Daniel Salamanca Urey
| Daniel Salamanca | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 39th President of Bolivia | |
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In office 5 March 1931 – 27 November 1934 |
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| Vice President | José Luis Tejada |
| Preceded by | Carlos Blanco |
| Succeeded by | José Luis Tejada |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Daniel Domingo Salamanca Urey July 8, 1869 Cochabamba, Bolivia |
| Died | July 17, 1935 (aged 66) |
| Nationality | Bolivian |
| Political party | Genuine Republican Party |
| Profession | Politician |
Daniel Domingo Salamanca Urey (July 8, 1869 – July 17, 1935) was President of Bolivia from March 5, 1931 until he was overthrown in a coup d'état on November 27, 1934, during the country's disastrous Chaco War with Paraguay.
Born in Cochabamba, Salamanca studied law, before being elected to Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies in 1899 for the Liberal Party. Two years later, President José Manuel Pando appointed him Finance Minister. Salamanca eventually split with the Liberals, however, and helped to found the new Republican Party, running unsuccessfully for Vice-President in 1917. Following the split of a faction opposed to the growing (some would say ruthless) ambitions of Republican leader Bautista Saavedra, the ascetic, professorial Salamanca founded, with a number of other men including Juan Maria Escalier, the so-called Genuine Republican Party (Partido Republicano Genuino). Salamanca himself ran for president on the Genuino ticket in the elections of 1925, but lost to Saavedra's handpicked successor, Hernando Siles.
Shaken by his defeats, Salamanca retired from politics and dedicated himself to teaching law. In the aftermath of the military overthrow of Hernando Siles in 1930, largely as a result of the Great Depression, Salamanca was asked to head a Republicano Genuino-Liberal coalition, with him at the head of the ticket and Liberal leader José Luis Tejada as his vice-presidential running mate. Salamanca was elected and took office in March 1931.
Immediately upon assuming office, Salamanca introduced an unpopular austerity program and clamped down on political opposition to his government. In what was likely a measure to avert public attention to the economic problems still facing the country, he also revived hostilities with Paraguay in the disputed Chaco region. Indeed, Salamanca had been for a long time one of the "hawks" in Bolivian politics, advocating firmness against Paraguay in the territorial dispute. Upon taking office, his motto became "We must stand firm in the Chaco." Given that the parched region of the Gran Chaco (largely uninhabited) had been under dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay ever since the creation of both republics, each proceeded to establish a line of small garrisons (fortines), simply to establish a national presence and press their claims. Sporadic battles would occur, but cooler heads tended to prevail, especially because (neither) Bolivia nor Paraguay (the only landlocked and poorest countries in South America) could (ill) afford a full-scale war over the Chaco. Neither, however, relinquished much in their claim to the entire Chaco region either.
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