Aniceto Arce Ruiz

Aniceto Arce

Aniceto Arce Ruiz de Mendoza (born April 15, 1824 in Tarija , † August 14, 1906 in Sucre ) was President of Bolivia from 1888 to 1892. The Bolivian province of Aniceto Arce bears her name in his honor.

Arce is from the city of Tarija, but completed his law studies in the city of Sucre, where he also spent most of his life and where he became one of the leading silver magnates in his country. He supported the government of José María Linares (1857–1861) and his unconditional economic liberalism, and was later a member of Congress during the 1870s until President Hilarión Daza came to power in the 1876 coup.

Statue in the center of Tarija

Economically conservative attitude

Unlike other capable minds of his time, Arce did not join the fight when the Saltpeter War broke out with Chile in 1879 . Instead, he was one of the most compromising voices in the political spectrum, perhaps due to his extensive business relationships with Chile, where he sold a significant portion of his silver, invested his profits, and found financial resources for his ventures. From his point of view, the littoral could largely not be defended for various deplorable reasons, so the country should pursue damage limitation and enter into an alliance with Chile instead of Peru . Despite this minority opinion, Arce impressed most Bolivians above all with his call for a conservative democratic order, with priority on compliance with the law, regular elections, and a government made up of a visionary business elite like himself. To this end, he founded the Conservative Party ( Partido Conservador), was one of its most important representatives at the Congress in 1880 involved in the overthrow of Hilarión Daza , and was jointly responsible for the new constitution of the country. He also agreed to become Vice President under Narciso Campero Leyes for the critical political period of the country's re-establishment.

Political rise

Very early on, however, Vice-President Arze's pro-Chile stance clashed with that of the patriotic president, who advocated rearmament and an ongoing diplomatic offensive against Chile, which might lead to arbitration in the conflict or at least to reinforcement of Peru by Bolivian troops. Arce, on the other hand, advocated a realistic recognition of the fact that Bolivia had lost its access to the Pacific and that at best a modus vivendi could be achieved with the superior Chile , even at the expense of the inviolable alliance with Lima. President Campero viewed these proposals as treason and sent Arce into exile in 1881.

Ultimately, however, Arce was acquitted of the suspicion and was allowed to return to the country, where he immediately wanted to register as a candidate for the Partido Conservador for the presidential elections in May 1884. Arce's victory was widely expected, but he lost very narrowly to the underdog candidate Gregorio Pacheco Leyes , even wealthier than Arce and the country's most famous philanthropist . The two privileged silver mine owners with their conservative business-friendly philosophy agreed on the post of Vice President Arce under a President Pacheco, and in return for Pacheco’s support for Arce’s candidacy in the elections of 1888.

Term of office as president

As agreed, the candidacy of Aniceto Arce in the elections of 1888 was supported by the incumbent President Pacheco, so that the Caudillo Arce was finally given the presidency at the age of 64. Even more than Pacheco, Aniceto Arce ruled repressively; on the other hand, he pursued a progressive policy by building the first intra-Bolivian railway line from the Chilean border to the Oruro department and promoting the electrification of various Bolivian cities. He also proclaimed a modern new version of banking and investment laws. Arce was unhesitatingly pro-capitalist, devoted to the practically unlimited free entrepreneurship of the English tradition, and advocating the intervention of the international economy under the aegis of foreign investment. Although he was confronted with a lot of pro-liberal outrage, his assertive personality enabled him to retain power. He ended his tenure after four years and passed the baton to another Conservative, his deputy and Vice President Mariano Baptista Caserta .

Political retirement

Aniceto Arce ostensibly withdrew from politics at the age of 68, but served the following two conservative presidents Mariano Baptista (1892 to 1896) and Severo Fernandez Alonso Caballero (1896 to 1899) as an unofficial but extremely important advisor. At the turn of the century, however, he forcibly returned to the political spotlight when he was politically persecuted by the hated Partido Liberal after it had gained power in the so-called "Civil War of 1899". Amazingly, however, the now 80-year-old Arce was allowed to run for president in 1904, possibly because he was unpopular and therefore easy to beat. His Conservative party was demoralized, slandered and headless at the time, yet the belligerent Arce accepted the difficult challenge of facing the popular Liberal candidate, Ismael Montes Gamboa .

Arce was crushed, with the highest deficit in the history of the Bolivian presidential election at the time. He retired to his extensive rural estates, where he died two years later at the age of 82. Above all, he was remembered for his decisive temperament and his firm belief in a civil democratic (albeit oligarchic ) order, with which he created a functioning modern party system in his country.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Canada: Prophecy Provides Background on Pulacayo Property and Commences Evaluation of Historic Tailings ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Mena Report December 6, 2014 (accessed February 1, 2015) 
2. ↑ Bruce W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War: Chile, Peru, and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific, 1879-1884 Praeger Publishers, page 188

Web links

• Aniceto Arce In: Biografías y Vidas ( Spanish )
• 1880-1881 Aniceto Arce Ruiz In: Vicepresidencia del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia ( Spanish )

predecessor	Office	successor
Gregorio Pacheco Leyes	President of Bolivia August 15, 1888–11. August 1892	Mariano Baptista Caserta