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La revolución de abril 1952 — Transcript

by Portal “MinEdu” Educabolivia · 2,240 words · 375 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:04The Ministry of Education presents
0:23Chronicle. Passages from our history.
1:01In 1952, the Nationalist Revolutionary
1:04Movement led the most important
1:07revolution of the 20th century in
1:09Bolivia. But what is revolutionary
1:12nationalism? Concepts, rather than
1:16being handled from a theoretical point
1:19of view—despite the important
1:21contribution of cadres like Quiroga and
1:24Walter Guevara himself with the Ayopaya
1:26thesis—were built along the way, like
1:29almost everything done in Bolivia for
1:31major transformations. Founded in 1942
1:42with evident influence from Marxism on
1:44one hand and National Socialism on the
1:47other, the MNR came to power in 1943
1:49with Radepa under the leadership of
1:51Gualberto Villarroel. This is already
1:54the initial process of what would be
1:56the national revolution. These were
2:00formative years, however, in which the
2:02old scheme, the old liberal state,
2:05regained ground and managed to maintain
2:07hegemony of power between 1946 and 1952
2:10. It was, however, the agony of a
2:13vision of a country that was
2:15disappearing and shipwrecking. Bolivia
2:18had millions of inhabitants in 1952,
2:21over 70%illiteracy, and one of the
2:24lowest per capita incomes in the world.
2:27An economic situation that depended
2:30almost entirely on mining exports, more
2:33than 80%. Despite this, it was capable
2:36of self-sufficiency. Fundamental
2:39production from the highlands and the
2:41plains regarding the essential issue of
2:42food. It had no connection whatsoever
2:45between the east and the west. The city
2:48of Santa Cruz was barely a village of
2:51less than 40,000 inhabitants. The
2:54country continued to revolve, as
2:55everything that had happened in its
2:57history, around its mining strength in
2:59the Andes, at an altitude of over 4,000
3:01meters. More than 80%of the population
3:04lived in rural areas, and more than 80%
3:07also lived in the western zone. That
3:11was the nation that had to be radically
3:13changed to insert it into the 20th
3:15century. Ultimately, the problem to
3:20solve was for a political party to be
3:22able to get on board with history and
3:24lead it. There was Marxism, there was
3:29Trotskyism, and also fascist tendencies
3:32of European influence, especially
3:34Italian and Spanish. The PIR was left
3:36behind along the way. The confusions of
3:39universal history led the PIR to ally
3:41with the oligarchy to overthrow
3:43Villarroel. In 1951, the last electoral
3:46process of the Ancien Régime took
3:49place. It would be the last time that
3:52those men who knew how to read, those
3:54men who owned property and who were
3:56considered and recognized as citizens,
3:59voted in that exclusionary democracy.
4:02Neither women, nor the illiterate, nor
4:04those without income could define who
4:07their president would be. Despite this,
4:10the established power did not realize
4:12the growth of the Nationalist
4:14Revolutionary Movement. In those
4:17elections, the Paz-Siles Suazo ticket
4:19defeated the ruling party's candidate,
4:21Gabriel González, by more than 8,000
4:23votes. With nearly 50,000 votes to his
4:27name, Víctor Paz Estenssoro was
4:28declared the winner by a relative
4:30majority, and panic spread. President
4:34Mamerto Urriolagoitia flatly refused to
4:35hand over power to the revolutionaries.
4:40Revolutionaries, the Nationalist
4:42Revolutionary Movement, and not
4:44minority groups repudiated by the
4:46country as ambitious and violent. They
4:51employ sectarian demagoguery, armed
4:55terrorism, violence, and crime as
4:58weapons of political struggle.
5:02Urriolagoitia’s "mamertazo," which
5:04handed power to the armed forces and
5:07refused to let parliament decide the
5:10vote, led to the transfer of power to
5:12Hugo Ballivián Rojas, who had the sad
5:15role of ultimately leaving the path and
5:17doors open to popular exclusion. Few
5:23suspected then that Bolivia was on the
5:25threshold of the most important change
5:27in its history. For the first and only
5:30time, a revolution was about to take
5:33place that would irreversibly change
5:35its structures. The fuse was ready to
5:38yield its result. The state created in
5:411880 was dying, and a process was
5:43beginning that would have long-term
5:45consequences for the country's history.
5:56It was, without a doubt, a tough
5:57ideological battle. The tendencies of
6:00fascism and Marxism crossed by
6:02revolutionary nationalism. Any of them
6:05could have succeeded, though it must be
6:07understood within the context of Latin
6:09America. Peronism in Argentina,
6:13Democratic Action in Venezuela, and the
6:15foundational ideas of Haya de la Torre
6:18in Peru marked a conditioning line in
6:21America toward revolutionary
6:23nationalism, which nonetheless had its
6:25most important, advanced, and riskiest
6:28expression—at least initially—in
6:30the 1952 revolution. While it is true
6:37that the genesis of the revolution must
6:40be found in the Chaco, and even before,
6:42there is a moment of definition, of
6:44confrontation in the streets, which
6:46establishes the success or failure of
6:49the political process: that
6:50confrontation which had the political
6:53leadership of Hernán Siles Suazo and,
6:55also, the union leadership of Juan
6:57Lechín. Because of the great
7:02confidence he had in the heroic people.
7:05Never in my wildest dreams did I
7:07imagine this definitive defeat of the
7:09oligarchy. I cannot find the words to
7:12express everything I feel. I only want
7:15to pay tribute to the dead and wounded
7:17in the heroic days of the revolution
7:18and to all my own. This is how Víctor
7:22Paz Estenssoro expressed himself in a
7:25part of his speech, the first he gave
7:27as president of Bolivia on April 15,
7:301952. It was the beginning of a
7:32difficult path. It was the beginning of
7:36building the illusions of a new country
7:38, but it was also the seed of a series
7:40of errors and problems that would lead
7:43the 1952 revolution down difficult
7:45paths of frustration and
7:46disillusionment. But the circumstantial
7:51political process that brought Víctor
7:53Paz Estenssoro to power had its
7:55culmination between April 8 and 11, a
7:57few days before the arrival of the
7:59plane from Buenos Aires. The history of
8:03the insurrection is fascinating. It
8:06begins with an attempted coup d'état
8:08led by General Antonio Seleme, a
8:10minister under President Hugo
8:11Ballivián, and culminates with the
8:14popular uprising that would see miners
8:16descend from the hills of La Paz and
8:18Oruro to fight heroically until they
8:20defeated the Bolivian army itself. In
8:26rural areas, peasants took over the
8:28lands to the detriment of the landlords
8:31. In many cases, they went so far as to
8:34execute them. The events of the 9th led
8:39people to think of an easy victory
8:40without bloodshed. It was thought that
8:43the army would not react and that the
8:45coup d'état would give the presidency
8:47to Seleme. That did not happen. General
8:50Torres Ortiz decided to counterattack,
8:52and on the morning of the 10th, a heavy
8:54bombardment of the city of La Paz began
8:56. The genuinely popular participation
9:01transformed what seemed like an
9:02imminent defeat into a revolutionary
9:05triumph. On April 11, the famous pact
9:08was signed between the revolutionary
9:10Hernán Siles Zuazo and the defeated
9:12General Torres Ortiz. That marked the
9:16end of the war phase and the beginning
9:19of the organization of everything that
9:21would be the new government. Between
9:24the 11th and the 15th, there were
9:26intense movements at the government
9:28palace to decide how that new executive
9:30function would be established. And the
9:33first government of the National
9:35Revolution was also born, because it
9:37was the provisional president for 4
9:40days, Hernán Siles Zuazo, who chose it
9:42along with Lechín and other MNR
9:44leaders. Names that would accompany
9:47this initial process, which faced the
9:49most difficult and fundamental tasks of
9:51the structural change that would
9:53transform Bolivia.
10:01The leader is carried away by the crowd
10:03. There are thousands of citizens
10:05approaching in trucks and vehicles. An
10:09excited crowd cheers for Dr. Víctor
10:10Paz Estenssoro throughout the 3-hour
10:12journey to the government palace.
10:17The documentary "Bolivia se libera" was
10:19made by the Bolivian Cinematographic
10:21Institute and has left such an
10:23extraordinary testimony that it has
10:25been very useful for us in
10:26rediscovering this history. But if that
10:29was the spirit, if that was the climate
10:32and the hope—the gigantic hope that
10:35the MNR, Paz Estenssoro, and Siles
10:37Zuazo had awakened—history and its
10:39development would have other elements
10:42worth considering; yet, one had to feel
10:46the electricity of that time and
10:48recover that documentary space to
10:49understand it. power. The Vice
11:30President of the Republic, Dr. Hernán,
11:32upon swearing in Dr. Víctor Paz
11:34Estenssoro, said, "Up to this moment,
11:36we have acted as mortals. From here on
11:39out, may God enlighten us." The
11:42constitutional president stated, "My
11:44government will use all the force
11:46granted by the law in defense of the
11:48country's working classes, because they
11:50constitute the raison d'être of the
11:52Nationalist Revolutionary Movement.
11:56They have left you a country that is
11:58devastated and in a chaotic economic
12:00situation, but we will forge its
12:02resurgence because we have come to
12:03power not for personal ambition, but to
12:06serve the people. But the path that
12:14culminated in April was long and
12:16difficult, and certainly bloody, since
12:18the birth of military nationalism with
12:20the figures of Toro and Busch. The
12:23immolation of President Villarroel
12:25became a symbol. The more than 400 dead
12:29and 3,000 wounded from the revolution
12:31set a challenge for the generation that
12:33was taking charge of the country." What
12:36is to be done? "was, of course, the
12:38fundamental question. But what had the
12:41change of fundamental structures really
12:43represented? The dislocation of society
12:46. First, the displacement of one class
12:50by another: the tin barons and the
12:52landowners replaced by an emerging
12:54middle class and the attempt to create
12:56a new bourgeoisie. For this, the
13:00political process had been
13:01lightning-fast. On April 17, the
13:04Bolivian Workers 'Center was created, a
13:06conglomerate that for the first time
13:08established genuine representation for
13:11the entire body of workers in Bolivia.
13:13They also had co-government, something
13:16absolutely unprecedented in Latin
13:18America. Furthermore, they had the
13:21right to veto within state enterprises,
13:23particularly in COMIBOL. It was
13:26something that had never been known
13:28before.
13:30Conscious of their high value within
13:32the working classes, the miners
13:34constituted a double force within the
13:37revolution: the formation of a workers'
13:39army prepared to defend the union
13:42advantages obtained in the new
13:44revolutionary struggle in which they
13:46were active participants. The army was
13:52dismantled, or at the very least, the
13:54military college was closed for a year.
13:57Later, President Paz himself would be
13:59forced to reopen it to establish a
14:01balance of power between the labor
14:02sector and the intellectual sector of
14:04the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement.
14:07Upon that structure, three measures
14:09emerged that progressed chronologically
14:11as follows. On July 21, 1952,
14:14remembering the death of Villarroel,
14:16President Paz issued the universal
14:19suffrage decree. On October 31 of that
14:26same year, the nationalization of the
14:28mines; all power to the State. In this
14:33way, the Bolivian State became the
14:35owner of the production system for more
14:37than 80%of the country's mineral
14:39exports. And finally, on August 2, 1953
14:44, the agrarian reform, the high point
14:47of political change and social
14:49inclusion of a community until then
14:52displaced by the country's actions.
14:57With its errors and successes, the
14:59revolution led to a process of change
15:02regarding economic production. First,
15:04the integration of the east. The
15:06completion of the Cochabamba-Santa Cruz
15:09highway opened a horizon whose results
15:11are seen today. The Bolivian East
15:15serves as a counterweight, and the West
15:17has become a fundamental point of the
15:19country's economic hope. But there are
15:22also reasons that have been put forward
15:24to explain the weakening of mining
15:26production. The voluntary sacrifice of
15:31the company from which more than 100
15:33million dollars were transferred during
15:35the tenure of all the MNR governments
15:38for two objectives: economic growth in
15:40other sectors and the strengthening of
15:43Bolivian state oil fields. The
15:47revolution also generated a new vision
15:48of the country regarding itself. It
15:51recovered the indigenous and
15:52pre-Hispanic past and established the
15:54status of mestizaje as a positive
15:56element that had to be strengthened. It
16:00was a sort of" encholamiento, "but
16:02viewed from the perspective of its
16:04creative capacity, of its elements
16:06generating new ideas that emerged from
16:08that new class that had assumed power.
16:14However, corruption soon preyed upon
16:17that government and that young
16:19generation. The profiteers, the
16:21processes of speculation determine when
16:23there is hyperinflation. The backroom
16:26deals at various levels established a
16:28loss of morality and a loss of values
16:31that softened the revolutionary process
16:33. The revolutionary process was
16:37channeled, however, through the formal
16:39path of democracy. René Zabaleta
16:41wondered," I will never understand why
16:44the MNR was able to seduce the masses
16:47and then corrupt them through the vote.
16:50"Electoral fraud was commonplace, not
16:53because the MNR could not win, but
16:55because it wanted to do so
16:57overwhelmingly to avoid any contrast.
17:03The young people who, nearing 40 years
17:06of age, assumed command of the nation
17:08in 1952 and governed uninterruptedly
17:11until 1964, undoubtedly accomplished
17:13important tasks of transformation,
17:15tasks they had to fulfill at that
17:17historical moment. Some of them
17:22successful, with a vision to transform
17:24the country and make it take the
17:26qualitative leap that was indispensable
17:28. Others remained by the wayside as
17:32unresolved ideas. Undoubtedly, it had
17:38the concept of a national vision and,
17:40more than that, of a national culture,
17:43a culture that established a way of
17:46seeing ourselves and feeling a secure
17:48bond with our identity from the past.
17:53For all these reasons, it leaves a
17:55legacy that was the starting point of a
17:57long process. A process that lasted
18:00nearly half a century, a process that
18:02was hard to overcome and that perhaps
18:05today may still be part of history's
18:07challenge, but that the revolution
18:09branded into us with fire. What doubt
18:12is there? Chronicle. Passages of our
18:29history.

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