Bolivian Socialist Falange
Encyclopedia
The Bolivian Socialist Falange was a Bolivia
n political party established in the year 1937. A right-wing party drawing inspiration from fascism, it was the country's second-largest party between approximately 1954 and 1974. After that, its followers have tended to graviate toward the officialist military candidacy of General Juan Pereda
(1978) and, especially, toward the ADN
party of former dictator Hugo Banzer
.
by a group of exiles (chief among which was Óscar Únzaga
de la Vega), the FSB initially drew its inspiration from Spanish falangism
. Indeed, in those early years it came close to espousing a Fascist agenda, in the style of Spain's Francisco Franco
and Italy's Benito Mussolini
. It was reformist, however, in that it advocated major transformations to the existing (largely oligarchic) social and political order. This brought it more into the sphere of other "revolutionary" movements such as the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
of Víctor Paz Estenssoro
, which would come to power after unleashing the 1952 Revolution
. In fact, FSB was at first brought into the MNR coalition at the outbreak of that massive revolt, but backed out at the last moment. A rather minor movement during the 1940s, the "Falange" began to attract major support from former landowners and other members of the Bolivia
n elite after the triumph of the 1952 Revolution, becoming the ruling MNR's main opposition party. FSB's growing popularity coincided, in particular, with a period of high inflation in the country under the Siles Zuazo presidency (1952–56), and included many well-to-do university students. The movement was based on a cell system and so became stronger in some specific areas, notably in La Paz
and Santa Cruz
, although attempts to win over the peasantry in Cochabamba
proved fruitless and damaged the party's growth.
, with the Army
and the Church
held up as the two great pillars of Bolivian society. In the 1950s, the Falange adopted a strong anti-communist
stance, with its leaders being particularly critical of Cuba's Fidel Castro
following his emergence. Alongside this, however, FSB portrayed itself as being nationalist and anti-imperialist.
Nazi German
war criminal Klaus Barbie
settled in La Paz
in 1951 and one of the first sites that he saw was a march by FSB members. Barbie claimed that the sight of the uniformed, armband-wearing militants giving the Roman salute
made him feel at home and he soon sought out leading members of the party and became close to them.
in the 1951 Presidential elections. Bilbao secured a respectable 11% of the vote, and he would later return as a candidate. In those elections, anti-system parties such as the MNR and FSB had won a combined majority, but the MNR were prevented from taking office by military intervention on behalf of the oligarchy, leading to the 1952 Revolution. With the collapse of Bolivia's traditional parties, the FSB found itself as the leading opposition force in the country. Óscar Únzaga
, however, remained the party's undisputed leader, and it was he who led FSB's 1956 presidential ticket. He garnered 15% of the vote in an election that many considered suspect due to massive state support for the officialist candidate, Hernán Siles Zuazo
. FSB lost momentum after the 1959 assassination of its maximum leader and founder, Óscar Únzaga. FSB was at this point strongly suppressed politically, and new parties began to appeal to similar sections of society. The party's vote share fell to 8% in the 1960 elections partly as a result, although no one can be sure that this is indeed the percentage that they obtained.
In 1966, Bilbao ran once again, finishing a distant runner-up to Rene Barrientos
. The FSB continued to be represented in Congress until 1989.
Bolivia did not have another election until the late 1970s. With its leadership back in the hands of Mario Gutiérrez, FSB supported (as did the MNR) the 1971 military coup that brought to power General Hugo Banzer
. Indeed, Gutiérrez served Banzer as his Minister of Foreign Relations for many years. At this point FSB shifted its position somewhat, becoming more of a pro-military conservative
party. The party was excluded from government in 1974 however when Banzer decided to establish a purely military regime without political parties. The FSB's ranks were further diluted when various factions split off from it in the aftermath of the Banzer dictatorship and the electoral upheavals of the 1978-80 period. Ultimately the main body of the FSB was absorbed into the conservative Nationalist Democratic Action (founded by Banzer himself), with a minor group continuing as the Falange Neounzaguista.
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n political party established in the year 1937. A right-wing party drawing inspiration from fascism, it was the country's second-largest party between approximately 1954 and 1974. After that, its followers have tended to graviate toward the officialist military candidacy of General Juan Pereda
Juan Pereda
Juan Pereda Asbún is a former military general and de facto president of Bolivia . Although he ruled for only four months, his ascent to the presidency marked the beginning of the most unstable period in Bolivian history, with nine presidents in a little over 4 years , in comparison to only one in...
(1978) and, especially, toward the ADN
Nationalist Democratic Action
Nationalist Democratic Action is a right-wing political party in Bolivia led by Jorge Quiroga. ADN was founded on March 23, 1979 by the military dictator Hugo Banzer after he stepped down from power. It later expanded to include the Revolutionary Left Party and a faction of the Bolivian Socialist...
party of former dictator Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer Suárez was a politician, military general, dictator and President of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a dictator; and then again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, as constitutional President.-Military and ideological...
.
Foundation and early development
Founded in ChileChile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
by a group of exiles (chief among which was Óscar Únzaga
Oscar Unzaga
Óscar Únzaga de la Vega was a Bolivian political figure and rebel. He, most significantly, founded the Bolivian Socialist Falange movement in 1937, and ran for President in the 1956 elections, when his party became the main opposition movement to the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario...
de la Vega), the FSB initially drew its inspiration from Spanish falangism
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
. Indeed, in those early years it came close to espousing a Fascist agenda, in the style of Spain's Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
and Italy's Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. It was reformist, however, in that it advocated major transformations to the existing (largely oligarchic) social and political order. This brought it more into the sphere of other "revolutionary" movements such as the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement is a Bolivian political party, perhaps the most important in the country during the 20th century. At the legislative elections in 2002, the party won, in an alliance with the Free Bolivia Movement, 26.9% of the popular vote and 36 out of 130 seats in the...
of Víctor Paz Estenssoro
Víctor Paz Estenssoro
Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro was a politician and president of Bolivia. He ran for president 8 times , winning in 1951, 1960, 1964, and 1985....
, which would come to power after unleashing the 1952 Revolution
1952 Revolution
The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 , also known as the 23 July Revolution, began on 23 July 1952, with a military coup d'état by the Free Officers Movement, a group of army officers led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. The revolution was initially aimed at overthrowing King Farouk...
. In fact, FSB was at first brought into the MNR coalition at the outbreak of that massive revolt, but backed out at the last moment. A rather minor movement during the 1940s, the "Falange" began to attract major support from former landowners and other members of the Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n elite after the triumph of the 1952 Revolution, becoming the ruling MNR's main opposition party. FSB's growing popularity coincided, in particular, with a period of high inflation in the country under the Siles Zuazo presidency (1952–56), and included many well-to-do university students. The movement was based on a cell system and so became stronger in some specific areas, notably in La Paz
La Paz
Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...
and Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...
, although attempts to win over the peasantry in Cochabamba
Cochabamba
Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...
proved fruitless and damaged the party's growth.
Ideology
Ideologically, the party's stance evolved from an adherence to Spanish falangism to a more moderate form of statism. Perhaps inspired by the efforts of the ruling MNR at perpetuating itself in power in the manner of Mexico's PRI party, FSB, too, sought the creation of a strong single-party stateSingle-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
, with the Army
Military of Bolivia
- Army :The Bolivian Army has around 55,500 men. There are six military regions in the army. The Army is organized into ten divisions...
and the Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
held up as the two great pillars of Bolivian society. In the 1950s, the Falange adopted a strong anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
stance, with its leaders being particularly critical of Cuba's Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
following his emergence. Alongside this, however, FSB portrayed itself as being nationalist and anti-imperialist.
Nazi German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
war criminal Klaus Barbie
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie was an SS-Hauptsturmführer , Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.- Early life :...
settled in La Paz
La Paz
Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...
in 1951 and one of the first sites that he saw was a march by FSB members. Barbie claimed that the sight of the uniformed, armband-wearing militants giving the Roman salute
Roman salute
The Roman salute is a gesture in which the arm is held out forward straight, with palm down, and fingers touching. In some versions, the arm is raised upward at an angle; in others, it is held out parallel to the ground. The former is a well known symbol of fascism that is commonly perceived to be...
made him feel at home and he soon sought out leading members of the party and became close to them.
Electoral performance
The party supported the candidacy of the war hero General Bernardino Bilbao RiojaBernardino Bilbao Rioja
Bernardino Bilbao Rioja was a Bolivian officer who served during the Chaco War . He pioneered the use of air forces in combat ....
in the 1951 Presidential elections. Bilbao secured a respectable 11% of the vote, and he would later return as a candidate. In those elections, anti-system parties such as the MNR and FSB had won a combined majority, but the MNR were prevented from taking office by military intervention on behalf of the oligarchy, leading to the 1952 Revolution. With the collapse of Bolivia's traditional parties, the FSB found itself as the leading opposition force in the country. Óscar Únzaga
Oscar Unzaga
Óscar Únzaga de la Vega was a Bolivian political figure and rebel. He, most significantly, founded the Bolivian Socialist Falange movement in 1937, and ran for President in the 1956 elections, when his party became the main opposition movement to the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario...
, however, remained the party's undisputed leader, and it was he who led FSB's 1956 presidential ticket. He garnered 15% of the vote in an election that many considered suspect due to massive state support for the officialist candidate, Hernán Siles Zuazo
Hernán Siles Zuazo
Hernán Siles Zuazo was a politician from Bolivia. He served as his country's constitutionally elected president twice, from 1956 to 1960 and again from 1982 to 1985....
. FSB lost momentum after the 1959 assassination of its maximum leader and founder, Óscar Únzaga. FSB was at this point strongly suppressed politically, and new parties began to appeal to similar sections of society. The party's vote share fell to 8% in the 1960 elections partly as a result, although no one can be sure that this is indeed the percentage that they obtained.
In 1966, Bilbao ran once again, finishing a distant runner-up to Rene Barrientos
René Barrientos
René Barrientos Ortuño was a Bolivian politician who served as his country's Vice President in 1964 and as its President from 1964 to 1969....
. The FSB continued to be represented in Congress until 1989.
Later development
Following the death of Únzaga, the mainstream of the FSB came under the leadership of Mario Gutiérrez. the party's candidate in the 1960 elections. Following the return of the military to power in the aftermath of the 1964 coup d'état, it was the MNR's turn to be repressed, and FSB's fortunes seemed to be on the rise again.. This was an illusion, however, as the ruling military establishment was not about to be displaced. Presenting once again the venerable Gen. Bilbao Rioja as its candidate in the 1966 elections, FSB was soundly defeated by yet another officialist candidate: the popular General Barrientos, who had led the 1964 anti-MNR revolt.Bolivia did not have another election until the late 1970s. With its leadership back in the hands of Mario Gutiérrez, FSB supported (as did the MNR) the 1971 military coup that brought to power General Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer Suárez was a politician, military general, dictator and President of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a dictator; and then again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, as constitutional President.-Military and ideological...
. Indeed, Gutiérrez served Banzer as his Minister of Foreign Relations for many years. At this point FSB shifted its position somewhat, becoming more of a pro-military conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
party. The party was excluded from government in 1974 however when Banzer decided to establish a purely military regime without political parties. The FSB's ranks were further diluted when various factions split off from it in the aftermath of the Banzer dictatorship and the electoral upheavals of the 1978-80 period. Ultimately the main body of the FSB was absorbed into the conservative Nationalist Democratic Action (founded by Banzer himself), with a minor group continuing as the Falange Neounzaguista.