Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz

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Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz (1931-1980) was a noted writer, dramatist, jourmalist, social commentator, university professor, and socialist political leader from Bolivia.

Born in Cochabamba, Quiroga joined in his youth the right-of-center Falange Socialista Boliviana. Later, his thinking underwent a metamorphosis and he began to tilt considerably toward the left of the political spectrum. As a congressman, he was jailed by the regime of General René Barrientos (1966-69) for his loud denunciation of the 1967 "San Juan Massacre," in which dozens of dissenting miners were murdered by the army in the Bolivian highlands. In 1969, he was appointed Minister of Mining and Energy by de-facto President Alfredo Ovando, who purported to be a populist dedicated to bringing major structural reforms. Quiroga Santa Cruz recommended, and then carried out, the controversial nationalization of the Bolivian concerns of the U.S.-based Gulf Oil Company. This turned him into a national celebrity of sorts. Forced out of the Ovando government by conservative officers who did not consider him a friend of the military institution, Quiroga went on to form, in 1971, the Partido Socialista (Socialist party of Bolivia). His portion of the party then came to be known as the Partido Socialista-1 following a split while in exile during the long years of the Hugo Banzer dictatorship (1971-78).

Upon returning to Bolivia in 1978, Quiroga Santa Cruz participated in the presidential elections of 1979 (inconclusive) and 1980. He did particularly well in the 1980 contest, when he finished fourth with double the number of votes he had received in 1979. He was clearly on the rise, and, in fact, had become the most visible and popular spokesman for the Socialist left. From his congressional seat, he led the effort to bring to trial the former dictator Hugo Banzer Suárez, on charges of massive human rights violations and economic mismanagement. This may have cost him his life, for Quiroga was brutally abducted and subsequently assassinated during the early hours of the July 17, 1980, reactionary coup led by General Luis Garcia Meza. His body was never recovered, but many witnessed his wounding at, and abduction by security forces from, the headquarters of the Central Obrera Boliviana. He had been participating in a high-level meeting to discuss ways to resists the coup.

A gifted orator and uncompromising idealist, Quiroga is revered in Bolivia as one of the martyrs of the anti-authoritarian and pro-democratic struggles of the 1970s.