Rural Revolution in Bolivia: Landlord Stubbornness, Colonial Intellectuals, and Rural Jacobins (1952–1953)

Abstract

This article examines the peasant revolution that took place in Bolivia between November 1952 and November 1953 and seeks to explain why the peasantry took a revolutionary path. While existing explanations have emphasized the exploitative nature of the hacienda and the influence of external political actors, this article argues that the revolutionary path was by no means inevitable or an automatic consequence of those factors; it was the outcome of the actors' beliefs, decisions, and interactions during the historical conjuncture of 1952. To trace this process, the article identifies two interlinked phases. The first was marked by increased landlord exploitation, the passivity—and even complicity—of MNR authorities, and the radicalizing activity of political agitators and union organizers. This combination made the reformist path seem untenable from the peasant point of view, leading to the radicalization of rural regions that had previously pursued more reformist approaches. During the second phase, a rural insurrection spread across most of Cochabamba's provinces. This coordinated peasant insurrection—never previously analyzed as such—evolved from the seizure of haciendas to a broader struggle for rural political power, ultimately turning into a revolution not only against landlords, but against the MNR itself.