The Program in Agrarian Studies Colloquium presents
Carmen Soliz:
“Revolution and Reaction: Diplomatic Relations between Bolivia and Peru in the 1950s and 1960s.”
In September 1953, the National Federation of Peasants of Peru requested from Bolivian President Víctor Paz Estenssoro a copy of an agrarian reform decree that dismantled feudal estates, abolished forced labor, and redistributed land to peasants. Like Bolivia, Peru had an Indigenous population subjected to peonage. Fearing the effects of the Bolivian reform, Peruvian President Manuel Odría imprisoned peasant leaders and closed the border with Bolivia. This was one of several events that strained diplomatic relations between Peru and Bolivia after Paz Estenssoro and the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) came to power in 1952.
This chapter argues that the MNR’s reforms in Bolivia—such as universal suffrage, peasant unionization, the nationalization of natural resources, and land redistribution—not only transformed Bolivia but also challenged the economic and social order of other countries in the region, a transnational dimension that has received little scholarly attention. The chapter analyzes the tension between the governments of Peru and Bolivia caused by the activities of Aprista exiles in Bolivia working against Odría, and of PURS and Falange activists in Peru opposing the MNR. It examines how Bolivia’s agrarian reform decree further exacerbated the already strained relationship between the two countries. Reports of Indigenous people crossing the border with copies of the decree in their pockets and of jubilant Peruvian Indigenous communities reacting to the news of the reform reflected the perceived threat to the stability of Odría’s regime. Despite efforts by both governments to de-escalate tensions, relations soured again after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, with reports of rebels using Bolivian territory to promote a coup in Peru.