Victor Paz Estenssoro
Víctor Ángel Paz Estenssoro (Tarija, Bolivia, October 2, 1907-ibidem, June 7, 2001) was a Bolivian lawyer, statesman and politician, president of Bolivia on four occasions (1952 -1956; 1960-1964; August 6 to November 4, 1964 and 1985-1989).
He was successively deputy for Tarija in the 1938 Convention, First Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies in 1940, Minister of Finance during the government of President Gualberto Villarroel López (1943-1946) and founder of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) in 1941, of which he was head until his resignation and final retirement from politics in 1990.
In his first government (1952-1956) he launched the National Revolution – one of the most important social revolutions in Latin America in the century XX– with four fundamental measures: agrarian reform, universal vote, the nationalization of the main mining companies and educational reform. In his second government (1960-1964) he restructured the Bolivian Mining Corporation and strengthened Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), reinforcing the process of state capitalism that began in 1952. In his fourth government, 1985-1989, he had to control the hyperinflation that plagued Bolivia and laid the foundations for Bolivia's entry into the market economy.
During his political exile, he taught at universities in Peru and the United States. He retired from politics in March 1990 in San Luis, Tarija where he died at the age of 93 on June 7, 2001.
His role in the radical transformations of Bolivia in 1952 and then in 1985 make him an important referent for understanding contemporary Bolivian politics and one of the most important political leaders in Latin America of the 19th century XX.
Family and youth
Her parents were Domingo Paz Rojas and Carlota Estenssoro. His father's family was of Galician origin and had emigrated from Argentina to Tarija, exiled during the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas. The Estenssoro, on the other hand, were of Basque origin and had emigrated to Alto Peru in southern Peru. Víctor Paz Estenssoro's father worked in agriculture and was also an employee of the Banco Nacional de Bolivia.
Paz came from a family of landowners. She spent her vacations in the countryside, in San Luis, owned by her family, and as she remembers this allowed her to
to see what was the life of the peasant, to perceive what was the management of properties, where it did not turn to investment and was perceived simply the income under the form of payment of a lease, otherwise unfair to the peasant.
He completed his primary studies at the Municipal School run by the educator María Laura Justiniano and began secondary school at the San Luis de Tarija school. In 1921, at the age of 13, the family moved to Oruro because his father was named administrator of the Banco Nacional de Bolivia y Paz continued his studies at the Colegio Nacional Bolívar. He graduated from high school two years later. His family's stay in Oruro exposed Paz to the reality of mining: the harsh working conditions of the miners and the importance of the activity in Oruro's daily life. Paz wanted to study civil engineering, but since there was still no degree in Bolivian universities, he opted instead for law. For this reason, he moved to La Paz and studied law at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) where he graduated as a lawyer in 1927, at the age of 20.
Paz was not politically active during his studies at UMSA. His priority was to finish his studies and work to support himself. To cover her studies, she carried out a series of works. First, as an assistant at the Banco Nacional and then first as a typist and later as a writer at the Chamber of Deputies. It was during his work in the Chamber of Deputies that he learned firsthand how indigenous people were being abused by local authorities who ignored colonial or 19th century documents XIX that granted rights of
the indigenous and tried to appropriate their land. Finally, his last work as a student was at the Tiahuanaco Museum.
Public administration
Paz tried to work in the private sector without success. Therefore, his alternative was the public sector where he began his career as legal secretary of the Office of Financial Statistics established as a result of the Kemmerer Mission that advised the government of Hernando Siles. It is here that Paz's training in political economy and finance began. Subsequently, he also served as attorney secretary of the Permanente Fiscal Commission, created to oversee the collection of taxes for the payment of Bolivian debt to US banks. His next job was as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, which he left during the Salamanca government when Minister Espada told him that to continue in it he had to join the Republican Socialist Party, which Paz considered too conservative.
Chaco War
At the start of the Chaco War, Paz worked in the Comptroller General of the Republic and initially was Comptroller General of the Comptroller's Office in the First Army Corps. In June 1934, he resigned from the Comptrollership and enlisted in the army in the Seleme battery, under the orders of Captain Antonio Seleme Vargas (who would later play an important role in the armed uprising in La Paz in 1952). Paz recalls that she developed a good friendship with Seleme; that he was intelligent, fair and very concerned about the welfare of his soldiers. Paz was promoted to the rank of corporal in September 1934 and to the rank of sergeant in February 1935.
During the war, Paz read the ABC of Communism and the Living Thought of Marx by Leon Trotsky. These books complemented his political thought that had begun with the reading of José Carlos Mariátegui's essay on Peru. In Chaco he continued to participate in the civil-military lodge "Grupo Bolivia", to which he belonged before the start of the war and in which they reflected on the country's situation and how to create the conditions to improve it.
After the war, Paz returned to be Undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance during the government of David Toro. Once the government of Germán Busch began, however, he resigned and in 1937, he joined the mining company Patiño Mines of Simón Iturri Patiño as a lawyer. Although he only worked for a year at Patino Mines , his time there provided Paz a window into understanding the power of mining:
The work at the Patiño provided me with a naked vision, a true X-ray of mining power. Each large mining group had connections with certain ministers. Drafts of supreme decrees that were sent to ministers were drafted and then adopted without further modification.
This experience was one of the factors that prompted Paz to enter politics.
He resigned a year later and was elected deputy for Tarija. Between 1938 and 1939 he was president of Banco Minero and also professor of History of Economic Doctrines at UMSA. In 1940 and 1943 his parliamentary work established him as one of the most outstanding deputies in Congress. From there he led a strong opposition to the Peñaranda government.
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR)
One of the founders of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) in 1942, together with an outstanding group of politicians and intellectuals, the party of which he was head for almost 50 years (1942–1990). He was also Minister of Economy in 1941 and Minister of Finance and Statistics from 1943 to 1945. On December 20, 1943, he led a coup together with Major Gualberto Villarroel, a battle in which General Enrique Peñaranda was overthrown.
Fundamental pillar in the Villarroel government and after its fall he went into exile in Buenos Aires.
First government (1952-1956)
He entered the government thanks to the 1952 revolution. In compliance with a historical political slogan, which ceded land to the Indian and mines to the State, Víctor Paz decreed the Agrarian Reform throughout the national territory and the nationalization of the private mining complex. These two great measures, together with the approval of the universal vote, constituted the basis of the revolutionary program of the MNR. Far-reaching instruments were also drawn up such as: The Bolivian Education Code (January 20, 1955); the Social Security Code; the Universal Suffrage law; The New Codification; technical assistance from various international organizations for large global engineering projects, such as the Corani Project; the creation of the National Committee for Industrial Rehabilitation; the YPFB impulse; the demand before the world of the maritime question of Bolivia; monetary stability; colonization tasks; highway construction and a gradual boost to economic and social development.
As a consequence of the military defeat of the army, in the days of April 1952, the closure of the Military College was decreed, it officially recognized the armed mining and peasant militias and the workers' veto in the mines. In his government, the Bolivian Workers Central was created. He was relentless with the opposition. He admitted that he preferred the politics of the imprisoned opponent.
When his term expired, he handed over command to the chosen one, Hernán Siles Zuazo, who governed from 1956 to 1960. Between 1956 and 1958 he was Bolivia's ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Second government (1960-1964)
Paz Estenssoro again triumphed in the 1960 elections, he was again nominated for president, taking office on August 6 of that year. In his second term, he institutionalized revolutionary measures, approved the 1961 Constitution that enshrined the 1952 transformations, maintained GDP growth close to 6%, designed the Ten-Year Development Plan (1962-1971), applied a COMIBOL reform plan, known as the Triangular Plan.
He dedicated his efforts and the economic resources of the country to promote a development pole in Santa Cruz, which he gave rapid growth and progress; He created a sugar mill in Bermejo (Tarija) and carried out a series of works to promote development and, especially, agriculture and industry.
During this government, Paz Estensorro developed a good relationship with US President John F. Kennedy, whom he visited in 1963. For the US government, Paz Estensorro was an authoritarian reformer, necessary for Bolivia's progress. In turn, Paz Estensorro was a "sincere nationalist who sought to take advantage of [Cold War] global tensions to increase foreign assistance for Bolivia's development."
In foreign policy, he broke relations with Chile for the use of part of the waters of the Lauca River.
Third government (August-November 1964)
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Thinking that the works he had started should be concluded by him, he tried to amend the Constitution in its article that prohibited the re-election of the President, managing to be nominated again in the 1964 elections. He took his close friend, René Barrientos, as vice president Ortuno. He later led a coup d'état that ended the mandate of Paz Estenssoro, before the constitutional term.
He went into exile in 1964, staying in Lima, Peru.
Alliance with Banzer (1971-1975)
He returned to the country when the coup organized by Colonel Hugo Banzer Suárez took place, supported by his party the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) and the Falange Socialista Boliviana (FSB) from 1971 to 1973. In 1974, after breaking with Banzer, he was exiled again. He returned to the country in 1978 as a presidential candidate in the elections that were later annulled. He came second in the 1979 elections. The MNR formed in close opposition (from parliament) to the government of Hernán Siles Zuazo (1982-1985).
Fourth government (1985-1989)
After his election in 1985, he promoted a series of liberal economic policies, established by Supreme Decree 21060, of which Harvard University economist Jeffrey Sachs was one of his advisors. With this Decree, he changed the developmentalist economic orientation from state capitalism to one more oriented towards the free market. He stopped the hyperinflation that exceeded 20,000% per year. He took drastic measures, including firing 23,000 workers at the state-owned tin mining company. This policy had effects on the Bolivian economy and on the standard of living of citizens: real wages fell by 40% in two years, unemployment rose from 20% to 30%, and per capita income fell from $845 per year to $789. Paz governed constitutionally until 1989.
Despite the crisis of predecessor governments, the lawyer and economically trained man managed to reduce the unemployment rate by 7 points during his tenure. The devaluation of tin and gas in 1985, the country's major export products, affected exports, with negative growth in foreign trade. However, international reserves improved, the exchange rate remained manageable, and the recessive phase that characterized the 1978-1986 period was reversed.
The value of economic policies is seen in the long term. Thus, in 1987, Bolivia began to show positive growth rates in exports. Even with respect to the flow of capital, it was also possible to go from a negative behavior to a positive one in 1987.
Paz maintained that the resignation 21069 would be a conjunctural measure that would last 20 years. Said and done, the economic reform remained in force, even after three different government administrations, Jaime Paz Zamora (MIR), Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (MNR) and Hugo Banzer (ADN).
Political exile
Political exile was a constant in the republican life of Bolivia. Between 1943 and 1974, Paz Estenssoro was exiled three times for a total of approximately 17 years. The first exile was the product of the fall of the Villarroel government in 1943. After three months as a political refugee at the Paraguayan Embassy in La Paz, Paz and his family lived in Buenos Aires for almost six years where they were well received by the government. by Juan Domingo Perón. During this period, Paz was a correspondent for the Spanish magazine Revista de Economía Continental published in Mexico and for other economic magazines in Argentina, Chile and Mexico. of pre-feasibility for a construction company. In mid-1949, he had to leave Argentina for Uruguay, for having participated in an attempt to cross the border from La Quiaca to Villazón to start a rebellion against the Urriolagoitia government. Montevideo worked first as export controller and then in finance for the Lanasur company for almost a year. He returned to Buenos Aires in 1951 where he stayed until his return to Bolivia in April 1952. to access his first presidential term and start the National Revolution.
Paz's second exile was after his overthrow in November 1964. This time he lived in Lima for almost seven years. He chose Lima over Buenos Aires because of its proximity to Bolivia.In Lima, Paz worked teaching economics at various universities until in 1966 he became part of the faculty of the National University of Engineering (Peru) where he taught undergraduate and postgraduate. In graduate school, he was a professor of macroeconomics and urban planning in a course financed by the OAS that brought technical cadres from almost all Latin American countries to Lima.
Paz's third and last exile was as a result of his break with Bánzer in 1974. He was a refugee for almost five years and lived in Buenos Aires, Lima and the United States. The exile began in Asunción in January 1974 but a year later, Paz moved to Buenos Aires. In mid-1974, after the death of Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón, Paz left Argentina and returned to Lima, where He resumed teaching at the National Faculty of Engineering. From 1976 to 1978, Paz was in the US, first as a resident fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., then as a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (where he taught Latin American history courses based on his own experience) and finally as a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico.
Retreat in Tarija
On March 10, 1990, Paz announced his irrevocable resignation from the national leadership of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario party after 48 years of exercise (1942-1990). The relay formally took place in April during the XVI National Convention of the party. Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was chosen as the new national leader and Paz was named life leader of the party. With this last symbolic emolument, Paz ended his long political career. He retired to his farm in San Luis in the company of his family to dedicate himself to the cultivation of vines. His withdrawal from public life was complete. He refused to interfere in the internal politics of the MNR or disseminate opinions on the progress of the country, and, at most, he allowed himself to be advised by those leaders who required him. Since the middle of the decade, his health gradually deteriorated, affected by Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular ailments that made several interventions necessary. In 1999, paralysis confined him to a wheelchair. Despite this, according to those who came to visit him, it did not prevent him from maintaining perfect lucidity.
11 years after his retirement and due to cardiac arrest in the postoperative stage of the amputation of his right leg, which had become infected due to a thrombosis, Víctor Paz Estenssoro died on June 7, 2001 at 93 years of age. It is worth mentioning that the day he died, the MNR celebrated his 59th anniversary.
It should also be noted that Paz Estenssoro became one of the 4 Bolivian presidents who died with the longest life, along with Hugo Ballivián Rojas, Eliodoro Villazón Montaño and Lidia Gueiler Tejada.
Legacy
He was a presidential candidate eight times. He won the 1951, 1960 and 1964 elections. He ranked second in the 1979, 1980 and 1985 elections and third in 1947 and 1978. He is the second president to rule Bolivia for more than a decade (twelve years and six months)., surpassed only by Evo Morales who spent 14 years in the presidency. Paz is the architect of two revolutions, that of 1952 and that of 1985 that transformed Bolivia. According to Carlos Mesa, "in order to understand the modern Bolivia of the 20th century, one must understand the work of Paz Estenssoro."
According to Ignacio Vera de Rada, in his biographical book Guillermo Bedregal: Portrait of a Public Man, published in 2017, Paz Estenssoro was a noble, charismatic and revolutionary man, as well as very handsome, being these three the fundamental pillars for their subsequent electoral victories.
In his obituary, the British magazine The Economist concluded:
He dominated Bolivian political life for the last half century. His search for political opportunities led him to doubtful alliances with military leaders. But he maintained his personal probity and an air of statesman. He was not a populist who agitated the masses, rather a technocrat committed to modernizing Bolivia. Few individuals are given the possibility of changing their country's history, even less of it twice. However, that is what Victor Paz Estenssoro achieved in Bolivia.
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