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Our Social Conquests Will Be Respected: Peasants and Military Dictatorship in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Our Social Conquests Will Be Respected: Peasants and Military Dictatorship in Cochabamba, Bolivia Peasant support was a crucial factor in the Bolivian military's assault on labor and the Left in the 1960s and 1970s. Analysts have offered diverse explanations for the so-called Military-Peasant Pact, ranging from the bribery of peasant leaders to rank-and-file conservatism. These interpretations tend to be methodologically superficial and often reflect elitist prejudices about peasant behavior. Archival evidence and oral histories from Cochabamba suggest that the pact did enjoy substantial rank-and-file support. The military maintained that support by protecting peasant land rights and expanding rural access to public goods while imposing high costs on peasants who dissented. However, the Military-Peasant Pact was also more tenuous than most scholarship implies. Attempts to institute a new tax on land, to disarm peasants, and to impose austerity measures engendered major opposition by the 1970s, leading to a military massacre in 1974. This trajectory reveals both the foundations and limits of the military's power. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Hispanic American Historical Review Duke University Press

Our Social Conquests Will Be Respected: Peasants and Military Dictatorship in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Young, Kevin A.
Hispanic American Historical Review , Volume 102 (3) – Aug 1, 2022
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Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0018-2168
eISSN
1527-1900
DOI
10.1215/00182168-9798304
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Peasant support was a crucial factor in the Bolivian military's assault on labor and the Left in the 1960s and 1970s. Analysts have offered diverse explanations for the so-called Military-Peasant Pact, ranging from the bribery of peasant leaders to rank-and-file conservatism. These interpretations tend to be methodologically superficial and often reflect elitist prejudices about peasant behavior. Archival evidence and oral histories from Cochabamba suggest that the pact did enjoy substantial rank-and-file support. The military maintained that support by protecting peasant land rights and expanding rural access to public goods while imposing high costs on peasants who dissented. However, the Military-Peasant Pact was also more tenuous than most scholarship implies. Attempts to institute a new tax on land, to disarm peasants, and to impose austerity measures engendered major opposition by the 1970s, leading to a military massacre in 1974. This trajectory reveals both the foundations and limits of the military's power.

Journal

Hispanic American Historical Review – Duke University Press

Published: Aug 1, 2022

References

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    Albó, Xavier Werlein-Jaén, Lianne Stern, Steve J. Stern, Steve J.
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    Albó, Xavier
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    Brill, William H.
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    Calderón, Fernando Dandler, Jorge Calderón, Dandler,
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    Dandler, Jorge Calderón, Dandler,
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    Dandler, Jorge Nash, June Dandler, Jorge Hopkins, Nicholas S.
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    Dandler, Jorge Torrico A, Juan Fite, Hunter Stern, Steve J. Stern, Steve J.
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    Eckstein, Susan
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    Gordillo, José M. Gordillo, José M.
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    Heilman, Jaymie Patricia
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    Lora, Guillermo Mercado, René Zavaleta
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    Mendieta Parada, Pilar
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    Oesch, Daniel
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    Platt, Jonas M.
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    Pruden, Hernán Viaña, Jorge
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    Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia Mercado, René Zavaleta
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    Werner, Bridgette K.
  • Consideraciones generales sobre la historia de Bolivia (1932–1971)
    Zavaleta Mercado, René Casanova, Pablo González
  • From MNRistas to Kataristas to Katari
    Albó, Xavier Werlein-Jaén, Lianne Stern, Steve J. Stern, Steve J.
  • ¿Por qué el campesinado qhochala es distinto? Brochazos de una historia rural diferente en Cochabamba
    Albó, Xavier
  • Military Civic Action in Bolivia
    Brill, William H.
  • Movimientos campesinos y estado en Bolivia
    Calderón, Fernando Dandler, Jorge Calderón, Dandler,
  • La ‘Ch'ampa Guerra’ de Cochabamba: Un proceso de disgregación política
    Dandler, Jorge Calderón, Dandler,
  • Peasant Sindicatos and the Process of Cooptation in Bolivian Politics
    Dandler, Jorge Nash, June Dandler, Jorge Hopkins, Nicholas S.
  • From the National Indigenous Congress to the Ayopaya Rebellion: Bolivia, 1945–1947
    Dandler, Jorge Torrico A, Juan Fite, Hunter Stern, Steve J. Stern, Steve J.
  • Transformation of a ‘Revolution from Below’: Bolivia and International Capital
    Eckstein, Susan
  • Introducción
    Gordillo, José M. Gordillo, José M.
  • Yellows against Reds: Campesino Anticommunism in 1960s Ayacucho, Peru
    Heilman, Jaymie Patricia
  • Los campesinos frente al estado
    Lavaud, Jean Pierre Calderón, Dandler,
  • La clase obrera después de 1952
    Lora, Guillermo Mercado, René Zavaleta
  • De la Revolución del 52 a Evo Morales: El recorrido político del sindicalismo campesino en Bolivia
    Mendieta Parada, Pilar
  • Explaining Workers' Support for Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Evidence from Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, and Switzerland
    Oesch, Daniel
  • Military Civic Action
    Platt, Jonas M.
  • Crisis orgánica del estado oligárquico y revolución: De la posguerra del Chaco a las postrimerías de la Revolución Nacional
    Pruden, Hernán Viaña, Jorge
  • Luchas campesinas contemporáneas en Bolivia: El movimiento ‘katarista,’ 1970–1980
    Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia Mercado, René Zavaleta
  • Between Autonomy and Acquiescence: Negotiating Rule in Revolutionary Bolivia, 1953–1958
    Werner, Bridgette K.
  • Consideraciones generales sobre la historia de Bolivia (1932–1971)
    Zavaleta Mercado, René Casanova, Pablo González