President Victor Paz Estenssoro
President of Bolivia, Bolivian 1907-2001
President of Bolivia from 1952-56, 1960-64, 1985-89. Also Bolivian Ambassador to England (1956-1960)
He studied economics before serving in the Chaco War (1932-1935) and later became an economics adviser to the government. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1940 and the next year helped found the influential Nationalist Revolutionary Movement. He was minister of finance under President Gualberto Villarroel and fled to Buenos Aires after Villarroel was overthrown in 1946; from exile he won election to the presidency in 1951. Taking office in 1952, he nationalized the foreign-owned tin companies that had dominated Bolivia, instituted agrarian reform, and brought the vote to the highland Native Americans. He was reelected president in 1960 (having served during the interim as ambassador to London) and again in 1964, but was deposed shortly afterward. He remained in exile until 1971. He was also expelled in 1974 but returned in 1978. Congress chose him as president in 1985, although he lost the popular vote. Paz Estenssoro stepped down in 1989, after the Congress selected Jaime Paz Zamora to be president.
He studied economics before serving in the Chaco War (1932-1935) and later became an economics adviser to the government. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1940 and the next year helped found the influential Nationalist Revolutionary Movement. He was minister of finance under President Gualberto Villarroel and fled to Buenos Aires after Villarroel was overthrown in 1946; from exile he won election to the presidency in 1951. Taking office in 1952, he nationalized the foreign-owned tin companies that had dominated Bolivia, instituted agrarian reform, and brought the vote to the highland Native Americans. He was reelected president in 1960 (having served during the interim as ambassador to London) and again in 1964, but was deposed shortly afterward. He remained in exile until 1971. He was also expelled in 1974 but returned in 1978. Congress chose him as president in 1985, although he lost the popular vote. Paz Estenssoro stepped down in 1989, after the Congress selected Jaime Paz Zamora to be president.