Hugo Banzer Suárez (May 10, 1926 – May 5, 2002) was a politician,
military general, dictator and President of Bolivia
. He
held the Bolivian presidency twice: from
August 22,
1971 to
July 21,
1978, as a dictator;
and then again from
August 6,
1997 to
August 7,
2001, as constitutional President.
Military and ideological formation
Hugo Banzer was native to the rural lowlands of the department of
Santa Cruz.
He attended military schools in Bolivia
, Argentina
, Brazil
and the
United
States
, including the Armored Cavalry School at Fort Hood
, Texas
. He
took a Motor Officer Course as the
School of the Americas. He was a
descendant of German immigrant Georg Banzer Schewetering
Promoted to colonel, in 1961, and appointed three years later to
head the Ministry of Education and Culture in the government of
General
René Barrientos, a
personal friend, Banzer became increasingly involved in politics,
siding with the right wing of the Bolivian Army. He was also
appointed director of the Military Academy and the Coronel
Gualberto Villarroel Military
School.
As plotter, 1970-71
In 1970, President Juan Jose Torres was leading the country
decidedly in a leftist direction, arousing the ire and mistrust of
conservative anti-communist circles in Bolivia and, crucially, in
the Nixon administration. He had called an Asamblea del Pueblo, or
People's Assembly, in which representatives of specific
"proletarian" sectors of society were represented (miners,
unionized teachers, students, peasants). The Assembly was imbued
with all the powers of a working parliament, even though the
right-wing opponents of the regime tended to call it a gathering of
virtual soviets. Torres also allowed labor leader,
Juan Lechín, to resume his post as head of
the
Central Obrera
Boliviana/Bolivian Workers' Union (COB). These measures,
coupled with Ovando's earlier nationalization of Gulf Oil
properties, angered his opponents even more, chief among whom was
Banzer and his American supporters. In early 1971, a faction of the
Bolivian military attempted to unseat the new president but failed,
whereupon Banzer fled to Argentina, but did not resign his
ambitions to the presidency.
Dictatorship, 1971-78
On
August 18, 1971,
General Banzer, at long last, masterminded a successful military
uprising that erupted in Santa Cruz de la Sierra
, where he had many supporters. Eventually, the
plotters gained control over the La Paz
garrisons,
although not without considerable bloodshed. The levels of
United States and Brazilian support for the coup have been debated
but it clear that support existed at some level for Banzer. In any
case, Banzer emerged as the strong man of the new regime, and, on
August 22, was given full power as
president. Interestingly, he received the political support of the
center-right
Movimiento Nacionalista
Revolucionario (MNR) of former president
Víctor Paz Estenssoro and the
conservative
Falange
Socialista Boliviana of Mario Gutiérrez, considered to be the
two largest parties in the country. For the next seven years, and
with the rank of Army General, Banzer ruled Bolivia as
dictator.
Frustrated by the political divisions and protests that
characterized the Torres and Ovando years, and, traditionally an
enemy of dissent and freedom of speech, Banzer banned all the
left-leaning parties, suspended the powerful
Central Obrera Boliviana, and
closed the nation's universities. "Order" was now the paramount
aim, and no means were spared to restore authority and stifle
dissent. Buoyed by the initial legitimacy provided by Paz and
Gutierrez's support, the dictator ruled with a measure of civilian
support until 1974, when the main parties realized he did not
intend to hold elections and was instead using them to perpetuate
himself in power. At that point, Banzer dispensed with all
pretenses and banned all political activity, exiled all major
leaders (Paz Estenssoro included), and proceeded to rule henceforth
solely with military support.
Human rights groups claim that during Banzer's 1971-78 tenure
(known as the
Banzerato) several thousand Bolivians sought
asylum in foreign countries, 3,000 political opponents were
arrested, 200 were killed, and many more were tortured. In the
basement of the Ministry of the Interior or "the horror chambers"
around 2,000 political prisoners were held and tortured during the
1971-1978 military rule. Many others simply disappeared
[24767]. Among the victims of the regime are Colonel
Andrés Selich, Banzer's first Minister of the Interior and
co-conspirator in the August 1971 coup. Selich was accused of
plotting to overthrow Banzer and died of blows sustained while in
custody. Two other generals with sufficient stature to potentially
eclipse the dictator were murdered under suspicious circumstances
while in exile: General Joanquin Zenteno Anaya and, more
shockingly, former President
Juan
José Torres, both in 1976.
Much of the stability achieved by the Banzerato was sustained by
the constant flow of easy credit from abroad, which was often used
on mammoth "white elephant" projects of dubious usefulness but
which nonetheless impressed certain sectors of the population. The
loans would soon raise Bolivia's external debt to record levels,
but proved useful in the manipulation of political patronage. In
1975, Banzer restored diplomatic relations with Chile, broken since
1962, with an eye toward obtaining an access to the Pacific Ocean,
denied to Bolivia since the loss of its maritime coast in the 19th
century
War of the Pacific. The
Chilean dictator,
Augusto Pinochet,
offered a narrow outlet just north of the port of Arica, on the
border with Peru, on lands that had previously belonged to that
country. According to the terms of the treaty that handed that
territory to Chile, Peru had to agree to any proposal of
transferring that land to a third party. Peru refused to accept the
Pinochet proposal and instead created its own counter-proposal,
which declared Arica and its waters an area of joint-sovereignty
between the three nations. Chile refused this proposal and talks
with Bolivia ended. Diplomatic relations were once again frozen in
1978.
Democratic opening of 1978 and toppling
Pressure from the Carter administration forced Banzer to institute
a carefully regulated "democratic opening" in 1978. A restricted
amnesty was declared, and the country prepared for democratic
elections. Since the Bolivian constitution did not at the time
allow the election of a sitting president, the general designated a
surrogate, officially-supported candidate, General
Juan Pereda. It was assumed that Pereda would be
elected with government "help" at the polls, rule for four years,
and then allow Banzer to return as constitutional president once he
had time to polish up his image and transition to civilian
politics. Apparently, Banzer had second thoughts, for by election
time the left-wing coalition of former president
Hernán Siles (UDP) was far and away
the most popular formula, and nothing could disguise it. Still,
massive fraud was committed and Pereda was declared the winner -
until protests paralyzed the country and independent organizations
agreed that all exit polls indicated a result quite different from
what was being purported. At this point, Banzer annulled the
elections, denounced the electoral fraud, and disassociated himself
from it altogether. He declared he would call elections again
within a year or two.
He did not foresee the reaction of General Pereda, however, who
felt used by Banzer to remain in power. A coup d'état ensued, many
military officers having grown tired of the president's constant
manipulation of the armed forces for his own political ends. After
Banzer was forced to leave the
Palacio
Quemado in July 1978, Pereda was sworn in as president,
although not a constitutional one, since the fraud could not be
denied. He did blame Banzer, however, and stated non-comitally that
he would call new elections within a reasonable span of time.
Pereda, in turn, was overthrown in November 1978 by
democratically-oriented officers under General
David Padilla who, embarrassed by the events
of the last few months (and suspecting that Pereda did not intend
to call new elections either), promptly set a firm date for a new
vote.
As civilian political leader
Upon leaving office, Banzer formed the
ADN party
(Acción
Democrática Nacionalista), a large organization that attracted
most conservative groups under his leadership. Banzer ran for
elections in 1979 and 1980, obtaining third place in both contests.
The 1979 contest remained inconclusive because, no candidate having
received the necessary 50% of the vote, Congress had to determine
the president, and it could not agree on any one candidate; the
1980 election would have led to the possession of
Hernán Siles, was it not for the
bloody coup of July 17, 1980, which installed a reactionary (and
cocaine-tainted) dictatorship led by general
Luis García Meza. With the military's
reputation badly damaged by the excesses of the 1980-82
dictatorship, in October 1982 the results of the 1980 elections
were upheld to save the country the expense of yet another vote.
Siles was sworn in and the 1980 Congress reconvened.
Banzer opposed bitterly the UDP government of
Hernán Siles (1982-85), but turned
more conciliatory when
Víctor
Paz Estenssoro was elected president (by congress, due to the
virtual inattainability of the 50% necessary for direct election)
in 1985. Indeed, Banzer's party claimed authorship of some of the
most important neoliberal economic reforms instituted by Víctor Paz
to curb galloping hyperinflation, repress the ever-troublesome
labor unions, and reduce the size of the government. Banzer
finished second in the 1989 elections, but supported in Congress
the third-place finisher, the allegedly left-leaning
Jaime Paz, who became President with ADN
help, in return for Paz's promise to support him in a future
election. The former dictator again finished second in 1993, this
time to the MNR's
Gonzalo
Sánchez de Lozada. The MNRs plurality, in coalition with the
small center-left Bolivia Libre party, made it possible to confirm
the MNRs electoral victory. In the 1997 elections, however, Banzer
finished first by a small plurality, and was able to take the
presidency with the support of Paz and others in a broad rightist
coalition.
As constitutional president (1997-2001)
Finally, in 1997, Banzer achieved his dream of becoming
constitutionally-elected President of Bolivia, at the age of 71.
Indeed, he was the first former dictator in Latin America's recent
history to transition successfully to democratic politics and
return to power by way of the ballot box.
During his tenure, he
launched, under the guidelines outlined by the United States
, a program to fight drug-trafficking in Bolivia, which called
for the eradication of coca, a
controversial strategy. He also had the usual trouble with
the unions, but nonetheless did his best to rule in a conciliatory
and non-arbitrary manner. In 2001, he was diagnosed with
lung cancer, and even though he had earned a
five-year term (he had himself agitated to legally enlarge the
presidential term) had to resign on
August
7,
2001. He was succeeded by his
Vice-President,
Jorge Quiroga.
Hugo Banzer was the president during the Water Wars in 2000 which
centered around the privatization of the water works of Bolivia's
third largest city Cochabamba. Many protested the subsequent rate
hike. Violence occurred when police and demonstrators clashed.
Banzer then declared a "state of siege". When officials of the
consortium who had bought the right to run the water works fled
after being told by the authorities that their safety could not be
guaranteed, the Banzer government declared that they had abandoned
the project, declared the contract void, and settled with the
demonstrators.
See also
Note
- In Spanish orthography, Banzer should be spelled
Bánzer, but because Banzer is originally a German name, it
is left intact.
References
Source
- Prado Salmón, Gral. Gary. "Poder y Fuerzas Armadas,
1949-1982."
External links