war, with the government's forces suffering defeats, such as the massacre at Ayo Ayo in January 1899.

The Coup. The decisive military engagement of the civil war was the battle of the Segundo Crucero on 10 April 1899, where President Fernández Alonso and General Pando met. Following the Federalist victory, a Federal Government Board was created, made up of Pando, Serapio Reyes Ortiz, and Macario Pinilla Vargas, which installed the seat of government in La Paz. Legacy metadata records the overthrow of Fernández Alonso by Pando as occurring in La Paz on 12 April 1899, but no supplied passage corroborates that date or location for the coup itself.

Aftermath. The coup led to the establishment of a Federal Government Board in La Paz. This board was later dissolved at the National Convention of 1899, where Pando was elected president. The shift of the seat of government to La Paz was a consequence of the Liberal Party's victory in the War of 1899, marking a significant political realignment in Bolivia.