Víctor Paz Estenssoro
| Víctor Paz Estenssoro | |
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Víctor Paz Estenssoro in the Netherlands in 1958
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| 52nd President of Bolivia 1st Term |
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In office April 16, 1952 – August 6, 1956 |
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| Vice President | Hernán Siles Zuazo (1952-1956) |
| Preceded by | Hernán Siles Zuazo |
| Succeeded by | Hernán Siles Zuazo |
| 54th President of Bolivia 2nd term |
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In office August 6, 1960 – November 4, 1964 |
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| Vice President |
Juan Lechín Oquendo (1960-1964) René Barrientos (1964) |
| Preceded by | Hernán Siles Zuazo |
| Succeeded by | René Barrientos |
| 72nd President of Bolivia 3rd Term |
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In office August 6, 1985 – August 6, 1989 |
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| Vice President | Julio Garrett Ayllón (1985-1989) |
| Preceded by | Hernán Siles Zuazo |
| Succeeded by | Jaime Paz Zamora |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro October 2, 1907 Tarija, Bolivia |
| Died | June 7, 2001 (aged 93) Tarija, Bolivia |
| Nationality | Bolivian |
| Political party | MNR |
| Spouse(s) | María Teresa Cortés de Paz Estenssoro |
| Alma mater | Higher University of San Andrés |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro (October 2, 1907 – June 7, 2001) was a Bolivian politician and President of Bolivia. He ran for president 8 times (1947, 1951, 1960, 1964, 1978, 1979, 1980, and 1985), winning in 1951, 1960, 1964, and 1985.
In 1941 Víctor Paz Estenssoro co-founded (along with Hernán Siles and others) the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, MNR), originally a reformist revolutionary movement and later a centrist party. Paz became an influential member in the cabinet of Colonel Gualberto Villarroel (1943–1946), but was forced out of that government as a result of pressure emanating from Washington. The United States was at the time involved in World War II, and suspected some members of the MNR leadership of harboring pro-fascist sympathies. Paz Estenssoro nonetheless ran for president in 1947, earning 3rd place, and again in 1951, when the MNR surprisingly won the electoral contest, despite the fact that the laws of that time confined the vote to a small, propertied stratum of the citizenry. The elections, however, were unilaterally annulled by the ultra-conservative government of Mamerto Urriolagoitía, and the MNR at that point went underground.
Among the many important structural reforms adopted by the popular Paz Estenssoro government was the extension of universal suffrage to all adult citizens (natives and illiterates included), the nationalization of the largest tin-mining concerns, and an extensive program of land distribution (agrarian reform). Much of the military, which had served so well the interests of the economic elites prior to the Revolution, was dismantled and re-organized as a virtual arm of the MNR party. Clearly, the idea was to fashion a hegemonic party in the image of Mexico's Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI). The crucial difference between the MNR and PRI was the decidedly de-centralised structure of the country's new military power (i.e., armed workers and peasants), which was largely overseen by the left-wing minority bloc in the MNR, headed by COB leader, Juan Lechín.
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