Republican Socialist Party (Bolivia)

The Socialist Republican Party (Spanish: Partido Republicano Socialista, PRS), whose members were also known as "Saavedristas", was a political party in Bolivia. The Socialist Republican Party emerged on January 28, 1921, as the Republican Party was bifurcated on the same day Bautista Saavedra took office as President of the country. The Socialist Republican Party was formed by Saavedra's followers.

The Republican Socialist Party was formed by a reformist sector. Bautista Saavedra, a populist, represented middle-class and resented the old party's close ties to the powerful tin barons. His appeal to urban middle-class artisans, small merchants, and laborers generated a nonestablishment political base and a new class consciousness. The Republican Government of Bautista Saavedra enacted progressive social and labor codes and doubled government taxes on mining. Though more concerned for the underprivileged classes, Bautista Saavedra blatantly manipulated his populist support.

In the 1925 elections the PRS's presidential candidate was Hernando Siles Reyes. He was elected president and took office on 10 January 1926.

During the rule of Bautista Saavedra and Hernando Siles Reyes, the Bolivian economy underwent a profound change. Tin prices started to decline in the 1920s. After peaking in 1929, tin production declined dramatically as the Great Depression nearly destroyed the international tin market. During the 1920s, Bolivia faced growing social turmoil. Labor unrest, such as the miners' strike in Uncia in 1923, was brutally suppressed. But the unrest reached new heights of violence after the drastic reduction of the work force during the Great Depression. The social legislation of the Republican Socialist Governments was weak. Hernando Siles Reyes's 4 years of inconsistent rule and unfulfilled promises of radical changes frustrated workers and students. In 1930 he was overthrown when he tried to bypass the constitutional provision forbidding reelection by resigning in order to run again.

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