Víctor Paz Estenssoro
From Bolivian Politics
Contents |
Intro
Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro (b. 2 October 1907; d. 7 June 2001) is widely considered the most important Bolivian statesman of the 20th century. Elected president four times, and leader of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario from 1942 through 1990, Paz Estenssoro left a deep imprint on modern Bolivian politics.
Early life
Born into a prosperous middle class family in the city of Tarija in 1907, he finished his secondary education in 1921, before receiving a law degree from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz in 1927. By 1929 he was a clerk for the House of Deputies.
In 1932 Paz Estenssoro enlisted in the Chaco War (1932-1935) and volunteered to serve in the front-line artillery battery Séleme. He served in several battles and was promoted to the rank of sargeant by 1935. The bitter war experience left Paz Estenssoro, like many of his contemporaries of the "Chaco generation", dissilussioned with the political status quo.
He began his political career in 1938, when elected deputy from Tarija in the constituent assembly elections called by the Germán Busch regime (1936-1939), which he supported. On 10 May 1941 Paz Estenssoro published a political manifesto attacking the liberal republic regime and outlining a national revolutionary political, social, and economic program. A year later, on 7 June 1942, Paz Estenssoro and several others founded the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR).
