Background
Bautista Saavedra was bom in La Paz on 30 August 1860.
Bautista Saavedra was bom in La Paz on 30 August 1860.
Completed his legal studies in 1896, and became reknowned as a professor of penal law.
Saavedra was originally a Liberal, but in 1914 he and several other prominent Liberals founded the Republican Party, of which he became second vice president. In the Republican Party, “revolution” of July 1920, the Liberal government fell and Saavedra organized an interim governing junta. A national convention in December 1920 split the Republican Party over the rival presidential candidacies of Saavedra, Daniel Salamanca Urey, and two other members of the junta. Saavedra became chief of the Socialist Republican Party and Salamanca leader of the Genuine Republicans. The schism between these two parties and political chieftains dominated public life in the 1920s.
The national convention elected Bautista Saavedra president of the republic for 1921-1925. His term was punctuated by 48 insurrectionary plots and attempted coups, and live cabinet reorganizations.
Based on an agreement with his party, Saavedra transferred the presidency to his rival. Hernando Siles Reyes and became minister to various European governments and to the League of Nations. Exiled in June 1936 by the military socialist government of David Toro, Saavedra died in Santiago de Chile.