Mamerto Urriolagoitía

President of Bolivia

Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague 5 December 1895 Sucre, Bolivia

4 June 1974(1974-06-04) (78) Sucre, Bolivia

24 October 1949 – 16 May 1951 Acting: 7 May 1949 – 24 October 1949

43rd President of Bolivia In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Urriolagoitía and the second or maternal family name is Harriague. Mamerto Urriolagoitia43rd President of BoliviaIn office 24 October 1949 – 16 May 1951 Acting: 7 May 1949 – 24 October 1949 Preceded by Enrique HertzogSucceeded by Hugo Ballivián26th Vice President of BoliviaIn office 10 March 1947 – 24 October 1949PresidentEnrique HertzogPreceded by Julián MontellanoSucceeded by Hernán Siles ZuazoMinister of Foreign Affairs and WorhsipIn office 10 March 1947 – 14 May 1947PresidentEnrique HertzogPreceded by Aniceto SolaresSucceeded by Luis Fernando Guachalla Personal detailsBornMamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (1895-12-05 ) 5 December 1895 Sucre, BoliviaDied4 June 1974(1974-06-04) (aged 78) Sucre, BoliviaPolitical partyRepublican Socialist Unity (1946–1974) United Socialist (1936–1946) Republican (before 1936) Spouse(s)Juana HernandezParentsMamerto Urriolagoitía Corina HarriagueEducationUniversity of Saint Francis XavierAwardsOrder of the Condor of the Andes Order of Charles III Order of Isabella the CatholicSignature Mamerto Urriolagoitía's voice 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 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 Bolivian National Revolution.