David Padilla Arancibia was a military general and former de facto president of Bolivia. He ruled his country from November 1978 to August 1979. A native of Sucre, Padilla was born on August 13, 1927. Joining the armed forces, he rose to the post of Commander of the Army. He was serving in that capacity when he deposed the also de facto government of General Juan Pereda on November 24, 1978. Pereda had taken the presidency in July of the same year simply because it was available to him, many military leaders having grown tired of the constant manipulations of dictator Hugo Banzer for his personal political ends. Padilla, in contrast, came to power as the leader of a group of democratically-oriented officers committed to returning the country to democratic rule in as short a period of time as possible. His goal was simple: to transfer power to whoever won the upcoming presidential elections and effect a retreat of the military to its barracks and posts of operation, where they belonged. For this reason, Padilla was remarkably popular during his short stay at the Palacio Quemado. The elections, on the other hand, turned out to be a fiasco. [More at Wikipedia]

August 13th, 1927 in Sucre  /  Died:   Sep 25th, 2016