Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (; 5 December 1895 – 4 June 1974) was a Bolivian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and politician who was the 43rd

president of Bolivia The president of Bolivia ( es, Presidente de Bolivia), officially known as the president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia ( es, Presidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia), is head of state and head of government of Bolivia and the ca ...

, from 1949 to 1951. A member of the

Republican Socialist Unity Party The Republican Socialist Unity Party ( Spanish: ''Partido de la Unión Republicana Socialista'', PURS) was a political party founded on 10 November 1946 in Bolivia as the fusion of the Republican Socialist Party, the Genuine Republican Party, the ...

, he had previously been the 26th

vice president of Bolivia The vice president of Bolivia ( es, Vicepresidente de Bolivia), officially known as the vice president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia ( es, Vicepresidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia), is the second highest political position in Bo ...

, from 1947 to 1949, under President

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. ...

Biography

Of privileged background, he studied in France and later joined the

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 ...

n diplomatic service. In 1947, Urriolagoitia was elected

vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

to Dr.

Vicepresidency of Bolivia
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 The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement ( es, Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario , MNR) is a centre-right conservative political party in Bolivia and was the leading force behind the Bolivian National Revolution from 1952 to 1964. It influenc ...

) of

Víctor Paz Estenssoro Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro (2 October 1907 – 7 June 2001) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 45th president of Bolivia for three nonconsecutive and four total terms from 1952 to 1956, 1960 to 1964 and 1985 to 1989. He ran for pre ...

Juan Lechín Juan Lechín Oquendo (18 May 1914 – 27 August 2001) was a labor-union leader and head of the Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers (FSTMB) from 1944 to 1987 and the Bolivian Workers' Union (COB) from 1952 to 1987. He also served as the 29th vi ...

Hernán Siles Zuazo Hernán Siles Zuazo (21 March 1914 – 6 August 1996) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 46th president of Bolivia twice nonconsecutively from 1956 to 1960 and from 1982 to 1985. He also briefly served as interim president in April 195 ...

, 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. By the 1951 presidential elections, time finally caught up with the old system, and the opposition party, led by

, 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 Hugo Ballivián Rojas (7 June 1901 – 15 July 1993) was a Bolivian politician and military officer who served as the ''de facto'' 44th president of Bolivia from 1951 to 1952. A career military officer, he was Commander of the Bolivian Armed F ...

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 The Bolivian Palace of Government, better known as Palacio Quemado (, ''Burnt Palace''), was the official residence of the President of Bolivia from 1853 to 2018 and again briefly from 2019 to 2020. It is located in downtown La Paz on Plaza ...

, 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

Bolivian National Revolution The Bolivian Revolution of 1952 (), also known as the Revolution of '52, was a series of political demonstrations led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (RNM, MNR), which, in alliance with liberals and communists, sought to overthrow the ...

References

Bibliography

*Mesa, José de; Gisbert, Teresa; and Carlos D. Mesa, ''Historia de Bolivia'', 3rd edition., pp. 579–587. 1895 births 1974 deaths 20th-century Bolivian lawyers 20th-century Bolivian politicians Bolivian diplomats Bolivian people of Basque descent Foreign ministers of Bolivia Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Members of the Senate of Bolivia People from Sucre Presidents of Bolivia Presidents of the Senate of Bolivia Republican Party (Bolivia) politicians Republican Socialist Unity Party politicians United Socialist Party (Bolivia) politicians University of Saint Francis Xavier alumni Vice presidents of Bolivia Bolivian expatriates in France {{Bolivia-politician-stub