Mamerto Urriolagoitia
43rd President of Bolivia
In office
24 October 1949 – 16 May 1951
Acting: 7 May 1949 – 24 October 1949
Preceded byEnrique Hertzog
Succeeded byHugo Ballivián
26th Vice President of Bolivia
In office
10 March 1947 – 24 October 1949
PresidentEnrique Hertzog
Preceded byJulián Montellano
Succeeded byHernán Siles Zuazo
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship
In office
10 March 1947 – 14 May 1947
PresidentEnrique Hertzog
Preceded byAniceto Solares
Succeeded byLuis Fernando Guachalla
Personal details
Born
Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague

(1895-12-05)5 December 1895
Sucre, Bolivia
Died4 June 1974(1974-06-04) (aged 78)
Sucre, Bolivia
Political partyRepublican Socialist Unity (1946–1974)
United Socialist (1936–1946)
Republican (before 1936)
SpouseJuana Hernandez Calvo[1]
Parent(s)Mamerto Urriolagoitía
Corina Harriague
EducationUniversity of Saint Francis Xavier
AwardsOrder of the Condor of the Andes
Order of Charles III
Order of Isabella the Catholic
Signature

Mamerto Urriolagoitía Harriague (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈmeɾto wrjolaˈɣojtja aˈrjaɣe] ⓘ; 5 December 1895 – 4 June 1974) was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who was the 43rd president of Bolivia, from 1949 to 1951. A member of the Republican Socialist Unity Party, he had previously been the 26th vice president of Bolivia, from 1947 to 1949, under President Enrique Hertzog.[2][1][3] Urriolagoitía's short reign was characterized by the violent suppression of the opposition, especially unionists, and he is remembered for his inflexibility. He is considered the last constitutional president of the largely oligarchic social and political order that reigned in the country until the advent of the 1952 Bolivian National Revolution.[4]

Early life and education

Urriolagoitía was born on 5 December 1895 in Sucre, Bolivia to Mamerto Urriolagoitía and Corina Harriague Moreno.[1][4][3] He studied law at University of San Francisco Xavier and international law at University of Sorbonne in Paris.[5][4][3]

Career

In 1917, he started working at the Bolivian Embassy in London as First Secretary and Chargé d'affaires. He also represented Bolivia at the Postal Union Congress and the Monetary Congress. He left London in 1937 and returned to Bolivia.[1] There, he led the Republican Socialist Unity Party[6] and was the senator representing the Chuquisaca Department.[5] In 1947, Urriolagoitía was elected vice-president to Dr. Enrique Hertzog.[2][7][1] The Bolivian Civil War of 1949 broke out following a massacre at Siglo XX mine on 29 May after miners kidnapped and killed several government authorities.[4][3] This led to a series of violent nationwide rebellions that continued through September. The government barely maintained hold of the country.[8][1][9][3]

Around this time, Hertzog was forced to step back after suffering health problems from the pressures of the presidency.[3][10][11] Urriolagoitía assumed the role of president on 24 October 1949. The existing Cabinet resigned and Urriolagoitía re-filled it to best suit his needs.[2]

Much of Urriolagoitía's presidency was dedicated to repressing the reformist movement headed by the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) of Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Juan Lechín,[5] Hernán Siles Zuazo, and others. He crushed a number of coup d'état attempts[9] In 1950, he issued decrees, first to make opposition parties illegal, then to outlaw unions.[12][8] He instituted curfews, shut down newspapers including El proletario,[8] and branded the MNR as communists in discussions with American President Harry Truman in hopes of gaining his support.[13] Opponents were thrown in prison or killed;[8] opposition leaders including Juan Lechín, Guillermo Lora, José Fellman, and Óscar Únzaga fled the country and remained in exile.[5] The cost of living, which had been mounting for years, continued to rise,[8] worsened by Urriolagoitía's decision to freeze the salaries of laborers.[9][3] He also raised fiscal reserves for oil, making it impossible for these resources to be nationalized and used to support Bolivians.[8]

Meanwhile, he worked to support Gabriel González Videla's election as president of Chile.[8] In 1950, the two discussed establishing a corridor that allowed Bolivia access to the Pacific Ocean.[14][15] The Bolivian port would be established in Arica.[16] In Bolivia, he ensured completion of the 1950 Census, the first census to be held in Bolivia since the turn of the 20th century.[3][4]

By the 1951 presidential elections, however, the opposition party, led by Víctor Paz Estenssoro, had gained significant popularity. Paz was declared the winner[17][18][8] with 85,000 votes to Urriolagoitía's party's 35,000.[8] This was despite the fact that, under the law, only about 200,000 privileged, educated, and propertied Bolivians could vote. Urriolagoitía refused to give power to Paz[17][18] and instead installed the head of the Bolivian military,[19] General Hugo Ballivián, as president to prevent the MNR from taking power.[20][21][9] This coup against the democratic order would come to be known as the Mamertazo of 1951.[17][18][1][9][22]

With the elections annulled and Ballivián firmly installed in the Palacio Quemado,[9] Urriolagoitía fled to Chile,[8] where he settled in Arica.[3] In exile, he wrote Bolivia (1825-1925) and stayed out of the political scene.[5] He eventually returned to his native Sucre, where he died on 4 June 1974 at the age of 78.[3][4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Mamerto Urriolagoitia of Bolivia". Lafayette Negative Archives. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "CHRONOLOGY". Current History. 17 (100): 369. December 1949.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Delgadillo Pacheco, Miguel; Delgadillo Cervantes, Miguel. "1949 – Mamerto Urriolagoitia H." (in Spanish). Museo Virtual Bolivia. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Calabi, Mónica (1 October 2012). "Mamerto Urriolagoitia el último presidente chuquisaqueño" [Mamerto Urriolagoitia the last Chuquisaqueño president] (in Spanish). Correo del Sur. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Fernández, Tomás; Tamaro, Elena (2004). "Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague" (in Spanish). Biografías y Vidas. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  6. ↑ "BOLIVIA: Siege". TIME. 23 January 1950. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  7. ↑ Vicepresidency of Bolivia Archived 2009-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Situación politica de Bolivia durante la presidencia de Don Mamerto Urriolagoitía [Politician situation in Bolivia during the presidency of Don Mamerto Urriolagoitía] (PDF) (Report) (in Spanish). Chilean Senate. 30 May 1951. pp. 70–76. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chin, John J.; Wright, Joseph; Carter, David B. (13 December 2022). Historical Dictionary of Modern Coups D’état. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 142–147.
  10. ↑ Nobbs-Thiessen, Ben (2020). Landscape of Migration: Mobility and Environmental Change on Bolivia's Tropical Frontier, 1952 to the Present. UNC Press Books. p. 16. ISBN 9781469656113.
  11. ↑ Sandoval, Marco Antonio (November 2016). Un fruto del exilio: La Escuela Internacional de Cuadros de la JCR (Junta de Coordinación Revolucionaria) [A fruit of exile: The International School of Cadres of the JCR (Revolutionary Coordination Board)] (PDF) (Report) (in Spanish). Universidad Nacional de La Plata. p. 3. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  12. ↑ Bianezzi Cilia, Gustavo (2012). Movimiento al socialismo : crescimento e organização [Movement towards socialism: growth and organization] (Thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade Estadual de Campinas. doi:10.47749/T/UNICAMP.2012.893278. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  13. ↑ Murphey, Oliver (2017). A Bond that will Permanently Endure: The Eisenhower administration, the Bolivian revolution and Latin American leftist nationalism (Dissertation). Columbia University. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  14. ↑ Jeffs Castro, Leonardo (November 2012). "Las relaciones chileno-bolivianas: aproximación histórica y desafíos" [Chilean-Bolivian relations: Historical approach and challenges]. VI Congreso de Relaciones Internacionales (in Spanish): 8. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  15. ↑ "La política exterior chileno-boliviana en la década de 1950 mirada desde la región de Tarapacá. Una aproximación desde el diálogo entre las teorías de las percepciones y el realismo neoclásico" [Chilean-Bolivian foreign policy in the 1950s as seen from the Tarapacá region. An approach from the dialogue between theories of perceptions and neoclassical realism]. Polis (in Spanish). 11 (32): 479. August 2012. doi:10.4067/S0718-65682012000200022. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  16. ↑ Manzano Iturra, Karen Isabel (2017). "Chile-Bolivia-Perú. El papel de Arica durante las negociaciones anteriores y posteriores a 1950" [Chile-Bolivia-Peru. The role of Arica during the pre- and post-1950 negotiations.]. Revista Via Iuris (in Spanish) (23): 17. ISSN 1909-5759. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  17. 1 2 3 "Día del fabril: Para ministro Santalla proceso de cambio está en plena etapa de construcción" [Factory Day: For Minister Santalla, the change process is in the full construction stage]. Noticias Fides (in Spanish). 18 May 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  18. 1 2 3 "Fabriles en su aniversario reciben equipo de computación y vehículos" [On their anniversary, factories receive computer equipment and vehicles]. Bolivian Vice Ministry of Communication. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  19. ↑ Espeche, Ximena (2016). "Traducir Bolivia: Carlos Martínez Moreno y la revolución del 52" [Translating Bolivia: Carlos Martínez Moreno and the '52 revolution]. A contra corriente (in Spanish). 14 (1): 201. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  20. ↑ Gutiérrez Escheverría, Henry Alex (2015). Regular jurídicamente a las organizaciones sociales en la participación del control social [Legally regulate social organizations participating in social control] (PDF) (Thesis) (in Spanish). Universidad Mayor de San Andrés. p. 5.
  21. ↑ Espeche Gilardoni, Ximena (December 2021). ""Temporada de Revoluciones": Las agencias internacionales de noticias y la política latinoamericana durante la primera guerra fría" ["Season of Revolutions": International news agencies and Latin American politics during the first Cold War]. Revista de Historia Social y de las Mentalidades (in Spanish): 183. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  22. ↑ Molina Orjuela, Douglas Eduardo; Caicedo Córdoba, Servio Alberto (2012). "Movimientos sociales: visiones de alternatividad política desde Sur y Centro América" [Social movements: Visions of alternative politics from South and Central America]. Ars Boni et Aequi. 8 (2): 223. Retrieved 12 November 2023.

Bibliography

  • Mesa, José de; Gisbert, Teresa; and Carlos D. Mesa, Historia de Bolivia, 3rd edition., pp. 579–587.
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