Paz Zamora, Jaime (1939–)

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Paz Zamora, Jaime (1939–)

Jaime Paz Zamora (b. 15 April 1939) was president of Bolivia from 1989 to 1993. Born in the department of Cochabamba, Paz Zamora studied for the priesthood at Louvain University in Belgium in the 1960s but changed his course of studies to political science. One of the founders of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) in 1971, he was imprisoned in 1974 by General Hugo Banzer Suárez's government for conspiring to overthrow it. He escaped from jail and sought asylum in Venezuela. In 1978 he returned to Bolivia after the democratic opening as one of the founders of the Popular and Democratic Union (UDP) coalition and served as vice president in the government of Hernán Siles Zuazo (1982–1985).

In the mid-1980s the MIR began to attract middle-class intellectuals, professionals, and young voters who were discontented with the traditional parties and politicians. This coalition, dubbed the Nueva Mayoría, and a strategic alliance with General Banzer's Nationalist Democratic Action (Accíon Democrática y Nacionalista—ADN) catapulted Paz Zamora to the presidency in August 1989. Abandoning his party's rhetoric about improving social policy, he concentrated on Bolivia's foreign relations. Domestically, he focused on maintaining the coalition and ensuring compliance with austerity measures. His image with the electorate fell considerably. While the MIR lost its popular appeal, Paz Zamora managed to maintain the confidence of international financial institutions and the United States.

When Paz Zamora stepped down as president in 1993, the general perception was that the MIR and ADN had presided over the largest increase in corruption since 1982. The most serious charge of corruption was the alleged ties of prominent members of the MIR to drug trafficking.

Paz Zamora remained politically active, serving as a member of the international peace commission in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1993. He tried unsuccessfully to return to the presidency in the late 1990s and the early twenty-first century. In 2005 Paz Zamora ran for a gubernatorial post but lost. Many commentators believed that he could not escape the problematic legacy of his presidency.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eduardo A. Gamarra, "Crafting Political Support for Stabilization: Political Pacts and the New Economic Policy in Brazil," in Democracy, Markets, and Structural Reform in Latin America, edited by William C. Smith, Carlos H. Acuña, and Eduardo A. Gamarra (1994), and "Market-Oriented Reforms and Democratization in Bolivia," in A Precarious Balance, edited by Joan M. Nelson, vol. 2 (1994).