Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
munities on hacienda lands (though this decree was never enforced). These populist meas-
ures, however, were accompanied by the vicious suppression of any opposition - when the
Marxist
Partido de la Izquierda Revolucionaria
did well in elections in 1944, the govern-
ment assassinated its leaders; the same happened to the traditional parties in 1945. The use of
violence against politicians outraged public opinion, and in 1946 Villaroel was hanged by a
civilian mob, while the army stood by.
For the next six years Bolivia was ruled by an
alliance
of the traditional parties, which
struggled to cope with growing popular unrest and an economic downturn. During this period
the MNR re-created itself as a radical populist party linked to the labour movement. In 1949,
it launched a major civilian revolt; though crushed by the army, this revolt moved the MNR
closer to the FSTMB, which had adopted communism and turned the mines into bastions of
radical activism. Though its leaders remained in exile, in 1951 the MNR won the general
elections outright, only for the army to intervene, making the party believe that a
popular
armed uprising
was the only way it would return to power.
The National Revolution
The uprising that the MNR hadbeen hopingfor-the
National Revolution
-began inLa Paz
on April 9, 1952. MNR activists distributed arms to civilians, and miners marched on the city
and stopped army reinforcements from reaching it. After three days of fighting in which over
six hundred people died, the army surrendered, and the MNR's leader,
Víctor Paz Estens-
soro
, took power. However, by arming the general population and involving the workers, the
MNR effectively found itself committed to a massive social change far beyond its original
programme. The first step was the introduction of
universal suffrage
, giving the indigenous
majority the right to vote for the first time. This was followed by a drastic reduction in the
size of the army. In addition, the government supported the organization of a powerful na-
tional workers' confederation, the
Central Obrera Boliviana
(COB), which was controlled
by the influential miners' union. The COB, which represented the MNR's most important
support base, immediately pressed for further revolutionary measures. In October, the gov-
ernment nationalized the holdings of the three big mining companies of Patiño, Aramayo and
Hochschild, bringing two-thirds of the tin-mining industry under state control. The mines
were managed by a new state mining company,
COMIBOL
, which, like the mines, was to be
partly administered by the workers themselves. Despite these measures, the MNR was wary
of offending the US by appearing communist, and so promised compensation to the tin bar-
ons and left medium-sized mines in private hands.
In the countryside, events quickly spiralled out of the new government's control. With no
army or police to restrain them, the indigenous Aymara and Quechua campesinos began vi-
olently taking over haciendas. Though it had never been part of their policy, the MNR was
forced to issue a radical
Reforma Agraria
(agrarian reform), under which hacienda lands
