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53-611: Hugo Ballivián Mamerto Urriolagoitía Víctor Paz Estenssoro Hernán Siles Zuazo Juan Lechín Oquendo Wálter Guevara Arze Ñuflo Chávez Ortiz Carlos Montenegro The Bolivian Revolution of 1952 ( Spanish : Revolución boliviana ), also known as the Revolution of '52 , was a series of political demonstrations led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR), which, in alliance with liberals and communists, sought to overthrow

106-468: A general doing his duty as he was entrusted to at an extremely difficult time in Bolivian history, Hugo Ballivián Rojas died in 1993, long retired from any political activity. He was 92 years old. Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia) In the 2024 census, it reported a population of 3,115,386 , making it the most populated department. The capital is the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra . The department

159-554: A head when Ballivián's Minister of Government, General Antonio Seleme, secretly pledged his support to the plotters, then led by Hernán Siles Zuazo (since Paz Estenssoro was at the time exiled in Argentina). This catalyzed the events of April 9-11, 1952, that have come to be known as the Bolivian National Revolution , or the 1952 Revolution. They mark an important watershed in the history of Bolivia, routing

212-459: A shortage of the fuel after a lack of investment reduced output. The processing plants would be built in Santa Cruz and each would produce about 200 tons of liquefied petroleum gas a day. The plants would help turn a deficit of gas into a “surplus”. In July 2004, the people voted in a nationwide referendum to allow for regulated exportation of the gas. The department also hosts El Mutún ,

265-504: A system of labor control through access to land through labor benefits. Also, the indigenous people had to contribute with seeds, tools and animals to carry out the work. In addition to agricultural labor obligations, the indigenous people were obliged to offer personal services left over during the colonial periods to the landowner and his family. The inefficiency of the agricultural sector was such that between 35 and 40 percent of imports were food. In January 1953, an Agrarian Reform Commission

318-565: Is a state legislature with limited legislation powers, being able to make laws in certain subjects in exclusivity and in some others in concurrence with the state legislative branch. The department covers a vast expanse of territory in eastern Bolivia, much of it rainforests , extending from the Andes to the border with Brazil . The department's economy depends largely on agriculture , with sugar , cotton , soybeans and rice being grown. The amount of land cultivated by modern farming techniques

371-451: Is estimated that the MNR retired around 300 officers. The army budget was cut from 20% of the general budget to half in 1953 and to 6.7% in 1957. In replacement of the army, the MNR formed urban and rural militias with workers and peasants. Between 1952 and 1956, the police and popular militias predominated in internal security and public order. From 1956 to 1964, the legitimacy of the militias and

424-428: Is increasing rapidly in the Santa Cruz area, where weather allows for two crops a year. In recent years, the discovery of natural gas in the department has led to plans for the development of a regional natural gas industry that is likely to boost the local economy. Bolivia's energy minister said two proposed liquefied petroleum gas plants may allow the country to boost supplies to Brazil and Argentina by 2010, easing

477-512: Is one of the Bolivian departments with the least indigenous population, and the one with the greatest mestizo and Creole identity. The first settlers of Santa Cruz were mainly Spaniards that accompanied Ñuflo de Chávez, as well as Guarani , and some Flemings , Portuguese , Germans and Italians working for the Spanish crown. Among the first settlers there were also Sephardic Jews recently converted to Christianity who were persecuted by

530-576: Is one of the wealthiest departments in Bolivia, with huge reserves of natural gas. Besides, it has experienced the highest increase of economic growth during the last 50 years in Bolivia and South America. According to the current Constitution , the highest authority in the department lies with the governor . The former figure of prefect was appointed by the President of the Republic till 2005, when

583-436: Is warm and tropical most of the year. Winters are short and last only 2–3 months but can get very cold very suddenly. "Surazos" (southerly winds that blow in from Argentina) can drop the temperature by as much as 30 degrees overnight. This extreme cold lasts only a few days at a time and the beautiful, sub-tropical Santa Cruz is pleasant throughout most of the year. Here the climate varies by geographical zone: temperate to cold in

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636-778: The Cold War and was the only one of the social revolutions in Latin America that had the support of the United States. The origins of this revolution may have begun during the Great Depression and Bolivia's defeat in the Chaco War . The Great Depression weakened the mining industry , sponsored the entry of the State into the economy through foreign exchange control and the allocation of tin export quotas among

689-593: The Inquisition in Spain. Santa Cruz has a multicultural population: 57% are Mestizos with both Indigenous Amazonian and European ascendants, 30% are Natives ( Chiquitano , Chane , Ayoreo , as well as Quechua and Aymara internal migrants from other departments.) and 13% are Whites of European descent , of whom about a quarter are so-called "Russian" Mennonites (see Mennonites in Bolivia ) of German tradition, language and descent. At 416 meters above sea level, it

742-530: The Revolutionary Left Party . In May 1949, after a general strike, a severe conflict broke out in the Siglo XX mines , owned by Simón Iturri Patiño , in the department of Potosí . President Mamerto Urriolagoitía ordered the arrest of some leaders, and in response the miners took two foreign employees hostage and ended up killing them. The government reacted with military intervention and

795-592: The rights to vote in Bolivia , the distribution of land and State control over natural resources and the Bolivian economy . In addition, it incorporated the peasant and female sector into political life by establishing universal suffrage . It was a political Revolution that at the time was equated to the Mexican Revolution and that preceded the Cuban Revolution . It developed in the context of

848-514: The 15,322 cases initiated between 1953 and 1966, only 7,322 or 48.8% were concluded. Between 1954 and 1968, the National Agrarian Reform Service had processed eight million of the approximately thirty-six million hectares to be distributed.  In the subsequent 30 years, however, an additional 39 million hectares (reaching a total of 47 million hectares) were distributed with more than 650,000 beneficiaries. Although

901-548: The Bolivian Revolution is considered one of the three most important social revolutions in Latin America (alongside the Mexican Revolution and the Cuban Revolution ) it was not exempt from criticism. Its main shortcomings revolve around the brutality of Political Control, the governing body of the MNR which was compared to the Nazi Gestapo . This institution promoted a strong repression against opponents of

954-771: The General Directorate of Police and Carabineros, all with weapons and ammunition, to take over strategic areas. Arms and ammunition were distributed to the civilians of the MNR who attended, as well as to the many volunteers, workers, above all, coming from the Departmental Brigade, the General Directorate and the Carabineros regiments. The Plaza Antofagasta arsenal, taken over by Army Captain Israel Téllez , had already been distributed to civilian combatants. But General Torres Ortiz, involved in

1007-827: The Milluni mine. On 9 April 1952, the Carabineros and the Police Corps was institutionally mobilized by the Minister of the Interior , General Seleme, and they took over strategic institutions, such as prefectures and radio stations to spread the news. Also mobilized was Capitan Zeballos and 21 de Julio police regiments, the Departmental Police Brigade, cadets from the Police and Police School, and

1060-491: The army commanded by General Ovidio Quiroga , who managed to reconquer first Cochabamba and then Santa Cruz. Bomber aircraft were required for military operations in both cities. After retaking the main square, some leaders of the movement, such as Lidio Ustarez , were shot in the Manchego Barracks. Multiple workers took over the mines and a strike was declared in several mineral industrial centers. By 1 September,

1113-465: The army, a year later, a coup d'état led by police general Antonio Seleme  [ es ] took place on April 9 with the civilian support of Hernán Siles Suazo and the mining leader Juan Lechin Oquendo , both from the MNR. The Police Corps had large involvement in initiating the revolt that later had the support of the population, the workers of Villa Victoria and the miners who arrived from

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1166-493: The country, mainly in the departments of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz , and their capital cities. Armed clashes took place in the Santa Cruz towns of Yacuiba (under the command of Froilán Calleja  [ es ] ), Camiri and Incahuasi . The Revolution proclaimed Víctor Paz Estenssoro as president and Edmundo Roca as vice president, despite the fact that the former was in exile. Meanwhile, Urriolagoitia mobilized

1219-424: The different producers. Likewise, during the 20s, the nationalist government of Hernando Siles Reyes tried to apply corrective measures to some fundamental socioeconomic problems in the country. The following decade, the military governments of Germán Busch and David Toro deepened these measures with the influence of European nationalism . On the other hand, the Chaco War resulted in a profound questioning of

1272-405: The exchange rate was 15,000 per US dollar. Commenting on the failure of other revolutions, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wálter Guevara Arze said "Liberalism liquidated conservatism politically but not economically. This was a great mistake: Those who retain economic power will one day recover political power." It was in the mid-sixties, after the coup d'état led by General René Barrientos , that

1325-519: The extent of the human rights violations perpetrated by the MNR regime began to be revealed. Among the victims of the concentration camps are the philosophers Numa Romero del Carpio and Roberto Prudencio Romecín , whose homes were also looted. The historian Alberto Crespo Rodas , Marshal Bernardino Bilbao Rioja , several journalists from the newspaper La Razón and members of the opposition parties were also imprisoned. Hugo Ballivi%C3%A1n Hugo Ballivián Rojas (7 June 1901 – 15 July 1993)

1378-690: The fighting continued. Lechin Oquendo, leading the Milluni miners, took the Hunting Air Group and from there sent planes to drop pamphlets over the Miraflores Great Barracks, urging them to surrender. The people stormed the Garita de Lima checkpoint, took out weapons and ammunition and continued fighting. On Friday, 11 April, Lechín together with Rolando Requena went to take out the Great Barracks. Later, supported by

1431-620: The flat Llanos Chiquitanos areas and beyond these the Serranías Chiquitanas ranges. In the far east the departments have small parts of the huge Pantanal wetland. The rivers of Santa Cruz are part of any of two basins: the Amazon Basin (north) and the Plate Basin (south). The main rivers in the northern basin are river Iténez , making the border with Brazil, Río Grande , river Piraí and river Itonomas . In

1484-450: The government had retaken control of the country, and on 15 September, many of the Santa Cruz insurgents fled. In May 1951, Victor Paz Estenssoro of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) won the presidential election, gaining large support of labor workers due to his anti-imperialist and anti-government sentiment. A Government Military Junta was immediately formed to prevent the MNR from coming to power. Given this reaction by

1537-834: The government introduced universal suffrage . By granting the rights to vote for the illiterate, indigenous peoples and women, the number of voters increased from 205,000 (6.6% of the total population) in 1951 to 1,125,000 (33.8%) in 1956. The expansion of the right to vote was a radical measure in the Latin American context. For example, the vote for women was only granted in Brazil in 1934, in Chile in 1949, in Argentina and Colombia in 1951, in Mexico in 1955 and in Peru in 1956. The vote

1590-427: The importance of the police was reduced as the army was reconstituted, which predominated in internal security and public order. In the mid-20th century, Bolivia had a latifundist agrarian system characterized by unequal land tenure, semi-feudal working conditions, and a low capacity to provide food to Bolivia. Approximately 4.5% of the population owned 70% of the agricultural land.  Agricultural work consisted of

1643-516: The later stages of the Chaco war between Paraguay and Bolivia, as the Paraguayan army approached Santa Cruz department, local nationalists backed by a Paraguay-based independence movement sought to create a separate independent state in Santa Cruz department. A referendum on autonomy was held in Santa Cruz department in 2008 . Eastern departments in Bolivia, including Santa Cruz, have majority of

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1696-410: The natural gas reserves. Bolivian president Evo Morales was planning to introduce legislation to tackle the poverty in the country using tax revenues from richer departments like Santa Cruz. Additionally, Morales's attempts to change the constitution were opposed by the opposition governors who run five of Bolivia's nine regions. 85.6 percent voted in favour of autonomy. The Bolivian government considered

1749-508: The new regime. The MNR installed concentration camps in rural towns in the Bolivian Andes , such as Catavi , Uncía , Corocoro and Curahuara de Carangas . Numerous political opponents of the MNR, both communists and Falangists , were tortured in overcrowded prisons. A systematic intentional inflation was initiated, to break the power of the elites. In 1952, the exchange rate was 190 Bolivian pesos per US dollar. Four years later

1802-494: The plaza, chanting the revolutionary victory hymn. The defeat of the army claimed a balance of 490 dead. Hernán Siles Zuazo and Lechin Oquendo assumed command of the government until Víctor Paz Estenssoro , who had been in exile in Buenos Aires , returned a few days later. On 12 April, the military surrendered. The prisoners were forced to parade through La Paz in underwear, guarded by the mine workers. On 24 June 1952,

1855-776: The political and social model in force in the 1930s. This spawned a whole generation of writers, thinkers, and political leaders who looked to ideologies for ways to solve the resource problems at the time. Among them, were Óscar Únzaga de la Vega , who led the Bolivian Socialist Falange (FSB), with influences from the Christian democracy of Jacques Maritain and the Social Doctrine of the Church, promoted above all by Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI , and José Antonio Arze  [ es ] , founder of

1908-407: The prefect for the first time was elected by popular vote to serve for a five-year term. In 2010 the first governor was elected according to the implementation of autonomy after a struggle for almost a decade by the people of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz also has a Departmental Assembly (Asamblea Departamental), which derives but differs from the previous Departmental Council (Consejo Departamental). It

1961-516: The rebels, they took control of the Palacio Quemado , the official residence of the President of Bolivia . Hours later, the MNR politicians arrived, who did not see fit to carry out the "agrarian reform" (many of them were landowners) or the "Nationalization of mines." In the end, Dr. Siles Suazo relented because Lechín argued that those slogans led people to offer his life, and it was the immense crowd that was, at that very moment, outside, in

2014-404: The recently created Ministry of Peasant Affairs. The Code sought to extend education to the majority and re-orient education towards technical education. It also raised the importance of castilianizing the Bolivia's Indigenous communities. The MNR reduced the size of the army from approximately 20,000 to 5,000 soldiers between April 1952 and January 1953 by discharging conscripts. In addition, it

2067-506: The ruling Bolivian oligarchy and implement a new socioeconomic model in Bolivia . Its main leaders were the former presidents Víctor Paz Estenssoro and Hernán Siles Zuazo . The MNR government after this Revolution lasted from 9 April 1952 until the coup of 4 November 1964 . In these twelve years, there was a co-government and at the same time a power struggle between the party and the labor unions. The Revolution of 1952 sought to implement

2120-412: The same time, labor relations during the MNR government were turbulent. It is estimated that an average of 350 strikes were carried out per year between 1952 and 1958 with a negative effect on production, making Bolivia amongst the highest in terms 'ghost worker' rates. In 1952, 20.8% of the population of that age were in primary school and two thirds of the population (60.9%) were illiterate. A year after

2173-594: The southern basin, the main rivers are river Paraguay and its tributaries, including river Negro . The main lakes are lake Mandioré , Uberaba, lake La Gaiba , Laguna de Marfil , Concepción and lake San Jorge . The rivers by length within Santa Cruz: 8 out of 48 km of the Paraguay not part of the Brazilian border. The main lakes by their area within the department: The department of Santa Cruz

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2226-658: The start of the Revolution and in order to adapt the educational system to the reforms, in 1953 the government created the National Commission for Educational Reform, which presented its proposal in 120 days. It was not until 1955 that the Bolivian Education Code was enacted due to demands from the teaching profession. The Code divided the educational system into an urban area, in charge of the Ministry of Education , and rural education in charge of

2279-597: The supporters of Ballivián, which included large sectors of the Bolivian armed forces. Defections to the rebel camp tilted the scales, and following various days of violent armed confrontation the President sought asylum in the Chilean Embassy. Thus at long last expired the last government of the 1880-1952 period. Vilified by many as the last leader of the Old Regime, and seen in more benign terms by others as

2332-467: The total world reserves of iron ore: 800 billion tons of crude ore containing more than 230 billion tons of iron. Santa Cruz Department is the largest of the Bolivian departments and covers a wide and diverse area. In the west lies a series of temperate Sub-Andean ranges and valleys while to the north and south lies two different lowlands areas; the Beni and Chaco lowlands respectively. To the northeast lies

2385-539: The tragic Siglo XX Massacre . On 27 August, the Civil War of 1949 broke out, through which the MNR led an uprising in four cities in Bolivia. After a few days, a revolutionary government emerged in the department of Santa Cruz in the east of the country, led by Edmundo Roca , a member of the Acción Obrera group, who joined the MNR. During these events, the revolutionaries had under control more than half of

2438-565: The uprising, distanced himself at the last minute and had the army quartered. Dr. Siles Suazo sought asylum at the Nunciature that same day. Seeing the uncontrollable popular overflow, General Seleme resigned from leading the "Revolutionary Government". Lechín Oquendo , top leader of the Miners' Federation, remained, directing the uprising in the streets with the slogans "Agrarian reform" and "Nationalization of mines." On Thursday, 10 April,

2491-399: The western sierras and warm to hot and humid as one descends into the extensive plains. The department of Santa Cruz regularly experiences devastating forest fires, often started by landowners who want to burn forests to create new agricultural land. This practice puts a great strain on the rich biodiversity of the country. The Department of Santa Cruz is divided into 15 provinces. During

2544-873: The world's second largest iron ore reserve (after Carajás in Brazil) and largest magnesium deposits are also located there. Located in the Germán Busch Province in the Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia, near Puerto Suárez, El Mutún extends across the border into Brazil, where it is called the Serrania de Jacadigo. Also known as the "Serrania Mutún", it has an area of about 75 square kilometers. Its estimated reserves are about 40.205 billion tons of iron ore of 50% iron, mainly in hematite and magnetite form, and in lesser quantities in siderite and manganese minerals. This can be compared with an estimate of

2597-478: 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 Forces when President Mamerto Urriolagoitía called upon him to take over as extra-Constitutional chief executive to prevent the swearing-in of the reform-minded President-elect, Víctor Paz Estenssoro . This

2650-465: Was a self-coup that became popularly known as the Mamertazo. Installing himself in the Palacio Quemado , Ballivián was the oligarchy's last hope to "turn back the hands of the clock," but the situation was apparently beyond repair. Despite declaring a nationwide curfew and exiling and imprisoning some opposition leaders, the demonstrations, work stoppages , and uprisings continued. Matters came to

2703-577: Was also Minister of Mines and Petroleum in Víctor Paz Estenssoro's first cabinet . Among the main objectives of the COB was to fight for the nationalization of the mines and railways, for the agrarian revolution and the repeal of anti-worker measures dictated by previous governments. Throughout the MNR government, the COB was "the radical revolutionary wing" of the revolution demanding the acceleration and deepening of social and economic changes. At

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2756-584: Was granted in 1980 in Peru and only in 1986 in Brazil . The Bolivian Workers' Center was founded on 17 April 1952 with the aim of integrating the unions of miners, factories, railway workers, banks, graphics, industry and commerce employees, builders, bakers and farmers. Its first executive secretary was Juan Lechín Oquendo , who had been executive secretary of the Trade Union Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers (FSTMB) founded in 1944. Lechín

2809-534: Was organized, chaired by Vice President Hernán Siles Zuazo with members of opposition parties. On 2 August 1953, in Ucureña , Cochabamba , the Agrarian Reform Decree was signed. The decree offered indemnity to landowners and granted hacienda lands to Indians through their unions and communities on the condition that they not be sold personally. The reform implementation system was cumbersome. Of

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