Background
Óscar Únzaga was born on 19 April 1916 in Cochabamba.
government official politician
Óscar Únzaga was born on 19 April 1916 in Cochabamba.
He was educated there and in the School of Agriculture at the University of Chile. Later, he taught at the Colegio Nacional Sucre.
While exiled in Chile, Unzaga founded the FSB in 1937 and served as its general secretary from 1937 to 1944. Inspired by the fascist Spanish Falange of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the FSB was the first of the new post-Chaco War political parties. It came to represent right-wing interests in the 1950s but gained the support of the urban middle class disaffected with the 1952 revolution. The FSB favored hierarchical discipline and nationalistic mysticism. Under Unzaga’s leadership, it supported the reactionary regime of General Hugo Ballivian in 1951 and refused to support the 1952 revolution.
On November 9, 1953, Unzaga led an FSB coup attempt against President Víctor Paz Estenssoro, who responded by forming a state security apparatus that subjected the FSB and other opposition parties to violent reprisals and internal exile. Subsequently, Unzaga led four other major coup attempts.
In May 1956 Unzaga returned from exile in Chile to participate in the presidential election against MNR candidate Hernán Siles Zuazo. The FSB gained 130,0 votes and became the second largest party and major opposition to the MNR
Bitter feuding between the MNR and FSB climaxed in the revolutionary uprising of April 19, 1959—the birthday of Unzaga. FSB activists were slaughtered as they attempted to seize a military barracks in La Paz. Unzaga’s body was found, and his death was officially termed an “assassination-suicide.” An Organization of American States investigating commission concurred with the official finding that the FSB chief shot himself and that a second shot, fired by his loyal secretary and ex-cadet, René Gallardo, ultimately killed him. Gallardo then also committed suicide. However, within the FSB the tradition persisted that Unzaga was murdered by the MNR government.