Jaime Paz Zamora

Jaime Paz Zamora, 1982

Jaime Paz Zamora (born April 15, 1939 in Cochabamba ) was the 60th President of Bolivia from August 6, 1989 to August 6, 1993 .

Life

Paz Zamora is the son of Admiral Nestor Paz Galarza (cousin of three-time Bolivian President Víctor Paz Estenssoro ) and Edith Zamora. His brother Nestor Paz Zamora, who died in fighting in 1969, was a member of the underground organization "Ejército de Liberación Nacional". After graduating from the Jesuit college "Sagrado Corazón" in Sucre, he first entered the order of the Redemptorists in Cordoba , Argentina, and studied philosophy and theology. Before he was ordained a priest, however, he left the order and studied social sciences and politics at the University of Leuven in Belgium. He became an ardent supporter of the Left or Progressive cause in the tumultuous 1960s. After he was banished by dictator Hugo Banzer , he was one of the founders of the Left Revolutionary Movement ( Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria , MIR ) in 1971 , originally a member of the Socialist International . He then organized the resistance against the military regime of General Hugo Banzer Suárez, who was of German descent. The MIR soon gained the support of a large part of the country's Marxist intellectuals, especially university students . After Paz returned to Bolivia in 1978, MIR entered into an alliance with the left-wing Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario de Izquierda of the former President Hernán Siles Zuazo . The result was the formation of the Unidad Democrática y Popular (UDP). It was a mutually beneficial alliance because, on the one hand, Siles had everything that MIR lacked (experience and legitimation in the working class from the 1952 revolution ), while Paz Zamora Siles secured the support of students and young intellectuals on the other .

Jaime Paz Zamora was - with severe burns - the only survivor of a plane crash on June 2, 1980; The military regime of Luis García Meza is suspected to be behind the attack.

Political career

In 1980, in connection with the upcoming elections , the far-right wing of the Bolivian military indicated that it would not accept the entry of the popular “extremists” Siles and Paz Zamora into the Palacio Quemado . In April, the small, rented plane in which Paz Zamora and a delegation of UDP politicians were traveling crashed in the Altiplano near La Paz . Except for the vice presidential candidate Jaime Paz Zamora, there were no survivors. As a result, Paz Zamora recovered from his burns and re-entered the election campaign, borne by the increasing support as a result of the "accident". The winner of this third election in three years was the alliance Siles Zuazo / Paz Zamora. However, a coup by General Luis García Meza on July 17, 1980 prevented the formation of a democratically elected government.

Paz Zamora initially fled into exile, but returned in 1982 when the military experiment had passed its zenith and the Bolivian economy was on the verge of collapse . For the armed forces, whose reputation had suffered severely during the dictatorship from 1980 to 1982, withdrawing was the only way out of this misery. In October 1982, the results of the 1980 elections were reconstructed to save the cost of another election, and Siles Zuazo was sworn in as President and Jaime Paz Zamora as Vice-President. However, the economic situation was bleak, and hyperinflation soon developed in the country. Siles had great problems controlling the situation. He also received little support from political parties or members of Congress. The unions, headed by Juan Lechín Oquendo , paralyzed the government with ongoing strikes. Meanwhile, the popularity of Siles sank to a record low, also due to the hyperinflation that lasted from 1982 to 1985. In 1984, the MIR under Paz Zamora broke away from the government.

In the 1985 elections, Paz Zamora came in a respectable third place. During the period from 1985 to 1989, under Paz Zamora and Oscar Eid , the MIR broke with its Marxist views. This was the time of perestroika, and the days of totalitarian rulers in Eastern Europe seemed numbered. The shift in MIR's program from the left wing to the bourgeois-liberal environment caused some important conversions to political opponents, the best known of whom was Antonio Araníbar . Nevertheless, the party gained unity and cohesion. This campaign also greatly increased the number of voters.

Paz Zamora’s Presidency (1989-93)

In May 1989, Paz Zamora ran again for president. He landed not far behind the winners Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and Hugo Banzer in third place. As usual, none of the three candidates achieved the absolute majority necessary to be elected, so Congress began deliberating again. Paz Zamora had sworn never to work with Banzer, who had followed MIR in the 1970s. But Banzer had broken violently with the MNR of the election winner Sánchez de Lozada; when the opportunity for a coalition with Banzer arose, Paz Zamora seized it. This action cost him and MIR everything in the following years. On August 5, 1989, Paz Zamora was declared president by Congress - thanks to the political support of Hugo Banzer. This coalition between MIR and ADN was presented as an agreement in favor of Bolivia and the progress of the democratic process. Many citizens supported this, others revolted.

The reign of Jaime Paz Zamora was limited by his alliance with Banzer in his scope of action. He opposed the complete eradication of the coca plant , as suggested by George HW Bush , and defended the coca plant's medicinal and industrial potential. At the same time, he tried to restrict the drug mafia through the legal distribution of the coca plant. The import of 8 kg of coca leaves for distribution on the Bolivian stand at EXPO Seville in 1992 caused a scandal.

His repeated election campaign slogans, the neoliberal policies of his predecessor, Dr. Paz Estenssoro , undo, he implemented with the creation of the basis for the privatization of state enterprises; But further innovations got stuck in the beginning. In foreign policy, Paz Zamora successfully negotiated the transfer of a port on the Peruvian coast (Andres de Santa Cruz) for 50 years. After the trauma caused by the separation of the coastal areas after the war with Chile, the agreement had great domestic political significance because of the indirect access to the sea. Since there is no land connection to Bolivia from there, the use of the port is limited.

During the presidency of Paz Zamora, Bolivia qualified for the 1994 World Cup in 1993 .

End of career

The MIR and Paz Zamora emerged from the legislative period from 1989-93 clearly weakened. The 1993 election result did not allow Hugo Banzer to take the presidency after the agreements on the presidency of Paz Zamora in 1989. Contributing to this was the fact that MIR Vice President Oscar Eid was sentenced to prison for drug trafficking. Instead, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was sworn in by the MNR. Paz Zamora ran again in 1997 and 2001, but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the MIR faction in Congress was reduced to a fraction of its original strength. Paz Zamoras last ran in 2005 in a kind of gubernatorial election without success and was defeated by the MNR candidate Cossío , a former Congress President.

This ended a career that was marked by great expectations but also by corruption scandals. Paz Zamora probably sealed his own fate when he entered into the alliance in 1989 with the democratically transformed former General Hugo Banzer, whom he had long fought as a dictator.

Personal

Jaime Paz Zamora is divorced from his ex-wife Carmen Pereira Carballo .

He was a professor of sociology and political science.

His son Rodrigo Paz Pereira has been the mayor of Tarija since March 2015 .

Web links

• Biography (spanish)
• Wikipedia (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Klaus: Like grapes and wine? In: Die Zeit (= Die Zeit. Issue 39). September 18, 1992.
2. ↑ Rodrigo Paz juró como alcalde de Tarija y Unir se queda con la directiva del Concejo eju.tv May 30, 2015 ( Spanish )

predecessor	Office	successor
Víctor Paz Estenssoro	President of Bolivia 1989 - 1993	Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada

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