According to Bolivian journalist Augusto Céspedes, "The coup surprised no one more in Bolivia than the United States Ambassador." The U.S. government had enjoyed good relations with the Peñaranda administration which had brought Bolivia into World War II as an Allied Power and pledged the country's tin resources to the war effort. The fall of Peñaranda alarmed the State Department which immediately suspended diplomatic relations with Bolivia and refused to recognize the Villarroel government. In 1941, Peñaranda had used the fabricated story of a "Nazi Putsch" in Bolivia to suppress the MNR, causing the U.S. to suspect them of having pro-Nazi affiliations. Villarroel, in turn, was seen as "a Mussolini of the Andes" and a puppet Buenos Aires. The government of Argentina under the fascist-leaning President Pedro Pablo Ramírez was the only in Latin America to recognize Villarroel.