Víctor Paz Estenssoro

Víctor Paz Estenssoro was born on October 2, 1907, in Tarija. Trained in economics and law, he founded the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) in 1941, articulating a mass anti-oligarchic political agenda after witnessing the social devastation of the Chaco War.

When the MNR seized power in the April 1952 Bolivian National Revolution, Paz Estenssoro was swept into the presidency. In historic decrees, his government granted universal suffrage (enfranchising illiterate and indigenous populations for the first time), nationalized the three major tin cartels into COMIBOL, and redistributed hacienda estates through the 1953 Agrarian Reform. In his fourth presidency (1985–1989), he dramatically reversed policy with Supreme Decree 21060 to stabilize hyperinflation.