The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Thomas E.
Weil, Jan Knippers Black, Howard I. Blutstein, Hans J. Hoyer, Kathryn T.
Johnston, and David S. McMorris, who wrote the 1973 edition of Bolivia:
A Country Study. The present volume incorporates portions of their work.
The authors are grateful to individuals in various agencies of the
United States government and private institutions who gave their time,
research materials, and special knowledge to provide information and
perspective. None of these agencies or institutions is in any way
responsible for the work of the authors, however.
The authors also would like to thank those who contributed directly
to the manuscript. These include Richard F. Nyrop, who reviewed all
drafts and served as liaison with the sponsoring agency; Sandra W.
Meditz, who performed the substantive review of all textual and graphic
materials; Mimi Cantwell, who edited the chapters; Martha E. Hopkins,
who managed editing; Andrea T. Merrill, who managed production; and
Barbara Edgerton, Janie L. Gilchrist, and Izella Watson, who did the
word processing. In addition, Beverly Wolpert performed the final
prepublication editorial review, and Shirley Kessell compiled the index.
Malinda B. Neale of the Library of Congress Printing and Processing
Section performed phototypesetting, under the supervision of Peggy
Pixley.
David P. Cabitto, who was assisted by Sandra K. Ferrell and Kimberly
A. Lord, provided invaluable graphics support. David P. Cabitto prepared
the illustrations, Sandra K. Ferrell prepared the ranks and insignia
chart, and Kimberly A. Lord prepared all the maps except for the
topography and drainage map, which was prepared by Harriett R. Blood.
Tim Merrill provided geographic support..
Finally, the authors acknowledge the generosity of the individuals
and the public and private agencies, as well as the Embassy of Bolivia,
who allowed their photographs to be used in this study. The authros are
particularly indebted to Kevin Healy of the Inter-American Foundation
for providing many of the photographs used in this volume.
Bolivia - Preface
THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC OF Bolivia reflects both its
pre-Columbian and its colonial heritage. The ruins of Tiahuanaco testify
to the first great Andean empire. Bolivians still speak the languages of
the Aymara kingdoms and of their Quechua conquerors; the society remains
predominantly Indian and rural, and only a minority is monolingual in
Spanish. Nevertheless, Spain also left its imprint in the political,
economic, and social spheres. During 300 years of colonial rule, Spain
imposed its institutions on the colony and concentrated on mineral
exports, which are still the backbone of the Bolivian economy. Using
forced Indian labor, local entrepreneurs extracted the mineral
wealth--the silver deposits at Potosí were the largest in the Western
world--and shipped it to Spain in accord with the prevailing
mercantilist practices.
After Bolivia received independence from Spain in 1825, political
instability became endemic. Rivalries among caudillos resulted in
numerous coups and countercoups. Despite attempts at reform by the
nation's first three presidents, the economy did not recover from the
disruptions caused by the wars of independence; taxes paid by the
Indians were the main sources of income for the governments.
The War of the Pacific (1879-80), in which the country lost its
access to the sea to Chile, had a profound impact on Bolivia. Civilian
governments replaced the erratic caudillo rule, and for fifty years
Bolivia enjoyed relative political stability. The economy improved with
the dramatic rise of tin as the main source of wealth. Because
Bolivians, rather than foreigners, dominated the tin-mining industry,
the former made most political decisions. As a result, the parties in
power--the Conservative Party, Liberal Party, and Republican Party--were
remarkably alike in that they were primarily interested in the
development of the mining sector. Increasing democratization benefited
the middle class but still excluded the Indians.
The devastating defeat suffered by Bolivia at the hands of Paraguay
in the Chaco War (1932-35) discredited the traditional leadership and
brought the military back to politics. Between 1936 and 1939, military
governments tried to reform the country from above with a program of
"military socialism" that included social justice and the
control of the country's natural resources. In 1937 they nationalized
the Standard Oil holdings, the first such step taken in Latin America.
Although they failed because they were inconsistent in their rule and
unable to marshal popular support, these governments were important
because they facilitated the formation of a number of new parties that,
despite differences, agreed on the need to limit the power of the tin
magnates.
Although members of the Conservative Party attempted to stop the
growing trend toward reform in the 1940s, they could not contain the
popular discontent. Unrest in the countryside increased, and the middle
class resented the government's inability to deal with economic
stagnation and increasing inflation. The unifying force in the
opposition was the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, a primarily
middle-class party that became more radical as it integrated the
militant ideology and demands of the workers.
Bolivia's 1952 Revolution, led by the Nationalist Revolutionary
Movement, was a turning point in the country's history. The government
decreed universal suffrage without literacy or property requirements, an
action that increased the electorate from some 200,000 to 1 million
voters. It nationalized the mines of the three great companies--Patiño,
Hochschild, and Aramayo-- and distributed land to the campesinos under a
far-reaching agrarian reform. The revolution remained incomplete and
lost momentum, however, when the government's policies produced a
virtual bankruptcy of the economy. In exchange for massive assistance
from the United States and the International Monetary Fund, the government agreed to cut social spending. This action
produced renewed labor unrest and eroded support for President Víctor
Paz Estenssoro (1952-56, 1960-64, and 1985-89). The government then made
the fateful decision to rebuild the Bolivian armed forces, which had
been purged and decimated in 1952. During the early 1960s, the military
became the arbiters in Bolivian politics as widespread anarchy convinced
many that only the armed forces could restore order. As a result, a
military coup in 1964 led by General René Barrientos Ortuño and
General Alfredo Ovando Candia had widespread support.
The military governments in power after 1964 varied in their
ideological outlook. The armed forces were divided by personal
ambitions, generational differences, and regional interests and lacked
the corporate identity of a modern military. Barrientos's conservative
rule, for example, encouraged foreign investment and suppression of the
left, whereas the "Revolutionary Nationalist" governments of
Ovando and Juan José Torres González nationalized United States
holdings and courted the workers, peasants, and students. Another
conservative, Colonel Hugo Banzer Suárez (1971- 78), was forced out
because of growing opposition and pressure from the United States to
reestablish democracy. The attempt at a transition to democracy after
1978 failed at first because no single party achieved a majority in
three elections, and alliances of various groups could not break the
deadlock. Military coups, including one led by the ruthless and corrupt
General Luis García Meza Tejada (1980-81), overthrew civilian interim
presidents. Only in 1982 did the military return the country to
democratic government.
Bolivia - PRE-COLUMBIAN CIVILIZATIONS
The Bolivian highlands, permanently settled for at least 21,000
years, were part of the culture of Andean South America before the
arrival of the Spaniards. The records are fragmentary but suggest that
agriculture started about 3000 B.C. and that the production of metal,
especially copper, began 1,500 years later.
By 600 B.C., the first great Andean empire had emerged on the high
plateau between the mountains known as the Altiplano. This empire, the
Tiahuanacan, was centered near the southeastern side of Lake Titicaca
and included urban centers around the lake, as well as enclaves in
different ecological zones from the eastern valleys to the Pacific
Coast. Tiahuanaco was a great center of trade and religion, and the
impact of its culture spread far beyond the boundaries of present-day
Bolivia. Apparently, the Tiahuanacan Empire was established through
colonization rather than through conquest. Its rapid expansion after
1000 and sudden collapse around 1200 are still poorly understood.
The collapse of Tiahuanacan influence resulted in the rise of seven
regional kingdoms of the Aymara, the most powerful states located in the
densely populated area around Lake Titicaca. The Aymara, a belligerent
people who lived in fortified hilltop towns, had an extraordinary
ability to adapt to the unique climatic conditions of the region and
increased their food supply through irrigation and the process of
freezing and drying crops. By maintaining colonists in the semitropical
valleys on the eastern slopes of the Andes and on the Pacific Coast,
they were able to produce both tropical and highland crops. Their basic
social unit was the ayllu, a kinship group or clan that organized work
and distributed land among its members.
The Aymara completely dominated the Uru, another major ethnic group
in the pre-Columbian southern Andes. Although the Uru might have
preceded the Aymara in the region, by the twelfth century they were poor
fishermen and landless workers.
The Aymara, however, were not able to contain the expansion of the
Quechua, the third major ethnic group. After the collapse of the
Tiahuanacan Empire, a Quechua-speaking state emerged in the area around
Cuzco (in present-day Peru). In the early fifteenth century, the
Quechua, who became known as the Incas when they adopted the name of
their rulers, were the most powerful group in the northern highlands. As
the Aymara kingdoms in the south became weaker in the second half of the
fifteenth century, the Incas began to conquer them.
The Bolivian highlands became known as the Kollasuyo, a densely
populated area with great economic and mineral wealth that constituted
one of the four administrative units of the Inca Empire. The highest
official of the Kollasuyo was responsible only to the Inca (the emperor)
and supervised a group of provincial governors, who in turn controlled
members of the Aymara nobility. Under a draft system called the mita, the Incas forced local Indians in the Kollasuyo to work
in the mines or on construction projects or to serve in the armies,
compensating them fully for their labor. Despite their goal of extreme
centralization, the Incas did not fundamentally change the organization
of the Aymara kingdoms, which remained relatively autonomous. Many local
chiefs kept many of their former powers and were, in general, reinforced
by Inca authority. They were also able to retain their culture, their
local religion, and their language. The regional nobility, although
forced to send their children to Cuzco for education, continued to hold
private property. Moreover, the system of sending colonists to the
eastern valleys and the coast was tolerated under Inca rule.
In 1470, however, several Aymara kingdoms rebelled against Inca rule.
The Incas completely defeated two states and pacified the region by
sending mitimas, Quechua-speaking colonists, to Aymara territory,
especially to the southern valleys and to the more central valley
regions where Cochabamba and Sucre were later founded. By the beginning
of the sixteenth century, the Incas had fully established their rule
over the Kollasuyo. In the 1980s, the legacy of this resettlement policy
could be seen in the predominance of Quechua speakers in many areas of
Bolivia.
The Incas failed, however, to conquer the nomadic tribes in the
eastern Bolivian lowlands. The remains of Incan fortresses there are
evidence of this failure and suggest that the Incas could subdue only
those cultures that were primarily based on agriculture. Thus, the
Indian groups of the eastern two-thirds of Bolivia preserved their ways
of life to a great extent, even after the Spanish conquest.
Bolivia - CONQUEST AND COLONIAL RULE, 1532-1809
Conquest and Settlement
Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando de Luque led the
Spanish discovery and conquest of the Inca Empire. They first sailed
south in 1524 along the Pacific Coast from Panama to confirm the
legendary existence of a land of gold called "Biru."
Because the rapidly expanding Inca Empire was internally weak, the
conquest was remarkably easy. After the Inca Huayna Capac died in 1527,
his sons Huascar and Atahualpa fought over the succession. Although
Atahualpa defeated his brother, he had not yet consolidated his power
when the Spaniards arrived in 1532, and he seriously misjudged their
strength. Atahualpa did not attempt to defeat Pizarro when he arrived on
the coast in 1532 because the Incan ruler was convinced that those who
commanded the mountains also controlled the coast. When Pizarro formed
alliances with Indians who resented Inca rule, Atahualpa did not modify
the Inca ceremonial approach to warfare, which included launching
attacks by the light of the full moon. On November 16, 1532, Pizarro
took Atahualpa prisoner during their first encounter and later executed
him, even after payment of a ransom equivalent to half a century of
European production of gold and silver. One year later, Cuzco fell.
Despite Pizarro's quick victory, Indian rebellions soon began and
continued periodically throughout the colonial period. In 1537 Manco
Inca, whom the Spanish had established as a puppet emperor, rebelled
against the new rulers and restored a "neoInca " state. This
state continued to challenge Spanish authority even after the Spanish
suppressed the revolt and beheaded Túpac Amaru in the public square of
Cuzco in 1572. Later revolts in the Bolivian highlands were usually
organized by the elders of the community and remained local in nature,
the exception being the great rebellion of Túpac Amaru II in the
eighteenth century.
During the first two decades of Spanish rule, the settlement of the
Bolivian highlands--now known as Upper (Alto) Peru or Charcas--was
delayed by a civil war between the forces of Pizarro and those of
Almagro. The two conquistadors had divided the Incan territory, with the
north under the control of Pizarro and the south under that of Almagro.
Fighting broke out in 1537, however, when Almagro seized Cuzco after
suppressing the Manco Inca rebellion. Pizarro defeated and executed
Almagro in 1538 but was himself assassinated three years later by former
supporters of Almagro. Pizarro's brother Gonzalo assumed control of
Upper Peru but soon became embroiled in a rebellion against the Spanish
crown. Only with the execution of Gonzalo Pizarro in 1548 did Spain
succeed in reasserting its authority; later that year, colonial
authorities established the city of La Paz, which soon became an
important commercial and transshipment center.
Indian resistance delayed the conquest and settlement of the Bolivian
lowlands. The Spanish established Santa Cruz de la Sierra (hereafter,
Santa Cruz) in 1561, but the Gran Chaco, the colonial name for the arid
Chaco region, remained a violent frontier throughout colonial rule. In
the Chaco, the Indians, mostly Chiriguano, carried out unrelenting
attacks against colonial settlements and remained independent of direct
Spanish control.
Bolivia - The Economy of Upper Peru
Spain immediately recognized the enormous economic potential of Upper
Peru. The highlands were rich in minerals, and Potosí had the Western
world's largest concentration of silver. The area was heavily populated
and hence could supply workers for the silver mines. In addition, Upper
Peru could provide food for the miners on the Altiplano.
Despite these conditions, silver production fluctuated dramatically
during the colonial period. After an initial fifteen-year surge in
production, output began to fall in 1560 as a result of a severe labor
shortage caused by the Indian population's inability to resist European
diseases. Around the same time, Potosí's rich surface deposits became
depleted, which meant that even more labor would be required to extract
silver. The labor shortage was addressed by Francisco de Toledo, the
energetic viceroy (the king's personal representative) of Peru, during a
visit to Upper Peru in the 1570s. Toledo used the preColumbian mita to
extract forced labor for the mines at Potosí from some sixteen
districts in the highlands, which were designated as supplying mita.
Adult males could be required to spend every sixth year working in the
mines. Henceforth, Potosí mining depended on the mita as well as on a
labor system in which relatively free men worked alongside those who
were coerced. Toledo also regulated the mining laws, established a mint
at Potosí, and introduced the mercury amalgam process. Adoption of the
amalgam process was particularly important, according to Herbert S.
Klein, in that it eliminated Indian control over refining.
The second problem, the exhaustion of the high-content surface ores,
required technological innovations. Hydraulic power took on increased
importance because of the construction of large refining centers. By
1621 a system of artificial lakes with a storage capacity of several
million tons provided a steady supply of water for refineries. With the
labor and technological problems resolved, silver mining flourished. By
the middle of the seventeenth century, silver mining at Potosí had
become so important that the city had the largest population in the
Western Hemisphere, approximately 160,000 inhabitants.
The end of the seventeenth-century boom, however, was followed by a
major decline in the mining industry. The exhaustion of the first rich
veins required deeper and more expensive shafts. The rapid decrease of
the Indian population as a result of disease and exploitation by the
mita also contributed to the reduction in silver output. After 1700 only
small amounts of bullion from Upper Peru were shipped to Spain.
Kings from the Bourbon Dynasty in Spain tried to reform the colonial
economy in the mid-eighteenth century by reviving mining. The Spanish
crown provided the financial support necessary to develop deeper shafts,
and in 1736 it agreed to lower the tax rate from 20 to 10 percent of the
total output. The crown also helped create a minerals purchasing bank,
the Banco de San Carlos, in 1751 and subsidized the price of mercury to
local mines. The foundation of an academy of metallurgy in Potosí
indicated the crown's concern with technical improvements in silver
production. The attempts to revive the mining sector in Upper Peru were
only partially successful, however, and could not halt the economic
collapse of Potosí at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Nevertheless, mining remained critical to the economy of Upper Peru
because food supplies sent from the valleys to mining centers on the
Altiplano influenced agricultural production.
Farming at first took place on encomiendas. The crown granted a small number of conquistadors the
right to the labor and produce of Indians living on the encomienda, and
by the 1650s there were some eighty-two encomiendas in Upper Peru.
Encomenderos tended to monopolize agricultural production, control the
cheap Indian labor, and collect the tribute that the Indians had to pay
to the crown. Because encomenderos were difficult to control and abused
their laborers, however, the crown tried repeatedly to bring Indians
under its direct jurisdiction and control.
In the second half of the sixteenth century, agricultural production
shifted from encomiendas to large estates, on which Indians worked in
exchange for the use of land. Cochabamba became a major producer of corn
and wheat, and the valleys produced coca leaves in increasing amounts
during colonial rule.
In addition to mining and agricultural production, Indian tribute
(alcabala) became an increasingly important source of income for the
crown despite Indian migration to avoid payment. An early effort to
collect tribute from Indians by moving them into villages or indigenous
communities (comunidades indígenas) was unsuccessful because of
resistance from both encomenderos and Indians. But by the late
eighteenth century, an increase in the Indian population, the extension
of tribute payments to all Indian males (including those who owned
land), and a relative decline in income from the mines combined to make
alcabala the second largest source of income in Upper Peru. Tribute
payments also increased because Spanish absolutism made no concessions
to human misfortune, such as natural disasters. The Indian tribute was
increased by 1 million pesos annually.
Bolivia - State, Church, and Society
The longevity of Spain's empire in South America can be explained
partly by the successful administration of the colonies. Spain was at
first primarily interested in controlling the independent-minded
conquerors, but its main goal soon became maintaining the flow of
revenue to the crown and collecting the tribute of goods and labor from
the Indian population. To this end, Spain soon created an elaborate
bureaucracy in the New World in which various institutions served as
watchdogs over each other and local officials had considerable autonomy.
Upper Peru, at first a part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, joined the
new Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata (whose capital was Buenos Aires)
when it was created in 1776. The viceroy was aided by the audiencia (council), which was
simultaneously the highest court of appeal in the jurisdiction and, in
the absence of the viceroy, also had administrative and executive
powers. The wealth of Upper Peru and its remoteness from Lima convinced
the authorities in Lima to create an audiencia in the city of Chuquisaca
(present-day Sucre) in 1558. Chuquisaca had become particularly
important as Potosí's administrative and agricultural supply center.
The jurisdiction of the audiencia, known as Charcas, initially covered a
radius of 100 "leagues" (179,600 hectares) around Chuquisaca,
but it soon included Santa Cruz and territory belonging to present-day
Paraguay and, until 1568, also the entire district of Cuzco. The
president of the audiencia had judicial authority as well as
administrative and executive powers in the region, but only in routine
matters; more important decisions were made in Lima. This situation led
to a competitive attitude and the reputation of Upper Peru for
assertiveness, a condition reinforced by the economic importance of the
region.
Spain exercised its control of smaller administrative units in the
colonies through royal officials, such as the corregidor, who represented the king in the municipal governments
that were elected by their citizens. By the early seventeenth century,
there were four corregidores in Upper Peru.
In the late eighteenth century, Spain undertook an administrative
reform to increase revenues of the crown and to eliminate a number of
abuses. It created an intendancy system, giving extensive powers to
highly qualified officials who were directly responsible to the king. In
1784 Spain established four intendancy districts in Upper Peru, covering
the present-day departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, Potosí, and
Chuquisaca.
The Spanish crown at first controlled the local governments
indirectly but centralized procedures as time went on. At first, Viceroy
Francisco de Toledo confirmed the rights of local nobles and guaranteed
them local autonomy. But the crown eventually came to employ Spanish
officials, corregidores de indios, to collect tribute and taxes from the
Indians. Corregidores de indios also imported goods and forced the
Indians to buy them, a widely abused practice that proved to be an
enormous source of wealth for these officials but caused much resentment
among the Indian population.
With the first settlers in Upper Peru came the secular and regular
clergy to begin the conversion of the Indians to Christianity. In 1552
the first bishopric in Upper Peru was established in La Plata; in 1605
La Paz and Santa Cruz also became bishoprics. In 1623 the Jesuits
established the Royal and Pontifical Higher University of San Francisco
Xavier of Chuquisaca, Upper Peru's first university.
Indian reaction to colonial rule and conversion to Christianity
varied. Many Indians adapted to Spanish ways by breaking with their
traditions and actively attempting to enter the market economy. They
also used the courts to protect their interests, especially against new
tribute assessments. Others, however, clung to their customs as much as
possible, and some rebelled against the white rulers. Local, mostly
uncoordinated, rebellions occurred throughout colonial rule. More than
100 revolts occurred in the eighteenth century alone in Bolivia and
Peru.
Although the official Incan religion disappeared rapidly, the Indians
continued their local worship under the protection of local Indian
rulers. But as Christianity influenced the Indians, a new
folk-Catholicism developed, incorporating symbols of the indigenous
religion. Whereas early Indian rebellions were anti-Christian, the
revolts at the end of the sixteenth century were based in messianic
Christian symbolism that was Roman Catholic and anti-Spanish. The church
was tolerant of local Indian religions. In 1582, for example, the bishop
of La Plata permitted the Indians to build a sanctuary for the dark
Virgen de Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca (Copacabana has been
a traditional Aymara religious center ever since).
The conquest and colonial rule were traumatic experiences for the
Indians. Easily susceptible to European diseases, the native population
decreased rapidly. The situation of the Indians worsened in the
eighteenth century when Spain demanded higher tribute payments and
increased mita obligations in an attempt to improve the mining output.
These profound economic and social changes and the breakup of native
culture contributed to the increasing addiction of Indians to alcohol.
Before the Spanish arrived, the Incas had consumed alcohol only during
religious ceremonies. Indian use of the coca leaf also expanded, and,
according to one chronicler, at the end of the sixteenth century
"in Potosí alone, the trade in coca amounts to over half a million
pesos a year, for 95,000 baskets of it are consumed."
Increasing Indian discontent with colonial rule sparked the great
rebellion of Túpac Amaru II. Born José Gabriel Condorcanqui, this
educated, Spanish-speaking Indian took the name of his ancestor, Túpac
Amaru. During the 1770s, he became embittered over the harsh treatment
of the Indians by the corregidores de indios. In November 1780, Túpac
Amaru II and his followers seized and executed a particularly cruel
corregidor de indios. Although Túpac Amaru II insisted that his
movement was reformist and did not seek to overthrow Spanish rule, his
demands included an autonomous region. The uprising quickly became a
full-scale revolt. Approximately 60,000 Indians in the Peruvian and
Bolivian Andes rallied to the cause. After scoring some initial
victories, including defeating a Spanish army of 1,200 men, Túpac Amaru
II was captured and killed in May 1781; nonetheless, the revolt
continued, primarily in Upper Peru. There, a supporter of Túpac Amaru
II, the Indian chief Tomás Catari, had led an uprising in Potosí
during the early months of 1780. Catari was killed by the Spaniards a
month before Túpac Amaru II. Another major revolt was led by Julián
Apaza, a sexton who took the names of the two rebel martyrs by calling
himself Túpac Catari (also spelled Katari). He besieged La Paz for more
than 100 days. Spain did not succeed in putting down all of the revolts
until 1783 and then proceeded to execute thousands of Indians.
In the late eighteenth century, a growing discontent with Spanish
rule developed among the criollos (persons of pure Spanish descent born
in the New World). Criollos began to assume active roles in the economy,
especially in mining and agricultural production, and thus resented the
trade barriers established by the mercantilist policies of the Spanish
crown. In addition, criollos were incensed that Spain reserved all
upperlevel administrative positions for peninsulares (Spanish-born
persons residing in the New World).
The Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason, questioning of
authority and tradition, and individualistic tendencies, also
contributed to criollo discontent. The Inquisition had not kept the
writings of Niccolò Machiavelli, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and others out of Spanish America;
their ideas were often discussed by criollos, especially those educated
at the university in Chuquisaca. At first the criollos of Upper Peru
were influenced by the French Revolution, but they eventually rejected
it as too violent. Although Upper Peru was fundamentally loyal to Spain,
the ideas of the Enlightenment and independence from Spain continued to
be discussed by scattered groups of radicals.
Bolivia - INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN, 1809-39
Struggle for Independence
The invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1807-08 by Napoleón's
forces proved critical to the independence struggle in South America.
The overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty and the placement of Joseph
Bonaparte on the Spanish throne tested the loyalty of the local elites
in Upper Peru, who were suddenly confronted with several conflicting
authorities. Most remained loyal to Spain. Taking a wait-and-see
attitude, they supported the Junta Central (Central Junta) in Spain, a
government in the name of the abdicated Ferdinand VII. Some liberals
eagerly welcomed the reforms of colonial rule promised by Joseph
Bonaparte. Others supported the claims of Carlota, Ferdinand's sister,
who governed Brazil with her husband, Prince Regent John of Portugal.
Finally, a number of radical criollos wanted independence for Upper
Peru.
This conflict of authority resulted in a local power struggle in
Upper Peru between 1808 and 1810 and constituted the first phase of the
efforts to achieve independence. In 1808 the president of the audiencia,
Ramón García León de Pizarro, demanded affiliation with the Junta
Central. The conservative judges of the audiencia were influenced,
however, by their autocratic royalist philosophy and refused to
recognize the authority of the junta because they saw it as a product of
a popular rebellion. On May 25, 1809, tensions grew when radical
criollos, also refusing to recognize the junta because they wanted
independence, took to the streets. This revolt, one of the first in
Latin America, was soon put down by the authorities.
On July 16, 1809, Pedro Domingo Murillo led another revolt by
criollos and mestizos (those of mixed European and Indian ancestry) in
La Paz and proclaimed an independent state in Upper Peru in the name of
Ferdinand VII. The loyalty to Ferdinand was a pretense used to
legitimize the independence movement. By November 1809, Cochabamba,
Oruro, and Potosí had joined Murillo. Although the revolt was put down
by royalist forces sent to La Paz by the viceroy of Peru and to
Chuquisaca by the viceroy of Río de La Plata, Upper Peru was never
again completely controlled by Spain.
During the following seven years, Upper Peru became the battleground
for forces of the independent Argentine Republic and royalist troops
from Peru. Although the royalists repulsed four Argentine invasions,
guerrillas controlled most of the countryside, where they formed six
major republiquetas, or zones of insurrection. In these zones, local
patriotism would eventually develop into the fight for independence.
By 1817 Upper Peru was relatively quiet and under the control of
Lima. After 1820 the Conservative Party criollos supported General Pedro
Antonio de Olañeta, a Charcas native, who refused to accept the
measures by the Spanish Cortes (legislature) to conciliate the colonies
after the Liberal Party revolution in Spain. Olañeta, convinced that
these measures threatened royal authority, refused to join the royalist
forces or the rebel armies under the command of Simón Bolívar Palacio
and Antonio José de Sucre Alcalá. Olañeta did not relinquish his
command even after the Peruvian royalists included him and his forces in
the capitulation agreement following their defeat in the Battle of
Ayacucho in 1824, the final battle of the wars of independence in Latin
America. Olañeta continued a quixotic war until Sucre's forces defeated
his forces, and he was killed by his own men on April 1, 1825, in a
battle that effectively ended Spanish rule in Upper Peru.
Bolivia - Construction of Bolivia: Bolívar, Sucre, and Santa Cruz
In 1825 Bolívar, first president of what became known as Bolivia,
transferred authority over Upper Peru to his lieutenant, Sucre
(1825-28), who called a constituent assembly in Chuquisaca to determine
the future of the region. Almost all delegates wanted an independent
Upper Peru and rejected attachment to Argentina or Peru. On August 6,
1825, the assembly adopted a declaration of independence. Five days
later, the assembly, hoping to placate Bolívar's reservations about the
independence of Upper Peru, resolved to name the new nation after him.
The new Republic of Bolivia, created in the territory that had formed
the audiencia of Charcas, faced profound problems. The wars of
independence had disrupted the economy. The entire mining industry was
in decline because of destruction, flooding, and abandonment of mines.
Lack of investment and scarcity of labor contributed to a sharp drop in
silver production. Agricultural production was low, and Bolivia had to
import food, even staples consumed by the Indian population. The
government had serious financial difficulties because of the huge
military expenditures and debt payments to Peru as compensation for the
army of liberation. All these problems were aggravated by the isolation
of the new republic from the outside world and the difficulties of
securing its borders.
Bolívar entered La Paz triumphantly on August 8, 1825. During his
brief rule of less than five months, he issued a flood of decrees,
resolutions, and orders reflecting his ideas about government. He
declared the equality of all citizens and abolished the tribute
payments, replacing them with a "direct contribution"
(contribución directa) that amounted to less than half of the previous
payments. Bolívar also decreed a land reform to distribute land,
preferably to Indians, and tried to reduce the influence of the Roman
Catholic Church in politics. Most of his decrees could not be
implemented during his short tenure, but they were included in the
constitution he wrote for Bolivia after his departure in January 1826.
Despite his efforts at reform, Bolívar was outspoken about his
doubts as to the ability of Bolivians to govern themselves. He was
careful to avoid recognizing Bolivia's independence, always referring to
the country as Upper Peru and signing his decrees as dictator of Peru.
Only in January 1826, when he turned the country over to Sucre, did he
promise that the Peruvian legislature would approve Bolivia's
independence.
Sucre succeeded Bolívar in January 1826 and continued to rule by
decree. He was formally installed as Bolivia's first elected president
after the General Constituent Assembly convened in May and elected him.
During his three-year rule, the government tried to solve its grave
financial problems, which were aggravated by the lack of foreign credit.
Sucre reformed the existing tax structure in an effort to finance public
expenditures and tried to revive silver mining by attracting foreign
capital and technology. In one of the most radical attacks on the church
anywhere in Latin America, he confiscated church wealth in Bolivia and
closed down many monasteries. The Roman Catholic Church in Bolivia never
recovered the powerful role that it had held. Import duties and taxes on
the internal movement of goods were also important sources of state
revenue. In addition, Sucre reestablished tribute payments in an attempt
to solve the country's financial crisis.
Sucre's attempts at reform were only partially successful because
Bolivia lacked the administration to carry them out. Many Conservative
Party criollos turned away when his reforms threatened to challenge the
economic and social patterns of the colonial past. As opposition
increased, the local nationalist elite came to resent the leadership of
their Venezuelan-born president. The invasion of Bolivia by the Peruvian
general Agustín Gamarra and an assassination attempt in April 1827 led
to Sucre's resignation in 1828. Sucre left the country for voluntary
exile, convinced that "the solution was impossible." Given
troop command by Bolívar, however, Sucre routed General Gamarra's much
larger force (8,000) in a decisive battle at Tarqui on February 27,
1829.
Despite the fall of his government, Sucre's policies formed the basis
for the ten-year rule of Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana (1829-39),
the first native-born president, who was sworn into office in May 1829
after a series of short-term rulers. Santa Cruz, a mestizo, had a
brilliant military career fighting for independence in the armies of Bolívar.
His close connection with Bolívar had led to a short interlude as the
president of Peru in 1826. It also made him a strong candidate to become
Bolivia's new president after Sucre's resignation.
Santa Cruz created a relatively stable economic, social, and
political order in Bolivia. In an attempt to overcome Bolivia's
isolation, Santa Cruz opened the port of Cobija on the Pacific Coast. He
also devalued the silver currency to finance government activities,
instituted protective tariffs in support of the local cotton cloth
(tucuyo) industry, and reduced the mining tax, thereby increasing mining
output. In addition, Santa Cruz codified the country's laws and enacted
Latin America's first civil and commercial codes. The Higher University
of San Andrés in La Paz was also founded during his rule. Although
Santa Cruz approved a democratic constitution, he ruled virtually as a
dictator and did not tolerate opposition.
Santa Cruz continued his political ambitions in Peru while president
of Bolivia. He established the Peru-Bolivia Confederation in 1836,
justifying his act with the threat of Chile's expansion to the north.
This threat, together with the constant turmoil in Peru and repeated
attempts by Gamarra to invade Bolivia, had made Sucre's military
intervention in a Peruvian civil war in 1835 a matter of life and death
for Bolivia. After winning a number of battles in Peru, Santa Cruz
reorganized that country into two autonomous states--Northern Peru and
Southern Peru--and joined them with Bolivia in the PeruBolivia
Confederation with himself as protector. The potential power of this
confederation aroused the opposition of Argentina and, above all, Chile;
both nations declared war on the confederation. Although Santa Cruz
repelled an attack by Argentina, he failed to stop the Chilean expansion
into the disputed territories on its northern frontier. His decisive
defeat by Chilean forces in the Battle of Yungay in January 1839
resulted in the breakup of the confederation and ended the career of
Bolivia's ablest nineteenth-century president. Santa Cruz went into
exile in Ecuador.
Bolivia - POLITICAL INSTABILITY AND ECONOMIC DECLINE, 1839-79
Bolivia was characterized for the forty years after 1839 by a chaotic
political situation and a declining economy. The country relied on taxes
paid by the Indians as its main source of income. Although some of the
government's leaders during this period tried to reform the country,
most fit the description of caudillos bárbaros (barbaric caudillos), a
term used by Bolivian writer Alcides Arguedas for inept and corrupt
rulers.
Santa Cruz was succeeded in June 1839 by General José Miguel de
Velasco Franco (1828, 1829, and 1839-41), who tried to control the
political intrigues and maneuvering between the supporters and opponents
of Santa Cruz. After failing to repel yet another invasion by Gamarra,
Velasco was overthrown. Gamarra was killed in November 1841 near La Paz
in the Battle of Ingavi, in which General José Ballivián y Segurola
defeated the Peruvian forces and ended Peruvian expansionism.
Ballivián y Segurola (1841-47) is remembered for restoring relative
calm to the nation between 1842 and 1847. Reversing Santa Cruz's
protectionist policies, Ballivián y Segurola encouraged free trade. He
also promoted the colonization of the Beni. Nonetheless, the main income
continued to come from the taxes paid by rural Indians. These included
not only a head tax but also a tax on coca leaves, which were consumed
almost exclusively by the Indian population. Although nearly 90 percent
of all Bolivians lived in rural areas according to the 1846 census,
agriculture generated little revenue. Most haciendas stagnated, and only
the collection of chinchona bark (for the production of quinine) and
coca leaves increased in the valleys.
After the overthrow of Ballivián y Segurola in 1847, Manuel Isidoro
Belzú Humérez (1848-55) emerged as the most powerful figure in
Bolivia. Unlike his predecessors, Belzú sought the support of the
masses. In order to gain the backing of the Indians, he started a
campaign against the aristocratic landowners, seized their land, and
incited the Indians to destroy the homes of the landowners. He also
hoped to get the support of the artisans who had been hurt by the
free-trade policies of Ballivián y Segurola by restricting the role of
foreign merchants in Bolivia and limiting imports.
Belzú's effort succeeded in one sense because he fended off
forty-two coup attempts during his rule. "Tata" Belzú, as he
was called by the Indians (like the head of the ayllu in preColumbian
times), has been seen as the precursor of Andean populism. Attempting to
stir the masses in demagogic speeches, Belzú completely alienated the
Bolivian establishment with his reign of terror. As efforts to overthrow
him increased, he resigned in 1855 and left for Europe.
José María Linares Lizarazu (1857-61), a member of the elite that
had opposed Belzú, overthrew Belzú's son-in-law, General Jorge Córdova
(1855-57), and became the first civilian president. Linares reversed
Belzú's protective policies and encouraged free trade and foreign
investment, mainly from Britain and Chile. During his presidency, mining
output increased because of technological innovations, such as the steam
engine, and the discovery of huge nitrate deposits in the Atacama Desert
(in present-day Chile).
Although the mining sector improved, it failed to stimulate
agricultural production, and most haciendas continued in a relative
state of stagnation. This malaise contributed to the survival of
campesino communities during the nineteenth century, despite repeated
assaults on their common landholdings by various governments. But the
tax burden on the Indians resulted in campesino revolts in Copacabana.
The overthrow of Linares by a military coup in 1861 initiated one of
the most violent periods in Bolivian history, under General José María
Achá Valiente (1861-64). Achá is remembered for the "murders of Yáñez,"
the massacre of seventy-one Belzú supporters (Belcistas), including
General Córdova, ordered by Colonel Plácido Yáñez, the military
commander in La Paz, in 1861.
In late 1864, General Mariano Melgarejo Valencia (1864-71) seized the
presidency and became the most notorious of Bolivia's caudillos. Relying
primarily on the military, he remained in power for more than six years
despite his mismanagement, drunkenness, and corruption, as well as
constant intrigues against him. Hoping to improve the economy by opening
up the country to foreigners, Melgarejo signed a series of treaties with
Chile and Peru for free trade. In an 1867 treaty with Brazil to secure
water rights to the Atlantic Ocean, he ceded 102,400 square kilometers
of territory, hoping to break Bolivia's isolation.
Melgarejo started a formidable assault on Indian communal land,
ostensibly in order to improve agricultural production. He decreed that
the Indians were the owners of their parcels only if they paid a large
fee within sixty days. If they failed to do so, their land would be
auctioned off. The resulting sales increased the size of the haciendas,
and massive Indian uprisings against his rule became more violent.
Opposition against Melgarejo mounted in all sectors of society as the
term melgarejismo came to signify amoral militarism; in 1871 he was
overthrown and later murdered in Lima.
Agustín Morales Hernández (1871-72) continued Melgarejo's ruling
style, despite his promise of "more liberty and less
government." Morales was assassinated, however, by a nephew in
1873. Two presidents with high integrity, Tomás Frías Ametller
(1872-73) and General Adolfo Ballivián (1873-74), did not last long
because of constant intrigues. Under their rule, Bolivia opened the port
of Mollendo in Peru, which reduced the country's isolation by connecting
the Altiplano by train and steamship on Lake Titicaca to the Pacific
Coast. But in 1876 Hilarión Daza Groselle (1876- 79) seized power and
became another military caudillo, as brutal and incompetent as
Melgarejo. He faced many insurrections, a massive demonstration by
artisans in Sucre, and widespread opposition. Hoping to gather the
support of nationalist Bolivians to strengthen his internal position,
Daza involved his country in the disastrous War of the Pacific.
Bolivia - FROM THE WAR OF THE PACIFIC TO THE CHACO WAR, 1879- 1935
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific resulted from a dispute between Bolivia and
Chile over sovereignty of the mineral-rich coastal area of the Atacama
Desert. In the mid-1860s, the two nations had come to the brink of war
because of disagreement over their boundaries. In 1874 Chile agreed to
fix the border at 24° south latitude in return for Bolivia's promise
not to increase taxes on Chilean nitrate enterprises for twenty-five
years. But in 1878, Daza imposed a slight increase on export taxes.
Chile immediately objected, and when Daza refused to revoke the tax
hike, Chile landed troops on February 14, 1879. Bolivia, in alliance
with Peru, declared war on Chile on March 1, but Bolivia's troops in the
coastal territory were easily defeated, in part because of Daza's
military incompetence. Driven from office by a popular revolt, Daza fled
to Europe with a sizable portion of Bolivia's treasury. The attempt of
General Narciso Campero Leyes (1880-84) to come to the aid of Peru,
Bolivia's ally in the war, was unsuccessful, and the combined armies
were defeated by Chile in 1880. Having lost its entire coastal
territory, Bolivia withdrew from the war. It ceded the territory
officially to Chile twentyfour years later, in 1904, under the Treaty of
Peace and Friendship.
The War of the Pacific was a turning point in Bolivian history.
Bolivian politicians were able to rally Bolivians by blaming the war on
Chilean aggression. Bolivian writers were convinced that Chile's victory
would help Bolivia to overcome its backwardness because the defeat
strengthened the "national soul." Even today, Bolivia has not
relinquished the hope of regaining an outlet to the Pacific Ocean.
After the war, a vigorous debate among civilian elites spawned the
development of new political parties. Mining entrepreneurs, who had
become the most important economic group in the country because of
increasing production, created the Conservative Party (Partido
Conservador). Conservatives favored reaching a quick peace settlement
with Chile that would include indemnification for lost territories and
enable Bolivia to construct a railroad for mining exports. The Liberal
Party (Partido Liberal) denounced the pacifism of the Conservatives. It
also resented the economic dependence of the mining sector on Chilean
and British capital and hoped to attract United States investment.
Despite these differences, both parties were primarily interested in
political and economic modernization, and their ideological outlooks
were similar. Civilian politicians reorganized, reequipped, and
professionalized the discredited armed forces and tried to subject them
to civilian control. Still, both Conservatives and Liberals initially
supported military candidates for the presidency. The governments in
power from 1880 to 1920--elected by a small, literate, and
Spanish-speaking electorate--brought Bolivia its first relative
political stability and prosperity.
Bolivia - Reconstruction and the Rule of the Conservatives
The Conservatives ruled Bolivia from 1880 until 1899. General Campero
completed his legal term in office and presided over free elections in
1884 that brought to power Gregorio Pacheco Leyes (1884-88), one of
Bolivia's most important mine owners. After Pachecho's term, however,
fraudulent elections resulted repeatedly in Liberal revolts. Although
the Liberal Party was allowed to participate in the National Congress
(hereafter, Congress), it had no chance to win a presidential election.
Under the Conservatives, the high world price of silver and increased
production of copper, lead, zinc, and tin combined to create a period of
relative prosperity. The Conservative governments encouraged the mining
industry through the development of a rail network to the Chilean coast.
The growth of commercial agriculture, such as the development of
Bolivia's natural rubber resources, also contributed to an apparently
stronger economy. Agricultural production in the highlands increased as
the haciendas expanded in some regions.
Aniceto Arce Ruíz (1888-92), although elected legally, was an
autocrat who managed to stay in power only through repression. His main
economic accomplishment was to extend the AntofagastaCalama Railroad to
Oruro. The extension of the railroad drastically reduced the cost of
transporting minerals to the Pacific Coast. Economic growth was skewed,
however, as railroads that were built to export minerals started to
bring imported wheat from Chile; in 1890 Chilean wheat was cheaper in La
Paz than wheat from Cochabamba. The open economy also hurt local
industry. The expansion of the haciendas at the expense of the free
Indian communities resulted in numerous uprisings and forced many
Indians to work for their landlords or to migrate to the cities. As a
result of this migration, the census of 1900 noted an increase of the
mestizo population, but Bolivia remained a predominantly Indian and
rural nation, in which the Spanishspeaking minority continued to exclude
the Indians.
Bolivia - The Liberal Party and the Rise of Tin
In 1899 the Liberal Party overthrew the Conservatives in the
"Federal Revolution." Although the Liberals resented the long
rule of the Conservatives, the main reasons for the revolt were
regionalism and federalism. The Liberal Party drew most of its support
from the tin-mining entrepreneurs in and around La Paz, whereas
Conservative governments had ruled with an eye on the interests of the
silver mine owners and great landowners in Potosí and Sucre. The
immediate cause of the conflict was the Liberal demand to move the
capital from Sucre to the more developed La Paz.
The Federal Revolution differed from previous revolts in Bolivia in
that Indian peasants actively participated in the fighting. Indian
discontent had increased because of the massive assault on their
communal landholdings. The campesinos supported the Liberal leader, José
Manuel Pando, when he promised to improve their situation.
Pando, however, reneged on his promises and allowed the assault on
Indian land to continue. The government suppressed a series of campesino
uprisings and executed the leaders. One of these revolts, led by Pablo Zárate
Willka, was one of the largest Indian rebellions in the history of the
republic. It frightened whites and mestizos, who once again successfully
isolated the Indians from national life.
Like their Conservative predecessors, the Liberals controlled the
presidential elections but left the elections for the Congress
relatively free. They also continued to professionalize the Bolivian
military, with the aid of a German military mission. President
Ismael Montes Gamboa (1904-09 and 1913-17) dominated the Liberal era.
Liberal administrations gave priority to the settlement of border
disputes. Bolivia's inability to protect and integrate the frontier with
Brazil had led to the encroachment of Brazilian rubber gatherers. In
1900 they began an active secessionist movement in the eastern province
of Acre and after three years of small-scale fighting won annexation by
Brazil. In the Treaty of Petropolis in 1903, Bolivia relinquished its
claims to 191,000 square kilometers of Acre territory in return for two
areas on the Madeira and the Paraguay rivers totaling 5,200 square
kilometers, the equivalent of US$10 million, and the use of a railroad
to be constructed around the rapids of the Madeira in Brazilian
territory. In 1904 Bolivia finally concluded a peace treaty with Chile
under which it officially ceded Bolivia's former territory on the coast
in return for indemnification of US$8.5 million, less the value of the
Bolivian section of a new railroad that Chile would construct from La
Paz to the Pacific Coast at Arica. The payment was used to expand the
transportation system in Bolivia. By 1920 most major Bolivian cities
were connected by rail.
Liberal governments also changed the seat of government and the
nature of church-state relations. The presidency and the Congress were
moved to La Paz, which became the de facto capital, but the Supreme
Court of Justice remained in Sucre. Liberal presidents canceled the
special privileges officially granted to the Roman Catholic Church. In
1905 they legalized public worship by other faiths, and in 1911 they
made civil marriage a requirement.
Perhaps the most significant development of the Liberal era was the
dramatic rise of Bolivian tin production. Since the colonial period, tin
had been mined in the Potosí region; nonetheless, Bolivia historically
lacked the transportation system necessary to ship large quantities of
tin to European markets. The extension of the rail link to Oruro in the
1890s, however, made tin mining a highly profitable business. The
decline in European tin production also contributed to the Bolivian tin
boom at the beginning of the twentieth century. With the development of
huge mines in southern Oruro and northern Potosí, La Paz eclipsed Potosí
as the mining industry's financial and service center.
Tin production in Bolivia came to be concentrated in the hands of
Bolivian nationals, although the regimes encouraged foreign investment.
At first, foreign interests and Bolivians with foreign associations took
the major share. This changed, however, when Bolivian tin-mining
entrepreneurs realized that smelters in competing countries depended on
Bolivian tin. Simón Patiño was the most successful of these tin
magnates. Of poor mestizo background, he started as a mining apprentice.
By 1924 he owned 50 percent of the national production and controlled
the European refining of Bolivian tin. Although Patiño lived
permanently abroad by the early 1920s, the two other leading tin-mining
entrepreneurs, Carlos Aramayo and Mauricio Hochschild, resided primarily
in Bolivia.
Because taxes and fees from tin production were critically important
to national revenues, Patiño, Aramayo, and Hochschild exercised
considerable influence over government policy. Unlike the silver-mining
entrepreneurs of the Conservative period, the tin-mining magnates did
not directly intervene in politics but employed politicians and
lawyers--known as the rosca --to represent their interests.
The tin boom also contributed to increased social tensions. Indian
peasants, who provided most of the labor for the mines, moved from their
rural communities to the rapidly growing mining towns, where they lived
and worked in precarious situations. Bolivia's First National Congress
of Workers met in La Paz in 1912, and in the following years the mining
centers witnessed an increasing number of strikes.
Liberal governments at first did not face any serious opposition
because the Conservative Party remained weak after its overthrow in
1899. By 1914, however, opposition to political abuses and the loss of
national territory led to the formation of the Republican Party (Partido
Republicano). Republican support increased when mineral exports declined
because of the crisis in international trade before World War I, and
agricultural production decreased because of severe droughts. In 1917
the Republicans were defeated at the polls when José Gutiérrez Guerra
(1917-20), the last Liberal president, was elected. But the long rule of
the Liberals, one of the most stable periods in Bolivian history, ended
when the Republicans seized the presidency in a bloodless coup in 1920.
Bolivia - The Republican Party and the Great Depression
The advent of the Republican Party did not at first indicate any
profound change in Bolivian politics. Fernando Díez de Medina, a
Bolivian writer, commented on the change: "Twenty years of
privilege for one group ends, and ten years of privilege for another
begins." The 1920s, however, was also a period of political change.
New parties emerged as the Republican Party split into several factions.
One major opposing branch was led by Bautista Saavedra Mallea, who had
the support of the urban middle class, and the other was led by the more
conservative Daniel Salamanca Urey (1931-34). A number of minor
political parties influenced by socialist or Marxist thought also
emerged.
During Republican rule, the Bolivian economy underwent a profound
change. Tin prices started to decline in the 1920s. After peaking in
1929, tin production declined dramatically as the Great Depression
nearly destroyed the international tin market. This decline was also
caused by the decrease in the tin content of ore and the end of new
investment in the mines in Bolivia. As economic growth slowed,
Republican presidents relied on foreign loans. Saavedra (1920-25) and
Hernando Siles Reyes (1926-30) borrowed heavily in the United States to
finance major development projects, despite opposition by Bolivian
nationalists to the favorable terms for the lender. The so-called
Nicolaus loan aroused national indignation because it gave the United
States control over Bolivia's tax collections in return for a private
banking loan of US$33 million.
During the 1920s, Bolivia faced growing social turmoil. Labor unrest,
such as the miners' strike in Uncia in 1923, was brutally suppressed.
But the unrest reached new heights of violence after the drastic
reduction of the work force during the Great Depression. Indian peasants
continued to rebel in the countryside, although they had been disarmed
and their leaders had been executed after participating in the overthrow
of the Conservative Party in 1899. Now, for the first time, the Indians
found support for their cause among the elite. Gustavo Navarro, who took
the name Tristan Marof, was Bolivia's most important Indianist. He saw
in the Inca past the first successful socialism and the model to solve
rural problems. As Indian uprisings continued during Liberal rule, Siles
Reyes promised to improve their situation and organized the National
Crusade in Favor of Indians.
The social legislation of the Republican governments was weak,
however, because neither Saavedra nor Siles Reyes wanted to challenge
the rosca. Siles Reyes's four years of inconsistent rule and unfulfilled
promises of radical changes frustrated workers and students. In 1930 he
was overthrown when he tried to bypass the constitutional provision
forbidding reelection by resigning in order to run again. A military
junta ruled until March 1931, when Salamanca (1931-34) was elected as a
coalition candidate.
Although he was an esteemed economist before taking office, Salamanca
was unable to suppress social unrest and to solve the severe economic
problems caused by the Great Depression. Criticism of his administration
mounted in all sectors of Bolivian society. Initially reluctant to enter
into an armed conflict with Paraguay, he nevertheless led Bolivia into
war, a move supported by the military and traditional groups.
Bolivia - The Chaco War
The origin of the war was a border dispute between Bolivia and
Paraguay over the Chaco. This vast area was largely undeveloped except
for some minor oil discoveries by Standard Oil in Bolivia and Royal
Dutch Shell in Paraguay. The Chaco, which Bolivia traditionally regarded
as a province (Gran Chaco), became more significant to Bolivia after the
latter lost its Pacific Ocean outlet to Chile. Bolivia hoped to gain
access to the Atlantic Ocean with an oil pipeline across the Chaco to
the Paraguay River. Despite mediation attempts by various countries, the
increased number of border incidents led the military high commands of
Bolivia and Paraguay to believe in the inevitability of war.
Salamanca used one of the border incidents to break diplomatic
relations with Paraguay and increase Bolivia's military budget, even
though the country had severe economic problems. Convinced that
Bolivia's better-equipped, German-trained troops, which outnumbered the
Paraguayan army, could win the war, Salamanca went to war in 1932.
The war raged for the next three years. The Bolivians were defeated
in all major battles, and by the end of 1934 they had been driven back
482 kilometers from their original positions deep in the Chaco to the
foothills of the Andes. Serious strategic errors, poor intelligence, and
logistical problems in reaching the distant battle lines contributed to
the losses. In addition, the morale of the Bolivian troops was low, and
the highland Indians could not adapt to the extreme climate in the
low-lying Chaco. Despite the high command's decision to end the war,
Salamanca was determined to continue at all costs. In 1934, when he
traveled to the Chaco to take command of the war, Salamanca was arrested
by the high command and forced to resign. His vice-president, José Luis
Tejada Sorzano, who was known to favor peace, was accepted as president
(1934-36).
Salamanca's overthrow was a turning point in the Chaco War. The
Paraguayan troops were stopped by new, more capable Bolivian officers,
who fought closer to Bolivian supply lines. On June 14, 1935, a
commission of neutral nations (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru,
and the United States) declared an armistice; a definite settlement was
finally reached in 1938. Bolivia lost the Chaco but retained the
petroleum fields, which Paraguay had failed to reach. Both countries
suffered heavy losses in the war. In Bolivia alone, an estimated 65,000
people were killed and 35,000 wounded or captured out of a population of
just under 3 million.
The humiliating disaster of the Chaco War had a profound impact in
Bolivia, where it was seen as dividing the history of the twentieth
century "like a knife." The traditional oligarchy was
discredited because of its inept civilian and military leadership in the
war. Unable to deal with growing criticism, its members blamed the loss
of the war on the low potential of the Bolivians and saw the earlier
pessimistic assessment in Arguedas's famous novel Pueblo Enfermo (A Sick
People) confirmed.
After the war, a group of middle-class professionals, writers, and
young officers questioned the traditional leadership. This group, which
came to be known as the "Chaco Generation," searched for new
ways to deal with the nation's problems. It resented the service of the
rosca on behalf of the tin-mining entrepreneurs and criticized Standard
Oil, which had delivered oil to Paraguay clandestinely through Argentine
intermediaries during the war. The Chaco Generation was convinced of the
need for social change. Gustavo Navarro, now more radical than during
the 1920s, raised the famous slogan "land to the Indians, mines to
the state." The military, which came to power in 1936, tried to
bring about change with popular support.
Bolivia - PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION, 1935-52
On May 17, 1936, Colonel David Toro Ruilova (1936-37) overthrew
Tejada in a military coup. Because the officer corps wanted to avoid a
civilian investigation of the military's wartime leadership, military
backing for the coup came from all ranks. The main backers, however,
were a group of younger officers who wanted to bring profound change to
Bolivia. Toro, the leader of this group, hoped to reform the country
from the top down. His program of "military socialism"
included social and economic justice and government control over natural
resources. He also planned to set up a corporate-style political system
to replace the democratic system established in 1825.
Toro attempted to get civilian support with far-reaching social
legislation and nominated a print worker as the first labor secretary in
Bolivia. He also nationalized the holdings of Standard Oil without
compensation and called for the convening of a constitutional congress
that would include the traditional parties, as well as new reformist
groups and the labor movement.
Toro was unable, however, to enlist lasting popular support. A group
of more radical officers resented his reluctance to challenge the rosca,
and they supported a coup by Colonel Germán Busch Becerra (1937-39) in
1937. A new constitution, promulgated in 1938, stressed the primacy of
the common good over private property and favored government
intervention in social and economic relations. It also legally
recognized the Indian communities and included a labor code. In 1939
Busch challenged the interests of the mine owners for the first time by
issuing a decree that would prevent the mining companies from removing
capital from the country. None of his policies, however, resulted in
significant popular and military support, and they completely alienated
the conservative forces. Frustrated by his inability to bring about
change, Busch committed suicide in 1939.
Despite the weakness of the Toro and Busch regimes, their policies
had a profound impact on Bolivia. Reformist decrees raised expectations
among the middle class, but when they failed to be implemented, they
contributed to the growth of the left. The constitutional convention
gave the new forces for the first time a nationwide platform and the
possibility of forming alliances. The military socialist regimes also
prompted the conservatives to join forces to stem the growth of the
left.
Bolivia - The Rise of New Political Groups
After a few months under the provisional presidency of General Carlos
Quintanilla Quiroga (1939-40), the chief of staff during the Busch
regime, the government changed hands again. General Enrique Peñaranda
Castillo (1940-43) was elected president in the spring of 1940. Peñaranda's
support came from the traditional parties, the Liberals, and the two
wings of the Republicans, who had formed a concordancia to stem the
growth of the movement toward reform.
The trend toward reform, however, could not be halted, and a number
of new groups gained control of the Congress during Peñaranda's
presidency. These groups, although very different in their ideological
outlooks, agreed on the need to change the status quo. They included the
Trotskyite Revolutionary Workers Party (Partido Obrero
Revolucionario--POR), which had already been formed in 1934, as well as
the Bolivian Socialist Falange (Falange Socialista Boliviana--FSB),
founded in 1937 and patterned on the Spanish model. The Leftist
Revolutionary Party (Partido de Izquierda Revolucionaria--PIR) was
founded in 1940 by a coalition of radical Marxist groups.
The most important opposition to the concordancia came from the
Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista
Revolucionario--MNR). The first party with widespread support in
Bolivian history, the MNR had a membership that included intellectuals
and both white-collar and blue-collar workers. It was founded in 1941 by
a small group of intellectual dissidents from the middle and upper
classes and represented persons from a wide range of political
persuasions who were united by their discontent with the status quo.
Among its leaders were Víctor Paz Estenssoro, a professor of economics;
Hernán Siles Zuazo, the son of former President Siles Reyes; and
several influential writers. The party's program included
nationalization of all of Bolivia's natural resources and far-reaching
social reforms. Its antiSemitic statements resulted not only in the
imprisonment of MNR leaders but also in charges by the United States
government that MNR was under the influence of Nazi fascism.
As the leader of the congressional opposition, the MNR denounced Peñaranda's
close cooperation with the United States and was especially critical of
his agreement to compensate Standard Oil for its nationalized holdings.
The MNR members of the Congress also began an investigation of the
massacre of striking miners and their families by government troops at
one of the Patiño mines in Catavi in 1942. MNR influence with the
miners increased when Paz Estenssoro led the congressional interrogation
of government ministers.
The MNR had contacts with reformist military officers, who were
organized in a secret military lodge named the Fatherland's Cause (Razón
de Patria--Radepa). Radepa was founded in 1934 by Bolivian prisoners of
war in Paraguay. It sought mass support, backed military intervention in
politics, and hoped to prevent excessive foreign control over Bolivia's
natural resources.
In December 1943, the Radepa-MNR alliance overthrew the Peñaranda
regime. Major Gualberto Villarroel López (1943-46) became president,
and three MNR members, including Paz Estenssoro, joined his cabinet. The
MNR ministers resigned, however, when the United States refused
recognition, repeating its charge of ties between the MNR and Nazi
Germany. The ministers returned to their posts in 1944, after the party
had won a majority in the election and the United States had recognized
the government. Villarroel's government emphasized continuity with the
reformist regimes of Toro and Busch. Paz Estenssoro, who served as
minister of finance, hoped to get popular support with a budget that
emphasized social spending over economic development. But the salary
increase for miners did not bring about their consistent backing of the
government and only managed to strengthen the ties between the MNR and
miners.
The Villarroel government also tried for the first time to get the
support of the campesinos. In 1945 it created the National Indigenous
Congress to discuss the problems in the countryside and to improve the
situation of the peasants. However, most of the social legislation, such
as the abolition of the labor obligation of the campesinos to their
landlords, was never put in effect.
Villarroel was overthrown in 1946. He had been unable to organize
popular support and faced opposition from conservative groups and
increasing political terrorism that included murders of the government's
opponents. Rivalry between the MNR and the military in the governing
coalition also contributed to his downfall. In 1946 mobs of students,
teachers, and workers seized arms from the arsenal and moved to the
presidential palace. They captured and shot Villarroel and suspended his
body from a lamppost in the main square, while the army remained aloof
in the barracks.
Bolivia - The "Sexenio," 1946-52
The six years preceding the 1952 Revolution are known as the sexenio.
During this period, members of the Conservative Party tried to stem the
growth of the left, but they ultimately failed because they could not
halt the economic decline and control the growing social unrest. Enrique
Hertzog Garaizabal (1947-49), who was elected president in 1947 after
the interim rule of a provisional junta, formed a coalition cabinet that
included not only the concordancia but also the PIR. He hoped to retain
the backing of the Conservative Party forces by not increasing taxes,
but he tried also to gain labor support, relying on the PIR to mobilize
the workers.
The labor sector did not cooperate with the government, however, and
the PIR became discredited because of its alliance with the conservative
forces. In 1946 the workers endorsed the Thesis of Pulacayo, in which
the miners called for permanent revolution and violent armed struggle
for the working class. As the labor sector became more radical, the
government resorted more and more to oppression, and confrontations
increased. The dismissal of 7,000 miners and the brutal suppression of
yet another uprising in Catavi in 1949 made any cooperation between the
government and the workers impossible.
The MNR emerged as the dominant opposition group. Although most of
its leaders, including Paz Estenssoro, were in exile in Argentina, the
party continued to be represented in the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate. During the sexenio, the party, despite its predominantly
middle-class background, repeatedly took the side of the workers and
adopted their ideology. The MNR also came to support the defense of
Indian rights, as violence in the countryside increased when the
promises given at the National Indigenous Congress were not fulfilled.
The MNR's attempts to gain power during the sexenio were
unsuccessful. Its 1949 coup attempt failed, although with the support of
the workers and some military officers it succeeded in gaining control
of most major cities except La Paz. The MNR's attempt to gain power by
legal means in 1951 also failed. In the presidential election of May
1951, the MNR's Paz Estenssoro, who remained in exile in Argentina, ran
for president and Siles Zuazo ran for vice president, both on a platform
of nationalization and land reform. With the support of the POR and the
newly formed Bolivian Communist Party (Partido Comunista de Bolivia --
PCB), the MNR won with a clear plurality. The outgoing president,
however, persuaded the military to step in and prevent the MNR from
taking power. Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (1949-51), who had
succeeded the ailing Hertzog in 1949, backed a military junta under
General Hugo Ballivián Rojas (1951-52). Under Ballivián, the
government made a last futile attempt to suppress the growing unrest
throughout the country.
By 1952 the Bolivian economy had deteriorated even further. The
governments of the sexenio had been reluctant to increase taxes for the
upper class and to reduce social spending, resulting in high inflation.
The tin industry had stagnated since the Great Depression, despite short
revivals during World War II. Ore content had declined, and the richer
veins were depleted, increasing tin production costs; at the same time,
tin prices on the international market fell. A disagreement with the
United States over tin prices halted exports temporarily and caused a
decline in income that further hurt the economy. The agricultural sector
lacked capital, and food imports had increased, reaching 19 percent of
total imports in 1950. Land was unequally distributed--92 percent of the
cultivable land was held by estates of 1,000 hectares or more.
The social unrest that resulted from this economic decline increased
during the last weeks before the 1952 Revolution, when a hunger march
through La Paz attracted most sectors of society. The military was
severely demoralized, and the high command called unsuccessfully for
unity in the armed forces; many officers assigned themselves abroad,
charged each other with coup attempts, or deserted.
By the beginning of 1952, the MNR again tried to gain power by force,
plotting with General Antonio Seleme, the junta member in control of
internal administration and the National Police (Policía Nacional). On
April 9, the MNR launched the rebellion in La Paz by seizing arsenals
and distributing arms to civilians. Armed miners marched on La Paz and
blocked troops on their way to reinforce the city. After three days of
fighting, the desertion of Seleme, and the loss of 600 lives, the army
completely surrendered; Paz Estenssoro assumed the presidency on April
16, 1952.
Bolivia - THE BOLIVIAN NATIONAL REVOLUTION, 1952-64
Radical Reforms
The "reluctant revolutionaries," as the leaders of the
multiclass MNR were called by some, looked more to Mexico than to the
Soviet Union for a model. But during the first year of Paz Estenssoro's
presidency, the radical faction in the party, which had gained strength
during the sexenio when the party embraced the workers and their
ideology, forced the MNR leaders to act quickly. In July 1952, the
government established universal suffrage, with neither literacy nor
property requirements. In the first postrevolutionary elections in 1956,
the population of eligible voters increased from approximately 200,000
to nearly 1 million voters. The government also moved quickly to control
the armed forces, purging many officers associated with past
Conservative Party regimes and drastically reducing the forces' size and
budget. The government also closed the Military Academy (Colegio
Militar) and required that officers take an oath to the MNR.
The government then began the process of nationalizing all mines of
the three great tin companies. First, it made the export and sale of all
minerals a state monopoly to be administered by the state-owned Mining
Bank of Bolivia (Banco Minero de Bolivia -- Bamin). Then it set up the
Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Corporación Minera de Bolivia --
Comibol) as a semiautonomous enterprise to run state-owned mines. On
October 31, 1952, the government nationalized the three big tin
companies, leaving the medium-sized mines untouched, and promising
compensation. In this process, two-thirds of Bolivia's mining industry
was turned over to Comibol.
A far-reaching agrarian reform was the final important step taken by
the revolutionary government. In January 1953, the government
established the Agrarian Reform Commission, using advisers from Mexico,
and decreed the Agrarian Reform Law the following August. The law
abolished forced labor and established a program of expropriation and
distribution of the rural property of the traditional landlords to the
Indian peasants. Only estates with low productivity were completely
distributed. More productive small and medium-sized farms were allowed
to keep part of their land and were encouraged to invest new capital to
increase agricultural production. The Agrarian Reform Law also provided
for compensation for landlords to be paid in the form of
twenty-five-year government bonds. The amount of compensation was based
on the value of the property declared for taxes.
During the first years of the revolution, miners wielded
extraordinary influence within the government. In part, this influence
was based on the miners' decisive role in the fighting of April 1952. In
addition, however, armed militias of miners formed by the government to
counterbalance the military had become a powerful force in their own
right. Miners immediately organized the Bolivian Labor Federation
(Central Obrera Boliviana--COB), which demanded radical change as well
as participation in the government and benefits for its members. As a
result, the government included three pro-COB ministers in the cabinet
and accepted the demand for fuero sindical, the legally autonomous
status that granted the COB semisovereign control over the workers of
Bolivia. The MNR regime gave worker representatives veto power in all
Comibol decisions and allowed for a cogovernment in mine administration.
The government also established special stores for the miners, increased
their salaries, and rehired fired workers.
The peasants also exerted a powerful influence. At first, the
government was unable to control the occupation of land by the peasants.
As a result, it could not enforce the provisions of the land reform
decree to keep medium-sized productive estates intact. But the MNR
eventually gained the support of the campesinos when the Ministry of
Peasant Affairs was created and when peasants were organized into
syndicates. Peasants were not only granted land but their militias also
were given large supplies of arms. The peasants remained a powerful
political force in Bolivia during all subsequent governments.
Bolivia - The Unfinished Revolution
Although these major steps were never reversed, observers have
regarded the revolution as unfinished because it lost momentum after the
first years. The divisions within the MNR seriously weakened its attempt
to incorporate the support of the Indian peasants, the workers, and the
middle class for the government. In 1952 the MNR was a broad coalition
of groups with different interests. Juan Oquendo Lechín led the left
wing of the party and had the support of the labor sector. Siles Zuazo
represented the right wing and had the backing of the middle class. Paz
Estenssoro was initially the neutral leader. Because the majority of the
MNR elite wanted a moderate course and the left wing demanded radical
change, the polarization increased and led eventually to the destruction
of the MNR in 1964.
The country faced severe economic problems as a result of the changes
enacted by the government. The nationalization of the mines had a
negative effect on the economy. The mines of Comibol produced at a loss
because of the lack of technical expertise and capital to modernize the
aging plants and nearly depleted deposits of low-grade ore. Declining
tin prices on the world market contributed to the economic problems in
the mining sector. Nevertheless, workers in the management of Comibol
increased salaries and the work force by nearly 50 percent.
The decline of agricultural production contributed to the rapidly
deteriorating economy during the first years of the revolution. Although
anarchy in the countryside was the main reason for the decrease in
production, the peasants' inability to produce for a market economy and
the lack of transport facilities contributed to the problem. The attempt
to increase agricultural production by colonizing the less densely
populated valleys was not successful at first. As a result, the food
supply for the urban population decreased, and Bolivia had to import
food.
High inflation, primarily caused by social spending, also hurt the
economy. The value of the peso, Bolivia's former currency, fell from 60
to 12,000 to the United States dollar between 1952 and 1956, affecting
primarily the urban middle class, which began to support the opposition.
The bankrupt economy increased the factionalism within the MNR.
Whereas the left wing demanded more government control over the economy,
the right wing hoped to solve the nation's problems with aid from the
United States. The government had sought cooperation with the United
States as early as 1953, a move that had given the United States
influence over Bolivia's economy. Because of United States pressure, the
Bolivian government promised to compensate the owners of nationalized
tin mines and drew up a new petroleum code, which again allowed United
States investments in Bolivian oil.
During the presidency of Siles Zuazo (1956-60 and 1982-85), who won
the election with 84 percent of the vote, United States aid reached its
highest level. In 1957 the United States subsidized more than 30 percent
of the Bolivian government's central budget. Advised by the United
States government and the IMF, the Siles Zuazo regime then in power
reduced inflation with a number of politically dangerous measures, such
as the freezing of wages and the ending of the government-subsidized
miners' stores.
Siles Zuazo's stabilization plan seriously damaged the coalition
between the MNR and the COB. The COB called immediately for a general
strike, which threatened to destroy an already disrupted economy; the
strike was called off only after impassioned appeals by the president.
But the conflict between the government and the miners' militias
continued as the militias constantly challenged the government's
authority. Siles Zuazo faced not only labor unrest in the mines but also
discontent in the countryside, where peasant leaders were competing for
power. In an effort to quell the unrest, he decided to rebuild the armed
forces.
During the Siles Zuazo administration, the strength of the armed
forces grew as a result of a new concern for professionalism and
training, technical assistance from the United States, and an increase
in the size and budget of the military. In addition, the military's role
in containing unrest gave it increasing influence within the MNR
government.
Although the stabilization plan and the strengthening of the armed
forces were resented by Lechín's faction of the party, the first formal
dissent came from Walter Guevara Arze and the MNR right wing. Guevara
Arze, who had been foreign minister and then minister of government in
the first Paz Estenssoro government, split from the MNR to form the
Authentic Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista
Revolucionario Auténtico--MNRA) in 1960, when his presidential hopes
were destroyed by Paz Estenssoro's candidacy. Guevara Arze charged that
the MNR had betrayed the revolution, and he posed a formidable
opposition in the presidential election of 1960.
Conflicts within the MNR increased during Paz Estenssoro's second
term (1960-64). Together with the United States and the Federal Republic
of Germany (West Germany), Paz Estenssoro endorsed the "Triangular
Plan," which called for a restructuring of the tin-mining industry.
The plan demanded the end of the workers' control over Comibol
operations, the firing of workers, and a reduction in their salaries and
benefits; it was strongly opposed by the COB and Lechín's MNR faction.
In 1964 Paz Estenssoro decided to run again for president, using a
revision of the 1961 Constitution that would allow for a consecutive
term, and he forced his nomination at a party convention. Lechín, who
had hoped to become the presidential candidate, broke away to form the
National Leftist Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario de la
Izquierda Nacional--PRIN). With his support in the MNR dwindling and
opposition from the labor sector mounting, Paz Estenssoro accepted
General René Barrientos Ortuño as vice presidential candidate. Because
most opposition groups abstained, Paz Estenssoro was reelected with the
support of the military and the peasants. Paz Estenssoro had come to
rely increasingly on the military, whose role as a peacekeeper had made
it an arbiter in politics. But this support was to prove unreliable; the
military was already planning to overthrow him. Moreover, rivalry among
peasant groups often resulted in bloody feuds that further weakened the
Paz Estenssoro government.
During its twelve-year rule, the MNR had failed to build a firm basis
for democratic, civilian government. Increasing factionalism, open
dissent, ideological differences, policy errors, and corruption weakened
the party and made it impossible to establish an institutional framework
for the reforms. Not even the peasants, who were the main beneficiaries
of the revolution, consistently supported the MNR.
Bolivia - MILITARY RULE, 1964-82
The Presidency of Barrientos
On November 4, 1964, Barrientos (president, 1964-65; copresident, May
1965-January 1966; and president, 1966-69) and General Alfredo Ovando
Candia occupied the presidential palace and declared themselves
copresidents. But as the crowd, which had gathered outside the palace,
persisted in shouting its preference for the more charismatic
Barrientos, Ovando allowed Barrientos to assume the formal title alone,
while he occupied the post of commander in chief of the armed forces.
Barrientos insisted that his assumption of power was not a
counterrevolutionary move and promised to restore the revolution to its
"true path," from which the MNR had deviated during its
twelve-year rule. Nevertheless, his government continued many of the
policies of the second Paz Estenssoro administration, including the IMF
stabilization plan and the Triangular Plan. The emphasis on reducing
social costs remained in effect. In May 1965, the army forced Barrientos
to accept Ovando as his copresident as a sort of reward for suppressing
an uprising by miners and factory workers.
The economy improved during the Barrientos regime at a growth rate
averaging 6.5 percent per year. The rise of tin prices resulted in the
first profit for Comibol in 1966 and contributed to increased production
in the medium-sized mines that had remained in private hands. Barrientos
encouraged the private sector and foreign investment and gave Gulf Oil
Company permission to export petroleum and natural gas from Bolivia.
In 1966 Barrientos legitimized his rule by winning the presidential
election. He formed the Popular Christian Movement (Movimiento Popular
Cristiano--MPC) as his base of support. Although the MPC was not very
successful, he won the election with a coalition of conservative
politicians, the business community, and the peasants.
Barrientos's efforts to build support in the countryside succeeded at
first with the signing in February 1964 of the Military-Peasant Pact
(Pacto Militar-Campesino). Under the agreement, the campesino militias
agreed to adopt an antileftist stance and to subordinate themselves to
the army. But his attempt to impose taxes on peasants resulted in a
violent response and loss of support in rural areas.
Determined to keep the labor sector under control, Barrientos took
away most of the gains it had achieved during the MNR's rule. He placed
Comibol under the control of a military director and abolished the veto
power of union leaders in management decisions. The president also cut
the pay of the miners to the equivalent of US$0.80 a day and reduced the
mining work force and the enormous Comibol bureaucracy by 10 percent.
Finally, he destroyed the COB and the mine workers' union, suppressed
all strike activity, disarmed the miners' militias, and exiled union
leaders. Military troops again occupied the mines, and in 1967 they
massacred miners and their families at the Catavi-Siglo XX mines.
But Barrientos could not completely silence the labor sector; miners
led the growing opposition to his rule. The various groups opposing his
rule joined in denouncing Barrientos's selling of natural resources to
the United States under favorable terms. They resented his invitation to
United States private investment in Bolivia because he offered greater
privileges to foreign investors. The defection of Barrientos's close
friend and minister of interior, Colonel Antonio Arguedas, to Cuba after
his announcement that he had been an agent for the United States Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) aroused national indignation. The military
also resented the key role of United States officers in the capture and
killing of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967 in Bolivia, where he
had tried to start a guerrilla movement.
The death of Barrientos in a helicopter crash on April 27, 1969,
initially left control in the hands of his vice president, Luís Adolfo
Siles Salinas (1969). Real power, however, remained with the armed
forces under its commander in chief, General Ovando, who took power on
September 26, 1969, in a coup that was supported by reformist officers.
Bolivia - Revolutionary Nationalism: Ovando and Torres
Ovando (copresident, May 1965-January 1966, and president,
January-August 1966 and 1969-70) annulled the elections scheduled for
1970, dismissed the Congress, and appointed a cabinet that included
independent reformist civilians who had opposed the policies of
Barrientos. Ovando hoped to gain civilian and military support with a
program of "revolutionary nationalism," which he had outlined
in the "Revolutionary Mandate of the Armed Forces."
Revolutionary nationalism reflected the heritage and rhetoric of the
military reformist regimes of the past, as well as the spirit of the
1952 Revolution. It also showed the influence of the Peruvian government
of General Juan Velasco Alvarado. Many Bolivian officers believed that
the military had to intervene in politics to lead the country toward
reform because civilian governments had failed in that undertaking. They
were convinced that it was in the main interest of the armed forces to
end underdevelopment, which they saw as the cause of insurgency. The
military would therefore fight on the internal frontiers against social
injustice and economic dependence.
Despite highly popular measures, such as the nationalization of the
holdings of the North American-owned Gulf Oil Company, Ovando failed to
gain popular support. Popular enthusiasm over the nationalization was
short lived. Disagreement over compensation, a boycott of Bolivian crude
oil on the international market, and a general downturn in the economy
became divisive factors. Even though Ovando legalized the COB and
withdrew troops from the mining camps, lasting worker support for the
regime was not ensured. Frustrated expectations, broken promises, and
the massacre of miners by the military in Catavi in 1967 had radicalized
the workers, who now refused to cooperate with the military government.
While the left became radicalized, the right became weary of Ovando's
vacillating statements, which included the suggestion that private
property be abolished. Even when Ovando moved right during the last
months of his regime, he was unable to enlist the support of the
conservative groups in the country because this move only emphasized his
weakness.
Ovando's reform program also polarized the military. Reformist
officers, concerned about the decline in popular support for the
military since the Barrientos regime, shifted their support to the more
radical General Juan José Torres González (1970-71), whom Ovando had
dismissed as his commander in chief; the right backed General Rogelio
Miranda. The chaos surrounding the overthrow of Ovando highlighted the
division in the armed forces. Military officers demanded the resignation
of Ovando and Miranda after a failed coup attempt by the latter on
October 5, 1970. A triumvirate, formed on October 6, failed to
consolidate support. On October 7, as the country moved toward civil war
after the COB had declared a general strike, General Torres emerged as
the compromise candidate and became president of Bolivia.
The main feature of Torres's presidency was a lack of authority.
Rather than taking the initiative on policies, Torres primarily reacted
to pressure from different groups. His minister of interior, Jorge
Gallardo Lozada, labeled the Torres government the "ten months of
emergency."
Torres hoped to retain civilian support by moving to the left. He
nationalized some United States property, such as the wasteprocessing
operation of the Catavi tin mines and the Matilde zinc mine, and he
ordered the Peace Corps, a United States program, out of Bolivia. While
limiting United States influence in Bolivia, Torres increased
cooperation with the Soviet Union and its allies in the economic and
technical sectors.
Because of his lack of a clear strategy and political experience,
however, Torres soon succeeded in alienating all sectors of Bolivian
society. He found it very difficult to organize groups on the left
because they confronted him with demands that he could not meet, such as
giving them half of all cabinet seats. The workers, students, and
parties of the left wanted a socialist state and saw the Torres
government only as a step in that direction. In June 1970, the Torres
regime established the Popular Assembly (Asamblea Popular) in an attempt
to form an alternative popular government. Consisting mainly of
representatives of workers' and peasants' organizations, the Popular
Assembly was intended to serve as a base for the radical transformation
of society. However, the left remained divided by ideological
differences and rivalry for leadership. They could not agree on
controversial issues dealing with full worker participation in state and
private enterprises, the creation of armed militias, and the
establishment of popular tribunals having legal jurisdiction over crimes
against the working class. No consensus was achieved, and many
delegates, resenting the lack of power to enforce the resolutions and
running short of funds, returned home prematurely. The Popular Assembly
did, however, succeed in weakening the government by creating a climate
in which popular organizations acted independently from the state.
Torres's hope of placating conservative opposition by avoiding
radical change did not win him the support of the right, especially of
the powerful business community. Conservative groups unified in their
opposition because they saw a chance for a political comeback in
alliance with rightist officers. The military, in turn, became
increasingly polarized because of their discontent with Torres's chaotic
leadership. Torres had cut the defense budget to free money for
education and allowed civilian interference in strictly military
matters. He often premitted military disobedience to go unpunished. The
last step of institutional decay was a manifesto written during the last
weeks of the Torres regime by a group of junior officers who questioned
military authority. It resulted in widespread military support for the
coup on August 21, 1971, by Colonel Hugo Banzer Suárez, the former
Military Academy commander whom Torres had exiled.
Bolivia - The Banzer Regime
Colonel Hugo Banzer (1971-78), a highly respected officer who had
repeatedly attempted to overthrow the Torres regime, ruled for six
years, the longest continuous presidential term in recent Bolivian
history. Banzer's presidency was characterized by relative political
stability and unprecedented economic growth. At first he was supported
by the Nationalist Popular Front (Frente Popular Nacionalista--FPN), an
alliance between the MNR under Paz Estenssoro, who was allowed to return
from exile in Lima, and the FSB under Mario Gutiérrez. Both parties had
been enemies until the chaos of the Torres regime gave them a chance for
a political comeback in league with conservative elements in the armed
forces.
During the first years of the Banzer presidency, the economy improved
rapidly. Exports tripled between 1970
and 1974 because of increased production of petroleum, natural gas, and
tin, which was then refined in Bolivian smelters. The production of
cotton in the Santa Cruz area in eastern Bolivia also tripled between
1970 and 1975.
Despite this economic growth, Bolivia reverted to the repression of
earlier regimes. The new minister of interior, Colonel Andrés Sélich,
ordered a massive crackdown on the left, abolishing labor unions and
closing the universities. The government brutally suppressed a general
strike against the devaluation of the Bolivian peso in 1972. In 1974
price increases for basic goods and control of food prices resulted in
roadblocks by peasants in the Cochabamba Valley and their subsequent
massacre by the military.
The governing alliance disintegrated almost immediately when the MNR
and the FSB split. They proved an unreliable support for Banzer because
only small factions remained in the FPN. The armed forces were also
divided, and various factions tried to overthrow the regime. On June 5,
1974, younger officers belonging to the Generational Group (Grupo
Generacional) and led by General Gary Prado Salmón attempted a coup,
demanding that Banzer legitimize his rule. It failed, however, as did
another on November 7 that was supported by military, MNR, and FSB
elements in Santa Cruz.
The November 7, 1974, coup has been called an auto-golpe (selfmade
coup) because it gave Banzer a reason to rule without civilian
interference. Influenced by the Brazilian model, he announced the
complete reorganization of the Bolivian political system and the
formation of a "new Bolivia" under military rule. Banzer hoped
to keep the support of the business community, the mine owners, the
agricultural entrepreneurs in Santa Cruz, and the growing number of
loyal bureaucrats.
The government, however, soon began to face serious problems. The
"economic miracle" turned out to be a myth, the production of
petroleum declined sharply, and Comibol produced at a loss, despite high
mineral prices, because it was subsidizing other state agencies. Cotton
production also declined when world prices fell.
The stability of the Banzer regime was superficial because the
military remained divided by personal rivalry, ideological differences,
and a generational gap. Growing civilian opposition was centered in the
labor sector, despite the renewed military occupation of the mines.
Radical students and the progressive sector of the Roman Catholic Church
became spokespersons for the oppressed groups; the peasants also
criticized the government.
External factions contributed to the weakening of the Banzer regime
as well. The negotiation with Chile for an outlet to the sea had raised
hopes in 1974. When an agreement between Banzer and General Augusto
Pinochet Ugarte failed because of the opposition of Chilean
nationalists, Banzer's position was weakened. After Jimmy Carter assumed
the United States presidency in 1976, the United States pressured Banzer
to hold elections.
In 1977, with opposition from civilian groups and the military
mounting and pressure from the United States increasing, Banzer
announced a presidential election for 1980, hoping to remain in control,
but labor unrest and hostility to his regime forced him to set the date
for 1978. However, General Juan Pereda Asbún, Banzer's handpicked
candidate, carried out a coup in July 1978 after the National Electoral
Court annulled the elections because of widespread fraud by Pereda's
supporters. Although Bolivia continued under military rule, the 1978
election marked the beginning of Bolivia's traumatic transition to
democracy during the following four years.
Bolivia - Transition to Democracy
Between 1978 and 1980, Bolivia was constantly in a state of crisis.
The fragmentation of political forces made it impossible for any party
to dominate. In the three elections held during this period, no party
achieved a majority, and alliances of various groups could not break the
deadlock. Social unrest increased as peasants began to agitate again on
a large scale for the first time since their rebellion in the late
colonial period. The Bolivian workers were more radical than ever, and
in 1979, during the COB's first congress since 1970, they vehemently
protested the economic austerity measures dictated by the IMF.
The division in the armed forces and the increasing visibility of
paramilitary groups reflected the institutional decay of the military. A
civilian investigation into human rights violations committed during the
Banzer regime further demoralized the officer corps.
General Pereda did not call for elections, despite his promise to do
so, and he was overthrown in a bloodless coup in November 1978 by
General David Padilla Arancibia (1978-79), who was supported by the
younger institutionalist faction of the military. He saw the main role
of the military as the defense of the country rather than political
intervention and announced elections for 1979 without naming an official
government candidate. Electoral reforms simplified voter registration,
and 90 percent of the electorate chose among eight presidential
candidates in honest elections.
When none of the main candidates gained a majority, the Congress
appointed former MNRA head Guevara Arze as interim president on August
8, 1979. This first civilian regime since the brief term of Siles
Salinas in 1969 was overthrown, however, by a bloody coup under Colonel
Alberto Natusch Busch in November. When Natusch stepped down after two
weeks because of intense civilian opposition and only limited military
support, as well as United States diplomatic action to prevent
recognition of the Natusch government, another interim president was
appointed. Lidia Gueiler Tejada (1979-80), head of the Chamber of
Deputies and a veteran MNR politician, became the first woman president
of Bolivia. In 1980 Gueiler presided over elections in which the parties
of the left gained a clear majority of the vote. Siles Zuazo and his
Democratic and Popular Unity (Unidad Democrática y Popular--UDP)
coalition alone got 38 percent of the votes; the Congress was certain to
name him president on August 6, 1980.
The process was disrupted on July 17, 1980, however, by the ruthless
military coup of General Luis García Meza. Reportedly financed by
cocaine traffickers and supported by European mercenaries recruited by
Klaus Barbie, former Gestapo chief in Lyons, the coup began one of the
darkest periods in Bolivian history. Arbitrary arrest by paramilitary
units, torture, and disappearances--with the assistance of Argentine
advisers-- destroyed the opposition. Government involvement in cocaine
trafficking resulted in international isolation for Bolivia. Cocaine
exports reportedly totaled US$850 million in the 1980-81 period of the
García Meza regime, twice the value of official government exports. The
"coca dollars" were used to buy the silence or active support
of military officers. But García Meza, who failed to gain support in
the military, faced repeated coup attempts and was pressured to resign
on August 4, 1981.
The ruthlessness, extreme corruption, and international isolation of
the García Meza government completely demoralized and discredited the
military; many officers wanted to return to democracy. However,
President General Celso Torrelio Villa (1981- 82), who had emerged as a
compromise candidate of the military after García Meza's resignation,
was reluctant to call for elections. In July 1982, after yet another
attempt by the García Meza clique to return to power, he was replaced
by General Guido Vildoso Calderón (1982), who was named by the high
command to return the country to democratic rule. On September 17, 1982,
during a general strike that brought the country close to civil war, the
military decided to step down, to convene the 1980 Congress, and to
accept its choice as president. Accordingly, Siles Zuazo assumed the
presidency on October 10, 1982.
Bolivia - The Society and Its Environment
