Mamerto Urriolagoitía

Who was Mamerto Urriolagoitía?

Mamerto Urriolagoitía Harriague was President of Bolivia, from 1949 to 1951. Of privileged background, he studied in France and later joined the Bolivian diplomatic service. In 1947, Urriolagoitia was elected Vice-President to Dr. Enrique Hertzog and endured the constant pressures for reform emanating from the poorest sectors of society. A hard-liner when it came to dealing with the opposition, he was preferred by the threatened conservatist elites, who in 1949 forced President Hertzog to resign. Thus, Urriolagoitia became chief executive and immediately stepped up the repression of the reformist movement, quickly amalgamating behind the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario of Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Juan Lechín, Hernán Siles Zuazo, and others. A counter-reaction took place and a series of violent nation-wide rebellions catalyzed the so-called Civil War of May–September 1949. The Urriolagoitia government barely regained control of the situation, but the die was cast on the moribund "Oligarchic State" of 1880-1936, resuscitated only temporarily by the economic and mining interests that upheld it.