Mamerto Urriolagoitía facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mamerto Urriolagoitia
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| 43rd President of Bolivia | |
| In office 24 October 1949 – 16 May 1951 Acting: 7 May 1949 – 24 October 1949 |
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| Preceded by | Enrique Hertzog |
| Succeeded by | Hugo Ballivián |
| 26th Vice President of Bolivia | |
| In office 10 March 1947 – 24 October 1949 |
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| 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 |
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| President | Enrique Hertzog |
| Preceded by | Aniceto Solares |
| Succeeded by | Luis Fernando Guachalla |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague
5 December 1895 Sucre, Bolivia |
| Died | 4 June 1974 (aged 78) Sucre, Bolivia |
| Political party | Republican Socialist Unity (1946–1974) United Socialist (1936–1946) Republican (before 1936) |
| Spouse | 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 | .svg) |
Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈmeɾtowrjolaˈɣojtja aˈrjaɣe]; 5 December 1895 – 4 June 1974) was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who was the 43rd president of Bolivia, from 1949 to 1951. A member of the Republican Socialist Unity Party, he had previously been the 26th vice president of Bolivia, from 1947 to 1949, under President Enrique Hertzog.
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.
By 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.
See also
In Spanish: Mamerto Urriolagoitia para niños
