Paz Estenssoro, Víctor (1907–2001)

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Paz Estenssoro, Víctor (1907–2001)

Perhaps Bolivia's most important political leader of the twentieth century, Víctor Paz Estenssoro pursued a populist strategy to gather support from diverse social classes. Born to a well-known landowning family in the southern department of Tarija, he earned a law degree from the national university in La Paz. In 1929 he held the first of numerous government posts and went on to serve as president four times (1952–1956, 1960–1964, 1964, and 1985–1989).

In 1932 Paz Estenssoro joined thousands of Bolivian conscripted soldiers in the ill-fated Chaco War against Paraguay, which resulted in Bolivia's loss of the Chaco territory. After the war he joined prominent middle-class intellectuals in calling for sweeping social and political reform. He was elected deputy to the 1938 constitutional convention that enshrined more active state economic intervention and redress for social grievances in Bolivia's constitution.

In 1941 Paz Estenssoro joined Augusto Céspedes, Carlos Montenegro, Hernán Siles Zuazo, Rafael Otazo, and Walter Guevara Arze to found the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR). The new party's announced goals stressed "the economic liberation of the Bolivian people" and "the consolidation of the state and the security of the fatherland." As a deputy in Congress, Paz Estenssoro delivered scathing indictments of the military government headed by General Enrique Peñaranda, viewed by the MNR as merely a puppet of the three largest tin-mining companies. Paz's congressional speech condemning the 1942 Catavi massacre of miners and their families by government troops enabled him to rally support for the MNR and forge an alliance with mid-rank officers who advocated taking a more direct role in political affairs. This civil-military alliance installed Major Gualberto Villarroel as president of Bolivia in 1943.

As the minister of finance, Paz Estenssoro undertook Bolivia's first flirtations with strategies of import substitution and state-centered development. In July 1946 a mob incited by both leftist and conservative parties stormed the government palace and lynched President Villarroel. Paz spent the next six years in exile. From Argentina he fought an intense battle to maintain his position at the helm of the MNR while working to broaden the appeal of the party to labor and other social sectors. Paz's characteristic patience, equanimity, and logical analysis of information were well suited to these tasks.

Paz Estenssoro's decisive plurality in the 1951 presidential voting was annulled by the military, but he returned triumphantly to Bolivia following the April 9, 1952, revolution. In two days of street fighting, the militarized police (carabineros) had joined the MNR to defeat army rule, launching Bolivia into the era of mass political participation. During his first term as president (1952–1956), Paz nationalized the nation's tin-mining operations, downgraded the military institution, approved a major land-reform decree, and granted universal suffrage to all adult Bolivians. However, the MNR was not able to exert strict discipline over its diverse social coalition, leading (among other consequences) to hyperinflation. Paz endorsed an austere monetary-stabilization plan before leaving office. Returned to power in 1960, and barely reelected in 1964, he was overthrown by a military coup orchestrated by General René Barrientos Ortuño, his own vice president, who had been imposed on the MNR ticket by a restructured military institution.

From exile in Peru, Paz returned to Bolivia in August 1971 to support General Hugo Banzer Suárez's coup against a left-wing military regime. During the next fifteen years, while army-backed governments predominated, Paz restored unity and political prominence to the MNR. In 1985, having placed second in popular balloting, he was elected president by congress in an informal coalition with the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). On August 29, 1985, he decreed the New Economic Policy (NPE), ending a critical spiral of inflation and declining national income. The new policy diminished the role of state enterprises and enlarged the scope of the private sector. Paz Estenssoro defended the NPE as essential to save the nation, and completed his last term of office with a 70 percent popularity rating.