Mamerto Urriolagoitía

Mamerto Urriolagoitia
43rd President of Bolivia
In office 24 October 1949 – 16 May 1951 Acting: 7 May 1949 – 24 October 1949
Preceded by	Enrique Hertzog
Succeeded by	Hugo Ballivián
26th Vice President of Bolivia
In office 10 March 1947 – 24 October 1949
President	Enrique Hertzog
Preceded by	Julián Montellano
Succeeded by	Hernán Siles Zuazo
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worhsip
In office 10 March 1947 – 14 May 1947
President	Enrique Hertzog
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Personal details
Born	Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (1895-12-05)5 December 1895 Sucre, Bolivia
Died	4 June 1974(1974-06-04) (aged 78) Sucre, Bolivia
Political party	Republican Socialist Unity (1946–1974) United Socialist (1936–1946) Republican (before 1936)
Spouse(s)	Juana Hernandez
Parents	Mamerto Urriolagoitía Corina Harriague
Education	University of Saint Francis Xavier
Awards	Order of the Condor of the Andes Order of Charles III Order of Isabella the Catholic
Signature
Mamerto Urriolagoitía's voice Menu 0:00 Speech delivered to the National Congress, c. 1950

Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (5 December 1895 – 4 June 1974) was a Bolivian politician, statesman and lawyer who served as the 43rd President of Bolivia from 1949 to 1951 and as the 26th Vice President of Bolivia from 1947 to 1949.

Biography[]

Of privileged background, he studied in France and later joined the Bolivian diplomatic service. In 1947 Urriolagoitia was elected Vice-President to Dr. Enrique Hertzog^[1] and endured the constant pressures for reform emanating from the poorest sectors of society. A hard-liner when it came to dealing with the opposition, he was preferred by the threatened conservative elites, who in 1949 forced President Hertzog to resign. Thus, Urriolagoitia became chief executive and immediately stepped up the repression of the reformist movement which was growing around the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Nationalist Revolutionary Movement) of Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Juan Lechín, Hernán Siles Zuazo, and others. A counter-reaction took place and a series of violent nationwide rebellions catalyzed the so-called Civil War of May–September 1949. The Urriolagoitia government barely regained control of the situation, but the die was cast on the moribund "Oligarchic State" of 1880–1936, resuscitated only temporarily (1940–43 and 1946–52) by the economic and mining interests that upheld it.

In the 1951 presidential elections, time finally caught up with the old system, and the opposition party, led by Víctor Paz Estenssoro, was declared the winner, despite the fact that under the law only about 200,000 privileged, educated, and propertied Bolivians could vote.

Urriolagoitia refused to give power to Paz Estenssoro. Instead he installed the head of the Bolivian military, General Hugo Ballivián Rojas as President on 16 May 1951 thus inflicting a coup against the democratic order. This came to be known as the "Mamertazo" of 1951. With the elections annulled and Ballivián firmly installed in the Palacio Quemado, Urriolagoitia left the country. Retired from politics, he returned in later years and died in his native Sucre on 4 June 1974, at the age of 78.

Mamerto Urriolagoitia is best remembered for his inflexibility — and for being the last Constitutional President of the largely oligarchic social and political order that reigned in the country until the advent of the 1952 .

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Mesa José de; Gisbert, Teresa; and Carlos D. Mesa, "Historia de Bolivia", 3rd edition., pp. 579–587.

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