José Luis Tejada Sorzano
| José Luis Tejada | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 40th President of Bolivia | |
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In office 1 December 1934 – 16 May 1936 |
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| Preceded by | Daniel Salamanca |
| Succeeded by | Germán Busch |
| Vice President of Bolivia | |
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In office 5 March 1931 – 27 November 1934 |
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| President | Daniel Domingo Salamanca |
| Preceded by | Abdón Saavedra |
| Succeeded by | Enrique Baldivieso |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
José Luis Tejada Sorzano January 12, 1882 La Paz, Bolivia |
| Died | October 4, 1938 (aged 56) |
| Nationality | Bolivian |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Profession | Politician, lawyer |
José Luis Tejada Sorzano (January 12, 1882 – October 4, 1938) was a Bolivian lawyer and politician appointed by the military as president of Bolivia during the Chaco War. He had previously been the country's Vice-President for three years.
Tejada was born in La Paz. A lifelong member of the Liberal Party of Bolivia (which was in control of the Presidency from 1899 to 1920), he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1914, and appointed Minister of Finance by President José Gutiérrez Guerra in 1917. In 1931, his party joined forces with the Republicano-Genuino party of Daniel Salamanca for the general elections, and Tejada was sworn-in as Salamanca's Vice-President in March of that year. The administration was immediately plagued by serious difficulties stemming from the Great Depression and the eruption of the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay (1932–35).
A relatively hands-off Vice-President, the portly Tejada deferred to Salamanca in all matters, and distinguished himself very little in his own right during his term as Vice-President. He seems to have been "second-fiddle" even on intra-party matters, as the true leader of the Liberals was the septuagenarian, twice-elected former President Ismael Montes (who died only in 1933). Things changed considerably, however, when President Salamanca was suddenly deposed by the Bolivian military on November 27, 1934, as a result of long-festering differences with the High Command regarding the conduct of the war. For a variety of reasons, the army decided to maintain democratic appearances and deferred taking power itself, at least for the time being, and Tejada became president after Salamanca was forced to resign.
It can safely be argued that the military acquiesced to the assumption of Tejada to the presidency with the understanding that the latter would be far more malleable and agreeable to the wishes of the High Command than Salamanca had been. This indeed proved to be the case.
With Tejada's assumption of the presidency, the Liberals returned to power for the first time in 14 years. Almost immediately, Tejada engineered in the Congress the extension of his term by one year in order to see through the end of the war, whose cause had been rather disastrous to Bolivia. A spate of relatively small successes (mostly of a defensive nature) toward the end of the conflict did not prevent Paraguay from maintaining control of much of the disputed region at the time that agreement on a ceasefire was finally reached in June 1935. However, the Bolivian military and most political leaders concluded that no better terms could be achieved given the circumstances or in the conceivable future. Eventually, a final peace treaty would grant most of the Chaco to Paraguay, reducing Bolivia's territory considerably.
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