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Liberal Party

Partido Liberal
Liberal Party Partido Liberal
Abbreviation	PL
Founder	Eliodoro Camacho
Founded	1883; 141 years ago
Dissolved	29 April 1979; 45 years ago
Headquarters	La Paz
Ideology	Liberalism
Political position	Big tent
	Politics of Bolivia; Political parties; Elections;

The Liberal Party (Spanish: Partido Liberal; PL) was a liberal political party in Bolivia active between 1883 and 1979. It was one of two major parties, alongside the Conservative Party, that dominated the politics of Bolivia from 1884 to 1920. The Liberals constituted the primary opposition to the Conservatives from 1884 to 1899 and ruled continuously from 1899 to 1920 after taking power in the Federal War. Liberal rule ended in 1920 when the party was ousted in a coup d'état. The Liberals remained intermittently influential and electorally competitive until the Bolivian National Revolution of 1952, and it finally lost its legal party status in 1979, during the democratic transition.

History

The Liberal Party was formally founded in 1883 by Eliodoro Camacho. The party espoused freedom of religion, a strict separation between church and state, legal acceptance of civil marriages and divorce, and strict adherence to democratic procedures. When the party took power in 1899, it moved the base of the presidency and the Congress to La Paz, which became the de facto capital city. The Supreme Court remained in Sucre. To this day, Sucre is the de jure capital of Bolivia while La Paz acts as the de facto seat of government.

Between 1899 and 1920, all of the presidents of Bolivia were members of the Liberal Party, supported by the tin-mining oligarchy until the Republican Party took power in a coup in 1920.

The last Liberal president was José Luis Tejada Sorzano, who served between 1934 and 1936.

By 1940, however, the party had formed a Concordance with their erstwhile Republican opponents to counter the rising tide of radical or revolutionary parties. The Concordance supported the candidate Enrique Peñaranda.^[1]

In 1947, the Liberal Party's Luis Fernando Guachalla narrowly lost to Enrique Hertzog of the Republican Socialist Unity Party (PURS).

In the 1951 elections, Tomás Manuel Elío ran for the Liberal Party but received far fewer votes than the winner.^[2]

For the 1966 elections, the Liberal Party was a component of the Democratic Institutionalist Alliance, with the PURS's Enrique Hertzog as the coalition's presidential candidate and the PL's leader, Eduardo Montes, as his running mate. They polled 11,400 votes (01.13%) and came sixth.^[3]

For the 1978 election, the PL fostered relations with the Nationalist Union of the People (UNP) and its candidate, Juan Pereda. The party put forward Montes as Pereda's running mate but was passed over in favor of Alfredo Franco.^[4] As a result, the PL scrambled to form its own ticket, nominating Montes for president, accompanied by Raúl Monje for vice president. The party failed to meet the filing deadline for ballot access and was consequently barred from competing by the Electoral Court.^[5] It ultimately resigned to endorsing Pereda's candidacy.^[6]

When elections were rerun in 1979, the PL was among several minor fronts not granted legal party status by electoral authorities. On 29 April 1979, the Electoral Court announced that the PL and sixteen other parties had not met the necessary prerequisites to be allowed ballot access, rendering them effectively defunct.^[7]

Electoral history

Electoral history of the Liberal Party
Year	Presidential nominee		Votes			Result	Ref.
Year	Presidential nominee		Total	%	P.	Result	Ref.
1884		Eliodoro Camacho	8,202	27.14%	3rd	Lost	^[8]
1888		Eliodoro Camacho	7,183	20.86%	2nd	Lost	^[9]
1892		Eliodoro Camacho	10,607	Does not appear	2nd	Lost	^[9]
1896		José Manuel Pando	16,709	45.60%	2nd	Lost	^[10]
1904		Ismael Montes	32,884	76.45%	1st	Won	^[11]
1908		Fernando Eloy G.	24,017	Does not appear	1st	Annulled	^[12]
1909		Eliodoro Villazón	32,543	93.50%	1st	Won	^[13]
1913		Ismael Montes	77,731	98.86%	1st	Won	^[14]
1917		José Gutiérrez G.	73,705	88.09%	1st	Won	^[15]
1925		Daniel Salamanca	Does not appear		2nd	Annulled	^[16]
1931		Daniel Salamanca	38,282	78.76%	1st	Won	^[17]
1934		Juan María Zalles	6,642	40.78%	2nd	Annulled	^[17]
1940		Enrique Peñaranda	58,060	85.99%	1st	Won	^[18]
1947		Luis F. Guachalla	43,634	46.74%	2nd	Lost	^[19]
1951		Tomás M. Elío	6,530	5.18%	5th	Annulled	^[20]
1966		Enrique Hertzog	11,330	1.13%	6th	Lost	^[21]
1978		Eduardo Montes	Disqualified			Lost	^[5]
Source: Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 168–228, 413–416

References

Footnotes

^ Bustillos Vera, Jonny and Peñaranda Barrios, Carlos. Hechos y registros de la Revolución Nacional (1939-1946). La Paz, Bolivia: La Palabra, 1996. Pp.54-55.
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
^ Elections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 2. [Oxford] [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. P.150.
^ Presencia 8 June 1978, p. 12; Presencia 10 June 1978, p. 1.
^ ^a ^b Presencia 14 June 1978, p. 10.
^ Presencia 27 June 1978, p. 8.
^ Presencia 30 April 1979, p. 1.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, p. 172.
^ ^a ^b Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 173, 413.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 173–174, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 174, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 174–175, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 175, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 175–176, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 176, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 176–177, 414.
^ ^a ^b Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 177, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 178, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 178–179, 414.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 179–180.
^ Mesa Gisbert 2016, pp. 188–189.

Works cited

Digital and print publications

"El Partido Liberal apoya la candidatura de Juan Pereda" [The Liberal Party Endorses Juan Pereda's Candidacy]. Presencia [es] (in Spanish). La Paz. 27 June 1978. p. 8.
"Partido Liberal propone a Eduardo Montes como compañero de Pereda" [Liberal Party Proposes Eduardo Montes as Pereda's Running Mate]. Presencia [es] (in Spanish). La Paz. 8 June 1978. p. 12.
"Rechazada candidatura Liberal" [Liberal Ticket Rejected]. Presencia [es] (in Spanish). La Paz. 14 June 1978. p. 10.
"Requisitos legales marginaron a 17 grupos de las elecciones" [Legal Requirements Excluded 17 Groups from the Elections]. Presencia [es] (in Spanish). La Paz. 30 April 1979. p. 1.
"UNP se propone perfeccionar obra del gobierno de Banzer" [UNP Aims to Perfect the Work of the Banzer Government]. Presencia [es] (in Spanish). La Paz. 10 June 1978. p. 1.

Books and encyclopedias

Mesa Gisbert, Carlos D. (2016). Presidentes de Bolivia: Entre urnas y fusiles. El poder ejecutivo: Los ministros de Estado (in Spanish) (5th ed.). La Paz: Editorial Gisbert. ISBN 978-99974-834-8-5.