Background
René Barrientos Ortuño was born on 30 May, 1919 in Tarata.
government official politician president
René Barrientos Ortuño was born on 30 May, 1919 in Tarata.
He attended school in Cochabamba and then entered the military academy, from which he was expelled because he supported the Germán Busch government. He was subsequently readmitted and graduated in 1943.
Barrientos entered the Military College of Aviation and studied briefly in the United States, earning his wings in April 1945.
He supported the Gualberto Villarroel López coup in 1943 and participated in the organization of the 1944 peasant congress. Because of his involvement in the 1949 civil war against the entrenched elites, he was retired from the army. He risked his life for the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) revolution in April 1952, flying supply missions from Santa Cruz. His loyal support of the MNR led to Barrientos’ rapid rise in the military from captain to general of the air force and head of the party’s military cell.
Barrientos successfully pressured Víctor Paz Estenssoro to nominate him as a vice presidential running mate for the elections of May 1964. However, Paz’s third term ended precipitously with a coup on November 3, 1964, by Barrientos and General Alfredo Ovando Candia. Barrientos and Ovando assumed temporary executive control. Barrientos resigned from the co-presidency, leaving Ovando in charge in January 1966 to run in the July elections.
On April 27, 1969, Barrientos’ heliocopter mysteriously crashed, ending his life and presidency.
As one of Bolivia’s more flamboyant presidents, Barrientos cultivated a direct, populist leadership style among the peasant masses, especially in the Cochabamba Valley. Fluent in Quechua, he formed personalist alliances with powerful peasant leaders, which he formalized in the Military-Peasant Pact of 1966, which became the basis of military rule in the 1970s. He formed his own political party, the Popular Christian Movement, and a coalition with minor parties, the Bolivian Revolutionary Front, for the 1966 elections. In 1968 he created a single official party, largely a facade for military rule.
Barrientos favored the rise of a new ruling elite of medium-sized mining entrepreneurs, importers, and agrobusinessmen. A new investment code in 1965 encouraged foreign multinational investment. There were bloody clashes ot the military and the miners’ unions in 1965 and 1967. Although the economy grew, it became more dependent. The labor movement was broken and domesticated by the government. However, Barrientos’ popularity with the peasants helped his government in 1967 to rid Bolivia of the Cuban guerrilla oco led by Ernesto (Che) Guevara de la Serna.
