Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario

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The Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR; translated "Revolutionary Nationalist Movement" or "National Revolutionary Movement") is a party in Bolivia .

The MNR originally emerged as a left-wing reformist party. After the “national revolution” of 1952, it had a dominant position for twelve years. During this period universal suffrage was introduced, tin mines were nationalized, and land reform was carried out. In the course of its history, the party moved considerably to the right and, from the 1980s onwards, advocated neoliberal economic policies. It has been practically meaningless since the mid-2000s.

Foundation phase

As early as the 1930s, a group of radicalized student activists, war veterans and middle-class journalists formed. These first entered the Partido Socialista , including Víctor Paz Estenssoro , Augusto Céspedes , Hernán Siles Zuazo , and Wálter Guevara Arze . In 1936 they founded the newspaper "La Calle", which represented sharply nationalist and anti-imperialist positions and agitated against the oligarchy of tin mine owners called Rosca , which they attacked as class enemies of the Bolivian people.

Then on May 10, 1941 they founded the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario. Its first chairman was Paz Estenssoro. The party had an anti-imperialist and revolutionary-nationalist orientation and positioned itself against the rule of the oligarchs and “tin barons”. Their ideology was a mixture of nationalist and socialist elements. In her first program she promised a strong, secure state, economic independence and sovereignty for the Bolivian people. Parts of the MNR were also influenced by fascist models, which their leaders openly admitted. In particular, they adopted the concept of a “proletarian nation” from Italian fascism. The MNR as such cannot be classified as a fascist party. The MNR called for the nationalization of mines and key industries as well as a revolutionary change in the distribution of power in the country. Some MNR leaders hoped for support from fascist Germany and Italy in implementing this program. The interests of the indigenous population initially played no role in the party's plans.

Hernán Siles Zuazo (1952)
Víctor Paz Estenssoro (1955)

The young party sought support from both the middle class and the trade unions. The MNR was very attractive to Bolivian intellectuals from an early stage. Sections of the party maintained close ties to the radical officers' association Razón de Patria (RADEPA) and, like them, showed open sympathy for the Axis powers in terms of foreign policy . After Major Gualberto Villarroel López's coup in December 1943, the latter appointed three representatives of the pro-fascist wing in the MNR to his cabinet, which was the first time the party was involved in government. This was overthrown in July 1946 by an anti-fascist coalition made up of representatives of the conservative elite and the Marxist Partido de la Izquierda Revolucionaria (PIR).

"National Revolution" and Takeover

The MNR then separated from its pro-fascist elements. In the following years it was able to build a close alliance with the influential miners union Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia (FSTMB) under the leadership of Juan Lechín Oquendo , which had previously been connected with the Trotskyist Partido Obrero Revolucionario (POR). In the following years, the MNR developed from a rather modest, politically confused group to an influential movement of both the middle and the working class, which, as the most important representative of the opposition to the traditional elite, advocated a social upheaval. As a populist and anti-imperialist left-wing national party with a cross-class mass base, the Bolivian MNR can be compared with the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in Mexico, the APRA in Peru and the Acción Democrática in Venezuela. In mid-1949 it undertook an uprising against the government of Enrique Hertzog , but it narrowly failed. MNR chairman Paz Estenssoro won the 1951 presidential election, while Siles Zuazo was elected vice-president. Their government program envisaged nationalization of mining and agricultural reform. This posed a dangerous threat to the mine and large landowners. The military took power to prevent a government of the MNR. The election was canceled and the MNR was banned as a supposedly “communist” organization.

In this situation, in April 1952 , the MNR took the lead in the successful “national revolution”. The party then ruled the country until a military coup in 1964 . Paz Estenssoro (President 1952–56 and 1960–64) and Siles Zuazo (President 1956–60) introduced universal suffrage, nationalized the tin mines, and initiated an extensive program of agricultural reforms. Its stated role model was the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20 and the de facto by these came to power Unity Party PRI. Like this, the MNR was supposed to control Bolivian society and established a de facto one-party system behind the facade of democratic institutions and not a pluralistic, free democracy. For the economic development of the country they did not pursue state-social concepts like the early MNR , but according to the Mexican model a state-controlled capitalism, i.e. a market economy system with state-set rules in which the state also intervened as a corporate actor.

Divisions

However, Siles and Paz fell out in the early 1960s due to the political ambition of Paz Estenssoro. Important personalities like Walter Guevara Arze had already left the party in the late 1950s or - like Juan Lechín in 1964 - were expelled from the party. Siles then formed the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario de Izquierda (MNRI) and Lechín the Partido Revolucionario de la Izquierda Nacional (PRIN).

The years in exile deepened the internal party disputes. The MNR remained firmly in the hands of Paz Estenssoro, who helped the dictator Hugo Banzer Suárez to power in 1971 . This political move cost the party important political prestige among the electorate. While the MNR under Paz continued to drift politically to the right, only Siles Zuazo managed to maintain the reputation and respect for the causes of the 1952 revolution, now in the Unidad Democrática y Popular (UDP) party and in the alliance with the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

Change of government and opposition in the 1980s and 1990s

Paz Estenssoro led his MNR in the 1978, 1979 and 1980 elections, where he came third, second and second, respectively. In the transition phase 1979/1980 the MNR politician Lidia Gueiler Tejada was the first female head of state in Bolivia. In 1985 , Paz was reappointed president and ruled for a term until he retired from active politics in 1989. In his final tenure, he took action to combat hyperinflation , curtailed the rights of powerful unions, and sacked 30,000 miners due to the global fall in tin prices. This painful adjustment policy of the old Paz and his bustling planning minister Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada became known as the "New Economic Policy" and initiated the neoliberal policy of the following years.

Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (2003)

Under Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, the MNR won the 1993 elections and continued the extensive institutional, economic reforms of the New Economic Policy. In the 1997 elections, the party with its candidate Juan Carlos Durán was only the second strongest force and lost the presidency to the former dictator Hugo Banzer of the right-wing Acción Democrática Nacionalista (ADN).

In the elections in August 2002, the MNR, in an alliance with the moderate left Movimiento Bolivia Libre (MBL), won 26.9% of the vote, 36 of 130 MPs and 11 of 27 Senate seats. Her presidential candidate Sánchez de Lozada achieved the highest share of the vote with 22.5%, just ahead of Evo Morales from the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), and was then appointed president by parliament for a second term. The MNR then ruled in a coalition with the actually rival MIR of the defeated candidate Jaime Paz Zamora . The US government had urged this coalition to prevent Morales from taking over. In 2003, Sánchez de Lozada's government was confronted with mass protests accusing him of corruption and mismanagement. He had to resign after attempting to violently suppress it, which killed at least 60 people ("black October"). Lozada's successor was his independent Vice President Carlos Mesa .

The MAS founded in 1997 by Evo Morales, who won the presidential election in 2005, largely followed the earlier, populist MNR and its “national revolution” of 1952 in its program.

Loss of importance since the 2000s

In the December 2005 elections, the MNR only received 6.5% of the vote nationwide. This result is also blamed on the unsatisfactory demeanor of MNR candidate Michiaki Nagatani Morishita . Strongholds of the MNR remained the eastern lowland departments of Beni (30.1%), Tarija (14.0%) and Santa Cruz (11.6%). Then it became even less important. In the election to a constituent assembly in 2006, the MNR only got 3.9% of the vote. In the 2009 and 2014 presidential elections, the party no longer put up its own candidate.

For the 2020 election, right-wing religious politician Luis Fernando Camacho , who was instrumental in the coup against Evo Morales , announced his candidacy for the party.

Web links

literature

  • Eduardo Arze Cuadros: Bolivia - El Programa del MNR y la Revolución Nacional. Del Movimiento de Reforma Universitaria al ocaso del modelo neoliberal (1928–2002). Plural, La Paz 2002.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Waltraud Q. Morales: A Brief History of Bolivia. 2nd edition, Facts on File, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-8160-7877-6 , p. 119.
  2. ^ A b c Morales: A Brief History of Bolivia. 2010, p. 120.
  3. ^ Cole Blasier: The United States and the Revolution. In: Beyond the Revolution. Bolivia since 1952. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 1971, p. 55.
  4. ^ A b c d Jonathan Kelley, Herbert S. Klein: Revolution and the Rebirth of Inequality. A Theory Applied to the National Revolution in Bolivia. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 93.
  5. ^ A b c d Stanley G. Payne : A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison / London 1995, ISBN 0-299-14870-X , p. 344.
  6. a b c d e f Thomas Pampuch, Agustín Echalar: Bolivia. 4th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2009, p. 57.
  7. a b c d e Kelley, Klein: Revolution and the Rebirth of Inequality. 1981, p. 94.
  8. ^ Daniel Hellinger: Electoral and party politics. In: Developments in Latin American political economy. States, markets and actors. Manchester University Press, Manchester / New York 1999, p. 57.
  9. Pampuch, Echalar: Bolivia. 2009, pp. 57-58.
  10. James M. Malloy, Eduardo Gamarra: The Transition to Democracy in Bolivia. in: Authoritarians and Democrats. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 1987, p. 94.
  11. ^ Daniel Bergfeld: American interests in Bolivia. Goals, instruments, implementation. In: Bolivia. State collapse as collateral damage. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, pp. 102-103.
  12. Hans-Jürgen Puhle: Populism. Form or content? In: Criticism and Passion. From dealing with political ideas. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2011, p. 40.