Hugo Banzer Suárez (May 10, 1926 – May 5, 2002) was a Bolivian soldier, polititian and statesman. Served as President of the Republic twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a de facto incumbent; and again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, but now as a Constitutional incumbent.
Descendant of German immigrants, Banzer attended military schools in Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and United States, included the Armoured Cavalry School at Fort Hood, Texas, and the renowned School of the Americas at the Panama Canal, where was trained in counterinsurgency tactics.
Promoted to colonel in 1961 and appointed three years later to head the Ministry of Education and Culture in the Government led by Gen. René Barrientos Ortuño, a personal friend, Banzer was increasingly involved in political environments, siding with the right wing of the Bolivian Army, and, as director of the Military Academy and the Coronel Gualberto Villarroel Military School, in the anti-guerrilla warfare.
In October 1970 he took part in a rightist coup d'état that deposed the then military president, Gen. Alfredo Ovando Candía, but Banzer's triumvirate was inmediately overthrown by a countercoup staged by Gen. Juan José Torres González , a leftist official. Banzer fled abroad, but didn't renounce to his ambition of power.
Following a failed attempt, on August 18, 1971 Banzer masterminded a successful "revolutionary" uprising that erupted in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where had many supporters, and gained control over La Paz. A three-man Military Junta of Government was formed, and Banzer, one of its members, was given full powers on August 22. In the next 7 years and with the rank of Army General, Banzer ruled Bolivia as a dictator and a de facto, non-Constitutional, president.
Banzer banned the leftist parties, suspended the powerful trade union Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) and closed universities. He immediately received political support from the moderate rightist Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR, Nationalist Revolutionary Movement) led by former president Víctor Paz Estenssoro and the far-right Falange Socialista Boliviana (FSB, Bolivian Socialist Phalanx)...
(under construction)
In 1997, Banzer was elected back into office for five years, representing the ADN party (Acción Democrática Nacionalista). During this period, he launched, under the auspices the United States, a program for fighting drug-trafficking in Bolivia which called for the eradication of coca, a highly controversial strategy. In 2001, he was stricken by lung cancer; he resigned and was succeeded by the vice president, Jorge Quiroga. Banzer died in 2002.
Note: In accordance with the rules of Spanish orthography, Banzer should be spelled Bánzer. But because Banzer was originally a German name, the a is not accented.
External link
See also
Last updated: 06-27-2005 09:06:20