Mariano baptista
Mariano Baptista Caserta (Calchani, Cochabamba department, July 16, 1832 - Cochabamba, March 19, 1907) was a Bolivian politician, speaker and journalist. A prominent intellectual, he was a deputy in various periods, Minister of Foreign Relations (1873-1876 and 1888-1891), President of Congress (1884-1888), Constitutional President of the Republic (1892-1896) and Constitutional Vice President of the Republic in two occasions (1872-1873) and (1884-1888), in 1872 he was appointed by the National Congress on November 28 of the same year, one day after Federico Lafaye (president Morales' nephew) assassinated President Agustín Morales Hernández, on that stage he would accompany President Tomás Frías and the second time he held the vice presidency was in 1884 when he accompanied President Gregorio Pacheco Leyes.
Biography
The son of José Manuel Baptista and Petrona Caserta, he studied Law at the Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca. He stood out early for his talent and skills as a speaker. He graduated as a lawyer in 1857, but did not get to practice his profession.
From a very young age, he dabbled in journalism. He was founder and director of El Porvenir de Sucre (1855). A militant Catholic, he was director of the Cochabamba Seminary, as well as a professor of History and Literature.
In 1855, despite his young age, he was elected and admitted as deputy for Chuquisaca. He collaborated with the dictator José María Linares, whom he accompanied in his exile until his death, in 1861. During the government of Mariano Melgarejo he suffered persecution and had to emigrate to Europe, where he stayed for three years. From Paris he postulated a representation to the Constituent Assembly of 1871, which he won, for which he returned to Bolivia.
During the government of Adolfo Ballivián, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, and as such, signed a Bolivian-Chilean Boundary Treaty with the Chilean representative Carlos Walker Martínez. Signed in Sucre on August 6, 1874, said treaty modified that of 1866, setting the 24th parallel as the border between Bolivia and Chile, and establishing a kind of condominium between the 23rd and 25th parallels, both in terms of the exploitation of guano as customs duties. It is noteworthy what is stipulated in Article IV of said treaty: that the export rights of the minerals exploited in the aforementioned territory should not be increased and that no new taxes would be created on Chilean people, capital and industrialists, during a period of twenty five years. Years later, Bolivia's non-compliance with said article and the seizure of assets and auction of them, would be the cause of the start of the war of 1879.
During the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), Baptista carried out various diplomatic missions and defended peace with Chile with remarkable eloquence. His practical sense made him consider that Bolivia should abandon the alliance with Peru and seek an arrangement with Chile. He participated along with Crisóstomo Carrillo in the Bolivian delegation at the Arica Conference held on October 22, 25 and 27, 1880 in Arica aboard the American schooner Lackawanna, convened by the Secretary of State of the United States William Evarts. Representatives from Chile were Eulogio Altamirano Aracena, José Francisco Vergara and Eusebio Lillo. For Peru were Antonio Arenas and Aurelio García y García. Conference that for various reasons failed.
During the government of Gregorio Pacheco (1884-1888), he held the first vice-presidency of the Republic and the presidency of Congress.
During the government of Aniceto Arce he was Minister of Foreign Relations (1888-1891). At the end of Arce's term, Baptista launched his candidacy for the presidency with government support. However, he jeopardized his triumph by not obtaining the necessary majority for any of the candidates, so the election had to go to Congress. It being evident that Baptista's opponent had more supporters in Congress, President Arce decreed a state of siege, deported eight Liberal deputies and annulled the credentials of another twenty-one, calling in substitutes. Thus he obtained a congressional majority and Baptista was then able to win the presidency, which he assumed on August 10, 1892.
President of Bolivia
Already inaugurated as president, Baptista lifted the state of siege and promulgated an amnesty that allowed the return of the expatriates, among them the former general and president Hilarión Daza, who, however, was assassinated upon arrival at the railway station from Uyuni.
One of his first measures was the creation of the Banco Francisco Argandoña, with the Law of October 22, 1892. The bank was authorized to issue, discount, loan and deposit currency. The bank opened its doors the following year, with headquarters in Sucre, being a personal institution that years later became a Public Limited Company, after having grown rapidly and expanded with branches in Cochabamba, Oruro and Potosí.
On the other hand, it gave impetus to geographical exploration and colonization. Important expeditions were made to the northeast of the Republic. He continued the works of his predecessor, especially with regard to the road network, and began the construction of the Sucre government palace. He strove to improve public education, creating new schools and setting up arts and crafts establishments under the direction of Salesian religious. He founded the universities of Oruro and Potosí (1892).
In foreign policy, he tried to carry out a policy of rapprochement with Chile, sending Heriberto Gutiérrez as plenipotentiary minister of Bolivia in Santiago, who signed together with the Chilean Minister of Foreign Relations Luis Barros Borgoño, the Treaty of 18 May 1895 in which Chilean sovereignty over Antofagasta was recognized, a treaty that was provisional until the signing of the 1904 Treaty. It also signed boundary treaties with Argentina (Puna de Atacama), Paraguay (Boreal Chaco), Brazil and Peru (triple border).
At the end of his period of government, he handed over command to Severo Fernández Alonso on August 28, 1896. Retired from politics, he died in Cochabamba in 1907.