Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada
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| Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada | |
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| In office 6 August 1993 – 6 August 1997 6 August 2002 – 17 October 2003 |
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| Preceded by | Jaime Paz Zamora (1993) Jorge Quiroga Ramírez (2002) |
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| Succeeded by | Hugo Banzer Suárez (1997) Carlos Mesa (2003) |
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| Born | 1 July 1930 Cochabamba, Bolivia |
| Political party | MNR |
| Spouse | Ximena Iturralde de Sánchez de Lozada |
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada Bustamante (born July 1, 1930), familiarly known as "Goni", is a Bolivian politician, businessman, and former president. A life-long member of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR), he is credited for using "shock therapy", the economic theory championed by Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs. This extreme measure was used by Bolivia in 1985 (when Sánchez de Lozada was planning minister in the government of president Víctor Paz Estenssoro) to cut down on rampant hyperinflation caused by excessive government spending. More broadly, he is credited with having engineered the neoliberal restructuring of the Bolivian state and the dismantling the statist model that had prevailed in the country since the advent of the 1952 Revolution.
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[edit] Political life
Sánchez de Lozada spent his early years in the United States, where he studied literature and philosophy in the University of Chicago. He later returned to his country and became a wealthy mining entrepreneur. He served twice as president of Bolivia, both in representation of the MNR party. During his first term, (1993-1997) he initiated a series of reforms that included decentralizing the country, bilingual education, popular participation, health reform and significant changes to the constitution. Elected to a second term in 2002 with only 22% of the vote, he was ousted by violent protests in October 2003 in which at least 59 people died. In April 2004, he resigned the leadership of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, MNR). Regardless of whether one agrees with his ideas, Sánchez is one of the two most influential national politicians (alongside Hugo Banzer) to emerge in Bolivia from the post-1964 period.
In 1985, Sánchez de Lozada was elected senator from Cochabamba. Soon after, Víctor Paz Estenssoro named him Planning Minister. As Planning Minister, Sánchez de Lozada oversaw a series of economic structural reforms that steered the country away from state capitalism, towards a neoliberal economic model.
Sánchez de Lozada ran for president unsuccessfully in 1989 as the MNR candidate. While he won the plurality with 25.6% of the valid vote, the National Congress (charged with electing the president when no candidate receives 50% of the popular vote) selected the third-place winner, Jaime Paz Zamora of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who had won 21.8% of the valid vote. Paz Zamora was backed by Hugo Banzer of Democratic Nationalist Action (ADN), who had won 25.2% of the valid vote, in a coalition government.
[edit] The first presidency: 1993-1997
In 1993, Sánchez de Lozada again ran for president, this time in alliance with the Tupac Katari Revolutionary Liberation Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Katari de Liberación, MRTKL), an indigenous party led by Víctor Hugo Cárdenas. The MNR-MRTKL ticket won the first plurality, this time with 35.6% of the valid vote, and Sánchez was confirmed as president by Congress. A coalition government that included the Free Bolivia Movement (MBL) and Civic Solidarity Union (UCS) was formed. The 1993 electoral victory also made Cárdenas Bolivia's first indigenous vice president. Together, the coalition parties had won 54.7% of the valid vote and held 79 (of 130) seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 18 (of 27) seats in the Senate.
The 1993-1997 MNR-led government initiated a series of economic and political structural reforms. These included the Law of Popular Participation, which decentralized the country by creating 311 (since expanded to 321) municipal governments. The measure introduced direct, popular elections to much of the rural countryside, and included a change in federal spending that guaranteed 20% to be distributed to the municipal governments on a per capita basis. Other reforms included educational reforms that introduced bilingual education; reforms to decentralize the national government bureaucracy; and significant changes to the constitution, including recognition of Bolivia as a "plurinational, multicultural" republic.
Other reforms were more controversial, such as the Capitalization Law, which "privatized" the majority of the state-owned industries. Though not sold outright (the Bolivian state retained 49% ownership), the law was controversial because it ceded control over state industries to foreign interests. Supporters of the law, however, pointed out that profits from the sale of controlling interests of the state companies were used to create a national pension plan, the BONOSOL, which provided elderly citizens a small yearly stipend (the first of its kind).
Finally, the structural reforms also included changes to the country's electoral laws. A new mixed-member proportional electoral system was introduced. The change created 70 single-seat districts won by plurality, with the remaining 60 seats determined by votes cast for the presidential ballot. Also, the president would no longer be elected from among the top three contenders (if no candidate won an absolute majority), but from among the top two.
[edit] The second presidency: 2002-2003
In 2002, Sánchez de Lozada again ran for president, this time in alliance with the left-wing MBL. As his running mate, Sánchez de Lozada chose Carlos Mesa, an apolitical, independent historian and journalist who nonetheless had MBL sympathies. After an especially difficult and controversial campaign, the MNR-MBL ticket won the first plurality (22.5% of the valid vote), edging out Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) (which had 20.94% of the valid vote); the center-right neopopulist candidate, Manfred Reyes Villa of NFR placed a close third (with 20.91% of the valid vote). After a difficult coalition-building process, Sánchez de Lozada was elected in a coalition that included: MNR-MNR, MIR, ADN, and UCS. Together, the coalition parties had won 47.7% of the valid vote and held 71 (of 130) seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 (of 27) seats in the Senate.
[edit] Gas War and resignation
During the Bolivian Gas War (more than 50 people died) in his truncated second term, Sánchez de Lozada was criticized because multinationals were allowed to continue receiving an 82% share of profits from Bolivia's natural gas reserves, leaving around 18% for social spending. This was denied by all corporations, showing contracts and tax bills, that taxes alone were on top of 45% and profits were split with the government. This was used by Evo Morales to anger many Bolivians and propelled a populist uprising led by syndicalists Jaime Solares and Roberto De la Cruz, cocalero Evo Morales, and indigenous leader Felipe Quispe, fed by rumors that Bolivia would export gas to the USA and Mexico using Chilean ports, a country widely despised since the War of the Pacific. The uprising that resulted in October 2003 had many different goals, converging eventually on calls for full nationalization of Bolivia's hydrocarbons industry.
The indigenous protests began July 2003 earlier over long-standing grievances with the Bolivian government. These protests involved highway road blockades and the stoppage of all city activity. The most pronounced example was Sorata which ended violently after Bolivian troops tried to free about a thousand tourists held hostage in the town of Sorata. The confrontation left six citizens dead.
The syndicalist protests led by Jaime Solares and Roberto De la Cruz aimed primarily at revoking the government's neoliberal policies in place since 1985. Protestor's demands included calls for full nationalization of the nation's hydrocarbon industry and stronger social programs. Some protestors focused on a return to the corporatist policies of the post-revolutionary state.
The cocalero protests were less prevalent in the conflict, limited principally to the usual demands for an end to coca eradication efforts. Their leader, Evo Morales, later joined in demands for oil and gas nationalization, but vacillated between full nationalization and legislation to impose much higher tax rates (50%).
The protests were originally localized around La Paz and the surrounding countryside. By mid-October, they spread to Cochabamba, an Evo Morales stronghold. On 17 October, a group of Evo Morales sympathizers tried to march into Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and were assaulted by local citizens, many of whom still supported the besieged president. In order to bring an end to the chaos in La Paz and El Alto (in which at least 50 people were killed [1]), Sánchez de Lozada resigned on 17 October 2003 and today lives in the United States. The National Congress accepted his resignation, and installed Sánchez's vice-president Carlos Mesa as constitutional president.
Apparently protected by the U.S. government, Sánchez currently resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The government of Evo Morales (winner of the 2005 elections) is currently pressing Washington to serve Goni his papers to testify in court. Morales has also sought international support for his effort to bring the former leader to the Bolivian justice.
[edit] Trivia
- Our Brand is Crisis, a behind-the-scenes 2006 documentary about Sánchez de Lozada's second presidential campaign and the advice he received from American political strategists including Stan Greenberg and James Carville.
- His niece, Kori Udovički, was the first female Governor of the National Bank of Serbia.
[edit] See also
[edit] External link
| Preceded by Jaime Paz Zamora |
President of Bolivia 1993-1997 |
Succeeded by Hugo Banzer |
| Preceded by Jorge Quiroga Ramírez |
President of Bolivia 2002-2003 |
Succeeded by Carlos D. Mesa Gisbert |
