The Liberal Party (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''Partido Liberal'', PL) was one of two major

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The other was the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. The Liberal Party was formally founded in 1883 by Eliodoro Camacho. The party espoused freedom of religion, a strict separation between church and state, legal acceptance of civil marriages and divorce, and strict adherence to democratic procedures. When the party took power in 1899, it moved the base of the presidency and the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

, which became the ''de facto'' capital city. The

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

remained in

Sucre Sucre () is the Capital city, capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the List of cities in Bolivia, 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . T ...

. To this day, Sucre is the ''de jure'' capital of Bolivia while La Paz acts as the ''de facto'' seat of government. Between 1899 and 1920, all of the

Presidents of Bolivia The president of Bolivia is the head of state and head of government of Bolivia, directly elected to a five-year term by the Bolivian people. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the government and is the captain general of the Armed ...

were members of the Liberal Party, supported by the tin-mining oligarchy until the Republican Party took power in a coup in 1920. The last Liberal president was

José Luis Tejada Sorzano José Luis Tejada Sorzano (12 January 1882 – 4 October 1938) was a Bolivian lawyer, economist, and politician who served as the 34th president of Bolivia from 1934 to 1936. The last president to be a member of the Liberal Party, Tejada Sor ...

, who served between 1934 and 1936. By 1940, however, the party had formed a

Concordance Concordance may refer to: * Agreement (linguistics), a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase * Bible concordance, an alphabetical listing of terms in the Bible * Concordant coastline, in geology, where beds, or la ...

with their erstwhile Republican opponents to counter the rising tide of radical or revolutionary parties. A

supported the candidate

Enrique Peñaranda Enrique Peñaranda del Castillo (15 November 1892 – 22 December 1969) was a Bolivian general who served as the 38th president of Bolivia from 1940 until his overthrow in 1943. He previously served as commander-in-chief of the country's armed ...

. In 1947, the Liberal Party's

Luis Femando Guachalla Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

narrowly lost to

Enrique Hertzog José Enrique Hertzog Garaizábal (; 10 November 1897, in La Paz – 31 July 1981, in Buenos Aires) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 42nd president of Bolivia from 1947 to 1949. He resigned in 1949, and died in exile in Argentina. ...

of the PURS. In the 1951 elections, Tomás Manuel Elío ran for the Liberal Party but received far fewer votes than the winner. For the 1966 elections, the Liberal Party was a component of the Democratic Institutionalist Alliance, with the PURS's

as the coalition's presidential candidate. He polled 11,400 votes (01.13%) and came sixth. In 1978 Liberal Party allied with the

Nationalist Union of the People The Nationalist Union of the People (Spanish: ''Unión Nacionalista del Pueblo'', UNP) was a right-wing, pro-military electoral political alliance in Bolivia. The UNP was formed in January 1978 by: * Bolivian Socialist Falange, FSB (right-wing pro- ...

and its candidate

Juan Pereda Juan Pereda Asbún (17 June 1931 – 25 November 2012) was a Bolivians, Bolivian military general who served as the ''de facto'' 52nd president of Bolivia in 1978. Although he ruled for only four months, his ascent to the presidency ...

. Elections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 2. xford .a. Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. P.139. The Liberal Party has had no political power in decades, and its current status is unknown; it is presumed defunct.

Notes

1883 establishments in Bolivia Defunct political parties in Bolivia Liberal parties in Bolivia Political parties established in 1883 {{Bolivia-party-stub

See also

Notes