The Fate Of Peasants Post-Bolivian Revolution

The Bolivian Revolution of 1952, also known as the Revolution of '52, was a series of political demonstrations led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) that sought to overthrow the ruling Bolivian oligarchy and implement a new socioeconomic model in Bolivia. The MNR government lasted from 9 April 1952 until the coup of 4 November 1964.

The Revolution of 1952 implemented universal suffrage, granting the right to vote to the illiterate, indigenous peoples and women, and established the Bolivian Workers' Center to integrate the unions of miners, factories, railway workers, banks, graphics, industry and commerce employees, builders, bakers and farmers.

The MNR also aimed to abolish feudal landholding practices and turn tenants and dispossessed agrarians into small property owners and farmers. The Agrarian Reform Law, passed in 1953, abolished forced labour and established a program of expropriation and distribution of the rural property of the traditional landlords to the Indian peasants.

Universal suffrage was granted to all adults, regardless of gender, education, or property ownership

The Bolivian Revolution of 1952, also known as the Revolution of '52, was a series of political demonstrations led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) that overthrew the ruling Bolivian oligarchy and implemented a new socioeconomic model in Bolivia. The MNR government lasted from 9 April 1952 until a coup on 4 November 1964.

On 24 June 1952, the MNR government introduced universal suffrage, granting the right to vote to the illiterate, indigenous peoples and women. This increased the number of voters from 205,000 (6.6% of the total population) in 1951 to 1,125,000 (33.8%) in 1956.

The MNR believed that by nationalising Bolivia's mineral wealth and turning its profits towards the national good, they could bring wealth and health to Bolivia's people. They also hoped to abolish feudal landholding practices and turn tenants and dispossessed agrarians into small property owners and farmers.

The MNR's introduction of universal suffrage was a radical measure in the Latin American context. It was a political revolution that was equated with the Mexican Revolution and preceded the Cuban Revolution.

The MNR formed militias with workers and peasants to replace the army

The MNR's decision to arm the workers and peasants and include them in the militias was influenced by the belief that this would help bring Bolivia into the modern world. The MNR wanted to strengthen the country's national control over its human and natural resources, and it saw these groups as crucial components in forging a modern nation.

The formation of the militias was part of a broader set of reforms implemented by the MNR during its rule from 1952 to 1964. These reforms included nationalizing the country's mineral wealth, particularly the tin mines, and enacting an agrarian reform to abolish feudal landholding practices and turn tenants and dispossessed agrarians into small property owners and farmers. The MNR also sought to abolish the legacies of colonialism by abolishing race and replacing indigenous difference with national belonging.

The MNR's efforts to include the workers and peasants in the militias and grant them political rights had a significant impact on Bolivian society. It transformed the subjectivities of these groups and changed the existing political culture of Bolivia, making the country more democratic and inclusive. However, the MNR's rule was not without criticism, particularly regarding the brutality of its Political Control body and the use of concentration camps for political opponents.

The MNR's Agrarian Reform Decree redistributed land to indigenous peasants

The MNR's Agrarian Reform Decree, signed on 2 August 1953, redistributed land to indigenous peasants. The decree offered compensation to landowners and granted haciendas to Indians through their unions and communities, on the condition that the land was not sold. The MNR believed that by returning the land to the workers, they could strengthen Bolivia's national control over its human and natural resources.

The implementation of the reform was challenging, with only 48.8% of the 15,322 cases initiated between 1953 and 1966 being concluded. The MNR retired around 300 officers and reduced the army's size and budget. In their place, the MNR formed militias with workers and peasants, which predominated in internal security and public order until 1956.

The MNR's Agrarian Reform Decree was part of a broader set of changes, which included granting the right to vote to illiterate, indigenous peoples, and women, and nationalizing the mines. These changes gave peasants a powerful influence, and they remained a political force during subsequent governments. However, the MNR's quick retreat from labour politics and agrarian radicalism has been criticised.

The MNR's cultural revolution aimed to highlight Bolivia's distinctive cultural heritage as an integral part of national identity

Cultural production in the revolution incorporated indigenous figures from history alongside workers and peasants struggling towards progress. MNR newspapers highlighted stories of indigenous leaders traveling to La Paz to meet with government officials. Workers in Bolivia's mining camps argued that the physical process of their labor had transformed an innate indigenous tendency towards rebellion into the disciplined militancy of a revolutionary vanguard. In all these images, the indigenous Bolivian was a crucial component, a natural resource crucial to the process of forging a modern nation.

The MNR's elision of race through class obscured some significant divisions among rural agrarian groups. Some of these groups spoke Quechua, some Aymara, and many spoke neither, or one of Bolivia's 30 other indigenous languages. Many peasants were, in fact, landless laborers who worked for wealthy landowners who, under the agrarian reform, wanted to expropriate the land they worked. Others, however, were communities with ethnic and territorial bonds who wanted restitution of communal land rights stolen in past decades or centuries. The agrarian reform law saw them all as peasants and provided no clear-cut solution to which kinds of claims should take precedence.

The MNR's education reforms extended education to the majority and re-oriented education towards technical education

The Bolivian Revolution of 1952, also known as the Revolution of '52, was a series of political demonstrations led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR). The MNR government lasted from 9 April 1952 until a coup on 4 November 1964.

In the aftermath of the revolution, the MNR government introduced universal suffrage in June 1952, granting the right to vote to the illiterate, indigenous peoples, and women. This increased the number of voters from 205,000 (6.6% of the population) in 1951 to 1,125,000 (33.8%) in 1956.

In 1953, the government created the National Commission for Educational Reform, which presented its proposal in 120 days. In 1955, the Bolivian Education Code was enacted, dividing the educational system into an urban area, managed by the Ministry of Education, and rural education, managed by the newly-created Ministry of Peasant Affairs.

The Code extended education to the majority and re-oriented education towards technical education. It also emphasised the importance of teaching the Castilian language to Bolivia's Indigenous communities.

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