 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
President, all 109 Deputies and 27 Senators in the National Congress | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registered | 104,612 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 64.54% | |||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|---|
 Boliviaportal |
General elections were held in Bolivia on 10 March 1940, electing both a new President of the Republic and a new National Congress. The elections were the first in six years since 1934 and the first not to be annulled in nine years since the general election of 1931. [1]
Since 1936, Bolivia had experienced a left-wing shift in government under the Military Socialist regimes of David Toro and Germán Busch. This period came to an end when Busch committed suicide on 23 August 1939, four months after dissolving the assembly and declaring himself dictator. Immediately following the death of Busch, the armed forces appointed General Carlos Quintanilla, the commander-in-chief of the army, to the office of president. Quintanilla soon set about reversing course on the more radical elements of the previous governments and returning the country to the conservative status quo prior to the Chaco War.
Though Quintanilla attempted to exercise a longer government, the prolonged indecision to call elections was met by opposition from the traditional political parties which sought to reassert themselves for the first time since the coup d'état which deposed them in 1936. Among the voices demanding elections was General Enrique Peñaranda who declared to the press that the country urgently needed "direct general elections to be called." [2] Finally, a group of representatives from the Liberal (PL), Genuine Republican (PRG), and Socialist Republican (PRG), parties addressed President Quintanilla with the warning that "Deferring for a longer time, without valid reasons, [...] the call for direct elections, will lead public opinion to the conviction that their participation in the electoral plebiscite will only serve to consolidate and legalize public powers [...] and that, therefore, will not be the authentic expression of the popular will." [2]
Given the pressure, Quintanilla put out the call on 6 October 1939, over a month after taking power, for new elections for president and vice president to be held on 10 March 1940. [3] However, only elections for president would occur as on 4 December 1939 the office of vice president was abolished in order to silence calls for Enrique Baldivieso, the former vice president to Germán Busch, to succeed to the presidency. [4]
To secure their chances at victory, the PL, PRG, and PRS consolidated into the Concordance electoral alliance. [5] General Enrique Peñaranda, one of the nearest approximations to a war hero produced by the Chaco War, was brought forth as the coalition's presidential candidate. [5] Peñaranda had been a member of the senior officer corps which after the Chaco War was forced to step aside in favor of the younger generation of officers represented by Germán Busch.
These young officers presented as their presidential candidate General Bernardino Bilbao Rioja, the new commander-in-chief of the army who represented the Military Socialist ideology of Toro and the deceased Busch. [6] Attempts by the mining oligarchy and the traditional parties to discredit Bilbao as a despot attempting to promulgate a leftist dictatorship were unsuccessful. [2] Faced with the possibility that Bilbao could conceivably win, the Quintanilla government summoned him to the government palace where he was beaten, gagged, and deported to Arica, Chile. [6] Though Bilbao's return was negotiated under threat of a military revolt from the young officers, he was sent directly from exile to London as a military attaché, removing him from circulation as a viable candidate.
As a result, Peñaranda's main electoral opposition came from José Antonio Arze. One of the primary sociologists and Marxist theorists in Bolivia, Arze had just that year returned from exile in Chile, having proven too far left even for the Military Socialist regime of David Toro which deported him in September 1936. [7] In April 1939, while still in Chile, Arze had formed the Bolivian Left Front (FIB), publishing a manifesto naming the FIB a union of the entire left-wing political spectrum. Despite this, the FIB maintained distinctly Marxist characteristics. For the 1940 elections, Arze ran as an independent as part of the FIB alliance. [8]
Given the suppression of the electoral opposition, Peñaranda and the Concordance coalition won the 10 March elections easily with a popular vote margin of 85.99% to Arze's 11.32% and just 2.69% in favor of Bilbao. Despite the clear victory, the second place success of Arze at almost 15% indicated continued support for the left-wing in Bolivia and paved the way for the FIB to form the Revolutionary Left Party (PIR), one of the most influential leftist parties in 1940s Bolivia, five months later. [9] [7]
Peñaranda was inaugurated as constitutional president on 15 April 1940. [10]
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrique Peñaranda | Concordance | 58,060 | 85.99 | |
| José Antonio Arze | Bolivian Left Front | 7,645 | 11.32 | |
| Bernardino Bilbao Rioja | Independent | 1,813 | 2.69 | |
| Total | 67,518 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 104,612 | – | ||
| Source: Gamboa [11] | ||||
Despite Peñaranda's wide margin of victory, the legislative results were much closer. Right-wing parties (the traditional Liberals (PL), Genuine Republicans (PRG), and Socialist Republicans (PRS), as well as the Radical Party (PR) and affiliated independents, including those associated with the Bolivian Socialist Falange (FSB)) won 61 seats in the Chamber and 23 in the Senate. Left-wing parties (the United Socialist Party (PSU), the Independent Socialist Party (PSI, a precursor to the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR)), the Popular Front of Potosí (FPP), the Workers Socialist Party (PSOB), and affiliated independents) won 48 seats in the Chamber and four in the Senate.
As such, while conservatives held a large majority in the Chamber of Senators, their lead of just 13 seats in the Chamber of Deputies was much narrower. The relative success of the left-wing parties in the legislative elections compared to the presidential elections showed that many Bolivian citizens, while perhaps not as far left as the Communist International affiliated coalition of José Antonio Arze, still supported left-wing policies.
  | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |||||
| Deputies | Senators | |||||||
| Liberal Party | 21 | 9 | ||||||
| United Socialist Party | 18 | 4 | ||||||
| Genuine Republican Party | 17 | 3 | ||||||
| Independent Socialist Party | 15 | 0 | ||||||
| Socialist Republican Party | 12 | 11 | ||||||
| Left-wing independents | 10 | 0 | ||||||
| Right-wing independents | 9 | 0 | ||||||
| Popular Front of Potosí | 4 | 0 | ||||||
| Radical Party | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| FSB independents | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Workers Socialist Party of Bolivia | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Total | 109 | 27 | ||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 104,612 | – | ||||||
| Source: Bustillos & Peñaranda [12] | ||||||||
Gualberto Villarroel López was a Bolivian military officer who served as the 39th president of Bolivia from 1943 to 1946. A reformist, sometimes compared with Argentina's Juan Perón, he is nonetheless remembered for his alleged fascist sympathies and his violent demise on 21 July 1946.
Víctor Germán Busch Becerra was a Bolivian military officer and statesman who served as the 36th president of Bolivia from 1937 to 1939. Prior to his presidency, he served as the Chief of the General Staff and was the Supreme Leader of the Legion of Veterans, a veterans' organization founded by him after his service in the Chaco War.
Carlos Quintanilla Quiroga was a Bolivian general who served as the 37th president of Bolivia on a provisional basis from 1939 to 1940. Quintanilla saw action in the initial stages of the Chaco War (1932–1935) and managed to ascend the echelon of the Bolivian armed forces until he became commander of the army during the administration of Germán Busch. When President Busch committed suicide on 23 August 1939, Quintanilla declared himself Provisional President of the Republic.
Enrique Peñaranda del Castillo was a Bolivian general who served as the 38th president of Bolivia from 1940 until his overthrow in 1943. He previously served as commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces during the second half of the Chaco War (1932–1935).
The Socialist Republican Party, whose members were also known as "Saavedristas", was a political party in Bolivia. The Socialist Republican Party emerged on January 28, 1921, as the Republican Party was bifurcated on the same day Bautista Saavedra took office as President of the country. The Socialist Republican Party was formed by Saavedra's followers.
The Genuine Republican Party was founded in Bolivia in 1921 by José María Escalier and Daniel Domingo Salamanca Urey following a split in the Republican Party.
The Legion of Veterans was a Bolivian Chaco War veterans' organization. It was organized on 13 September 1935 by Lieutenant Colonel Germán Busch from various local veterans groups which had established themselves across the country following the end of the Chaco War. Despite its apolitical stance and fairly consistent commitment to non-party affiliation, the LEC, as a result of its sheer size and ideological commitment to the reformist ideals of the so-called generación del Chaco, soon came to act as the principal source of organized civil-military support for the military regimes of Colonel David Toro and later Lieutenant Colonel Germán Busch.
The Concordance was an electoral political alliance of the right-wing and traditionalist political parties in Bolivia.
The 1940–42 Bolivian National Congress was a meeting the Bolivian legislature composed of the Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies. It met in La Paz from 12 April 1940 to 1942 during the final four days of the interim government of Carlos Quintanilla and the first two years of the Enrique Peñaranda's presidency.
The 1938 Bolivian National Convention was a meeting of the unicameral Bolivian legislature composed of an elected constituent assembly made up of the Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies. It met in La Paz from 25 May to 30 October 1938 and was charged with rewriting the Constitution of Bolivia. President David Toro had called for the National Convention in 1937, but by the time it was held he had been forced to resign in a coup d'état which brought the young lieutenant colonel Germán Busch to power on 13 July 1937.
Events in the year 1940 in Bolivia.
Gualberto Villarroel assumed office as the 39th President of Bolivia on 20 December 1943, and his term was violently cut short by his death on 21 July 1946. A colonel during the Chaco War, Villarroel and the Reason for the Fatherland (RADEPA) military lodge joined the fledgling Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) to overthrow President Enrique Peñaranda in a coup d'état.
Enrique Peñaranda assumed office as the 38th President of Bolivia on 15 April 1940, and his term was terminated by a coup d'état on 20 December 1943. A general in the Chaco War, Peñaranda was brought forth by the traditional conservative political parties, sidelined since the end of the Chaco War, as their candidate in the 1940 general elections.
Germán Busch assumed office as the 36th President of Bolivia on 13 July 1937, and his term was cut short by his death on 23 August 1939. A young military officer during the Chaco War, Busch attempted to champion the cause of Military Socialism brought forth by his predecessor David Toro but, unhappy with the results produced by his few reforms, opted to declare himself dictator in April 1939 before committing suicide four months later.
Carlos Quintanilla assumed office as the interim 37th President of Bolivia on 23 August 1939, and his mandate ended on 15 April 1940. A general of the senior officer corps, Quintanilla assumed control of the presidency on an interim basis following the suicide of his predecessor, Germán Busch.
The 1936 Bolivian coup d'état, also known as the Socialist Revolution of 1936, was a civil-military coup in Bolivia that deposed President José Luis Tejada Sorzano, bringing an end to traditional political order and bringing forward the period of Military Socialism in the country. On 17 May 1936, following the largest strike movement known until then in Bolivia, the military under the young lieutenant colonel Germán Busch overthrew the government of Tejada. Busch held the reins of government until 22 May when Colonel David Toro arrived from the Chaco and assumed the presidency under a military junta supported by the army, organized labor, and the United Socialist Party.
Gabriel Gosálvez Tejada was a Bolivian politician, journalist, economist, and diplomat. Throughout his political career, Gosálvez held various ministerial officers and diplomatic posts as a member of the United Socialist Party. When that party merged into the Republican Socialist Unity Party, Gosálvez was presented as its presidential candidate in the 1951 general election.
The Government Junta of Bolivia, known from 21 June 1936 as the Military Government Junta, was a civil-military junta which ruled Bolivia from 17 May 1936 through 28 May 1938. It consisted of representatives of both the armed forces as well as the civilian sector, including moderate socialists and organized labor leaders. The President of the Junta was Colonel David Toro who came to power on 22 May 1936, six days after a coup d'état which overthrew the previous government. Toro presided over a reformist experiment known as Military Socialism for a little over a year before being overthrown himself in another coup d'état which allowed Lieutenant Colonel Germán Busch to succeed to lead the junta on 13 July 1937. The junta was dissolved on 28 May 1938 when the National Convention elected Busch Constitutional President of the Republic.
The 1934 Bolivian coup d'état, colloquially known as the Corralito of Villamontes, was a military coup in Bolivia that deposed President Daniel Salamanca in the midst of the Chaco War. Two days before the coup, Salamanca and his presidential delegation arrived at the military headquarters in Villamontes with the intent of removing General Enrique Peñaranda as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and replacing him with General José Leonardo Lanza. In response, on 27 November 1934, army high command directed a group of military officers led by Captain Germán Busch to arrest the president and force his resignation.
Carlos Montenegro Quiroga was a Bolivian lawyer, journalist, politician, and writer who served as minister of agriculture from 1943 to 1944. He was the principal political theorist of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, co-founding the party newspaper La Calle which laid the ideological bases of the party. His most famous work, Nacionalismo y coloniaje (1943), an essay on the influence of journalism in the history of Bolivia, is considered to be one of the most influential works in Bolivian historiography.
| Presidential elections | |
|---|---|
| Legislative elections | |
| Local elections | |
| Judicial elections | |
| Ombudsman elections | |
| Referendums | |
