Federation of Bolivian University Students

The Federation was a student organization founded in 1928 by radical intellectuals at Cochabamba with the support of the government of Hernán Siles. Its manifesto was influenced by the university reform movement in Argentina and by Marxism, Indigenismo, and nationalism. The Federation's primary concerns were the socialization of natural resources, agrarian reform, the integration of Indians, strong support for the nascent labor movement, and the complete reintegration of the Pacific littoral.

The Federation lost momentum during the 1930s but was rejuvenated in 1939, when it declared itself the intellectual workers' vanguard and called for social revolution. In 1940 the Federation signed a pact of unity with various regional leftist groups and supported the candidacy of Marxist José Antonio Arze in the presidential elections. It continued to support Arze, who had been the key leader of its 1928 convention, and the radical Revolutionary Party of the Left (PIR), which he founded in mid-1940.

The Federation opposed the fascist leanings of the Gualberto Villarroel government. It ceased to play a role in politics after 1946 because of its support for the discredited PIR, and was dissolved in 1952.

See alsoBolivia, Political Parties: Party of the Revolutionary Left (PIR) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Herbert Klein, Parties and Political Change in Bolivia, 1880–1952 (1971), esp. pp. 99-101, 298-302, 329-331.

Additional Bibliography

Lorini, Irma. El nacionalismo en Bolivia de la pre y posguerra del Chaco, 1910–1945. La Paz, Bolivia: Plural Editores, 2006.

                                     Maria Luise Wagner