Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:32:25.814Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Constructing Roads, Washing Feet, and Cutting Cane for the Patria: Building Bolivia with Military Labor, 1900–1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2011

Elizabeth Shesko
Affiliation:
Duke University

Abstract

This article reveals the range of tasks performed by military laborers in twentieth-century Bolivia, distinguishing between martial and nonmartial labor to understand how productive tasks became central to the military's mission. The detailed exploration of soldiers' laboring lives shows that their work as strikebreakers, builders, agriculturalists, and domestic servants reinforced social hierarchies and supported private capital. Despite hopes that military service would unify a diverse populace, soldiers on the indigenous end of the spectrum disproportionally performed the more abject labors. The first section charts the development of nonmartial labor and shows how some soldiers objected to working conditions by invoking the dissonance between martial discourse and nonmartial experiences. The article then turns to the increasing legibility of nonmartial labor in the aftermath of the Chaco War (1932–1935). The final section details the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement's efforts to fold the army into the 1952 Revolution by emphasizing soldiers' productive labor.

Type
Special Feature: Labor and the Military
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

I would like to thank John D. French, Jocelyn Olcott, Dirk Bonker, Orin Starn, Pete Sigal, Robert Smale, the members of the Latin American & Caribbean Graduate Student Workshop at Duke University, and the International Labor and Working-Class History reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts.

1. Speech to Yacuma Regiment conscripts, de Mamoré, San Joaquín, August 7, 1947, “El actual soldado boliviano,” Revista militar 120–121 (December 1947): 3945Google Scholar. All translations are my own unless otherwise noted.

2. Dunkerley, James, Orígenes del poder militar, trans. Vargas, Rose Marie (La Paz, 1987), 78Google Scholar, 23, 65, 131.

3. See René Aguirre, Danilo Arze, Guerra y conflictos sociales (La Paz, 1987)Google Scholar; Canessa, Andrew, Minas, mote y muñecas (La Paz, 2006)Google Scholar; Dunkerley, Origenes del poder militar; Gill, Lesley, “Creating Citizens, Making Men: The Military and Masculinity in Bolivia,” Cultural Anthropology 12 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ordoñez, Luis Oporto, “Conscripción militar e inserción como mano de obra minero,” in Uncía y Llallagua (La Paz, 2007)Google Scholar; Taborga, Juan R. Quintana, Soldados y ciudadanos (La Paz, 1998)Google Scholar.

4. A highly developed literature on the way “race” functions in Bolivia describes ethnic categories as seemingly definable, static, and carrying immense social import but individual classification as fluid and situational, based on shifting sociocultural markers such as dress, hairstyle, language, diet, surname, schooling, occupation, region, residence, and income. See, for example, Gotkowitz, Laura, A Revolution for Our Rights: Indigenous Struggles for Land and Justice in Bolivia, 1880–1952 (Durham, 2007), 13Google Scholar; Waskar T. Ari, “Race and Subaltern Nationalism: AMP Activist-Intellectuals in Bolivia, 1921–1964” (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 2004), v. Previous generations of scholars either took indigeneity as an ontological category or argued that ethnic and racial terms served to mask class relationships.

5. Dunkerley, James, “Reassessing Caudillismo in Bolivia, 1825–79,” Latin American Research Review 1 (1981): 19Google Scholar.

6. Ley militar: organización del servicio, conscripción y sorteo, August 6, 1875.

7. Sater, William F., Andean Tragedy: Fighting the War of the Pacific, 1879–1884 (Lincoln, NE, 2007), 2022CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. The military also established the Military Academy in 1891 and the Quartermaster Corps in 1899. Legislators reiterated the obligation to serve in a September 20, 1892 conscription law. Arguedas, Julio Díaz, Historia del ejército de Bolivia, 1825–1932 (La Paz, 1940), 2325, 57, 177Google Scholar; Dunkerley, “Reassessing Caudillismo,” 57.

9. Díaz Arguedas, Historia del ejército, 45–192, 760–64.

10. Art. 87 (b), Constitución política de la República de Bolivia, October 28, 1880.

11. 23a Sesión extraordinaria, January 5, 1907, Redactor de la H. Cámara de Diputados, Tomo III (La Paz, 1907): 1460Google Scholar.

12. Capt. Unzaga, Camilo, “El ejército en la vida social,” Revista militar 39 (1908): 341–49Google Scholar.

13. Minister of War to Prefects, January 21, 1907, Boletín militar, Tomo III (La Paz, 1907), 2128Google Scholar.

14. Oficina Nacional de Inmigración Estadística y Propaganda Geográfica, Censo general de la población de la República de Bolivia según el empadronamiento de 1e. de septiembre de 1900, vol. 2 (La Paz, 1904)Google Scholar. The 1950 census categorized sixty-three percent of the population as indigenous. Grieshaber argues that the 1900 census only counted tribute payers as indigenous rather than using markers such as language and dress. Grieshaber, Erwin P., “Fluctuaciones en la definición del indio: Comparación de los censos de 1900 y 1950,” Historia Boliviana 5 (1985)Google Scholar.

15. With minor changes, this law remained in force until rewritten in 1966; that version still stands today. Ley de servicio militar, January 16, 1907; Ley del servicio nacional de defensa, August 1, 1966.

16. Rates of participation in the Bolivian military were on a par with other Latin American countries but far lower than in European countries. Centeno, Miguel Angel, Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-State in Latin America (University Park, PA, 2002), 225Google Scholar.

17. Ley que fija el número de plazas, November 16, 1907, November 16, 1909, February 2, 1910, December 12, 1918, and May 18, 1932; “Bolivia: Combat Estimate,” August 25, 1926 and January 10, 1928, RG 165, NM 84–77, b. 557, f. S-C Intelligence Reference Pubs, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter cited as NARA).

18. See correspondence in Prefecture-Admin 147, 148, 149, 208, Archivo de La Paz, La Paz, Bolivia (hereafter cited as ALP).

19. Minister of War to Prefect of La Paz #1730, January 30, 1915, Prefecture-Admin 148, ALP.

20. Smale, Robert L., “I Sweat the Flavor of Tin”: Labor Activism in Early Twentieth Century Bolivia (Pittsburgh, 2010), 8791, 110–43Google Scholar.

21. On the Acre War, see Scheina, Robert L., “The Acre War, 1903,” in Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900-2001 (Washington, 2003), 79Google Scholar.

22. Goitia, Julio Sanjinés, El militar ingeniero (La Paz, 1975), 350Google Scholar.

23. My. Bretel, Julio, “Misión del oficial en fronteras,” Revista militar 6 (1922): 414–23Google Scholar.

24. My. Marcelino Guzmán y B., La vida del oficial en fronteras,” Revista militar 16 (1923): 312–19Google Scholar.

25. Sanjinés Goitia, El militar ingeniero, 320-21.

26. Prefect of La Paz to Minister of War #1849, August 16, 1913, Prefecture-Admin 147, ALP.

27. INS-59-003, Tribunal Permanente de Justicia Militar, Archivo Histórico Militar, La Paz, Bolivia (hereafter cited as AHM-TPJM).

28. My. Aguirre, Luis Emilio, “El nuevo ejército,” Revista militar 44 (1925): 597604Google Scholar.

29. Victor Zambrana Flores statement, November 6, 1921, INS-59-003, AHM-TPJM.

30. Jáuregui, Gen. Gonzalo, “Las razas indígenas en Bolivia y su educación en los cuarteles,” Revista militar 55 (1926): 533–37Google Scholar.

31. Klein, Herbert S., A Concise History of Bolivia (New York, 2003), 168Google Scholar.

32. Suprema, Orden, February 18, 1925, Anuario de leyes y disposiciones supremas de 1925 (La Paz, 1926): 228–29Google Scholar. For instances of hiring civilian contractors, see Supremo, Decreto March 6, 1918, Anuario de leyes y disposiciones supremas de 1918 (La Paz, 1919): 345–46Google Scholar; Resolución Suprema July 30, 1919, Anuario de leyes y disposiciones supremas de 1919 (La Paz, 1920): 690.

33. Minister of War to Chief of Staff, January 26, 1931, ABA-01-004, AHM-TPJM.

34. “En la región de Killi-Killi ocurrió un desplome de tierra,” El Diario, August 24, 1927, 8.

35. Mendoza, Jaime, “Una valiosa opinión acerca del camino carretero al Chaco,” Revista militar 79 (1928): 433–35Google Scholar.

36. Lt. Col. Alberto Sotomayor statement, October 1, 1931, ABA-01-004, AHM-TPJM.

37. Crónica,” Revista militar 117 (1931): 776–79Google Scholar.

38. Ignacio Torres and Sarg. Manuel Flores statements, November 18, 1906 and November 28, 1907, Prefecture-Expedientes 189, doc. 177, ALP.

39. Soldiers to Minister of War, November 1, 1920, MOT-71-001; Julio Rendón and José Siñani statements, October 4, 1921 and November 17, 1921, INS-59-003; soldiers to Junta de Gobierno, November 18, 1920, INS-59-002, AHM-TPJM.

40. Seventeen soldiers to Second Division Commander, September 22, 1931, ABA-01-004, AHM-TPJM.

41. Farcau, Bruce W., The Chaco War: Bolivia and Paraguay, 1932–1935 (Westport, 1996), 1115Google Scholar; Klein, A Concise History of Bolivia, 168–77.

42. Ley que fija el número de plazas del ejército, May 18, 1932; Zook, David H., The Conduct of the Chaco War (New York, 1960)Google Scholar, 75.

43. Zook, The Conduct of the Chaco War, 174.

44. Statement of reservist Juan Laime, December 16, 1932, DES-16-007, AHM-TPJM.

45. Arze Aguirre, Guerra y conflictos sociales, 251.

46. Klein, A Concise History of Bolivia, 183. See also Centeno, Blood and Debt, 59.

47. Klein, A Concise History of Bolivia, 186–203. See also Loveman, Brian, For la Patria: Politics and the Armed Forces in Latin America (Wilmington, 1999), 101–11Google Scholar.

48. Art. 169 (b), Constitución política de la República de Bolivia, October 30, 1938. This clause remained unchanged until 1961.

49. 128a sesión, October 24, 1938, Redactor de la Convención Nacional, Tomo V (La Paz, 1939): 325.

50. Ley de zapadores, October 29, 1939. See also Las granjas agrícolas del ejército nacional,” Revista militar 31–32 (1939): 883Google Scholar.

51. El camino de Padcaya a Fortín Campero,” El Diario, June 12, 1936, 8Google Scholar.

52. Corbett, Charles D., “Military Institutional Development and Sociopolitical Change: The Bolivian Case,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 14 (1972): 403CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53. Gill, “Creating Citizens, Making Men,” 537–39.

54. Hoja de Servicio no. 039933, August 28, 1944, Registro Territorial, Archivo Central del Ministerio de Defensa Nacional, La Paz, Bolivia (hereafter cited as ACMDN-RT).

55. Military Attaché Report: Bolivia, June 9, 1944 and June 17, 1942, RG 165, NM 84-77, b. 191 and 189, f. MA Reports vol. 2 and 971–9965, NARA.

56. My. Hugo Arteaga and Capt. Walter Castellón statements, April 20, 1948, ACC-07-007, AHM-TPJM.

57. Index of folders, 2008, ACMDN-RT.

58. Prefect of La Paz to Minister of Defense #365, February 28, 1941, Prefecture-Admin 141, ALP; Commander of 1st Military Region to Prefect of La Paz #210, May 3, 1941, Prefecture-Admin 209, ALP.

59. Statements of soldier Edwin Silvetti Baldivieso and Sub-Lt. Alberto Albarrecín Crespo, June 17, 1946, ACC-07-002, AHM-TPJM.

60. El año militar,” Revista militar 135–137 (1949): 107–9Google Scholar.

61. Capt. Guzman, Hugo Suarez, “Crónica sobre la construcción de Escuela Modelo Ricardo Mujia en Sucre,” Revista militar 154 (1950): 3547Google Scholar.

62. My. Pol, Hugo René, “Notas editorials,” Revista militar 95–96 (1945): 711Google Scholar.

63. Nataniel Morales statement, August 30, 1946, ABA-03-006, AHM-TPJM.

64. Diego Bernal and Daniel Bernal statements, June 29, 1942 and July 1, 1942, ROB-86-006, AHM-TPJM.

65. Prefect of La Paz to Minister of Defense #2558, November 23, 1946, Prefecture-Admin 141, ALP.

66. Legal copy of reglamento de regimen interno no. 6, October 2, 1931, ABA-01-004, AHM-TPJM.

67. Enrique Beltrán statement, September 5, 1945, ACC-07-001, AHM-TPJM.

68. Víctor Gutierrez statement, March 1, 1949, HER-52-010, AHM-TPJM.

69. Tiburcio Flores statement, December 18, 1947, DES-23-007; René Murillo statement, April 23, 1947, DES-22-015; Lt. Hugo Baldivieso statement, September 7, 1948, HUR-56-005, AHM-TPJM.

70. Antonio Orellana, Mauro Gutierrez, Bautista Acuña, and Nataniel Morales statements, August 28–30, 1946, ABA-03-006, AHM-TPJM.

71. Statements of Miguel Fuentes Orellana, October 27 and November 10, 1937, MUE-69-06, AHM-TPJM.

72. Report on Patiño Mines for US Military Attaché, June 24, 1942, RG 165, NM 84–77, b. 190, f. Subversive, NARA.

73. “Entre talones de la masacre de Catavi: Mayo 1949,” La Nación, December 29, 1952, 4.

74. Arevalo, Tcnl. D. Arturo, “La contextura moral del oficial,” Revista militar 99–100 (1946): 7184Google Scholar.

75. Tte. García, Guillermo, “Instructores e instruidos,” Revista militar 57–58 (1942): 95101Google Scholar.

76. Gotkowitz, A Revolution for Our Rights, 192–232.

77. Mensaje del Presidente de la Junta de Gobierno al Pueblo Boliviano.La Calle, January 1, 1944Google Scholar.

78. Klein, A Concise History of Bolivia, 197–222. The ideology of MNR administrations and whether the revolution's leaders were radicals or moderates pushed by the masses has been a subject of intense historiographical debate. See a summary in Gotkowitz, A Revolution for Our Rights, 268–90.

79. Brill, William H., Military Intervention in Bolivia: The Overthrow of Paz Estenssoro and the MNR (Washington, 1967), 1517Google Scholar.

80. Estenssoro, Víctor Paz, “Mensaje del Presidente Constitucional de la Rep. de Bolivia,” Revista militar 188–194 (1952): 820Google Scholar.

81. Oscar Rocabado statement, January 20, 1953, ACC-07-009, AHM-TPJM.

82. Decreto supremo que fija la fórmula del juramento, August 4, 1924.

83. Gen. Arteaga, Luis Ernesto, “El juramento del lealtad a la bandera,” Revista militar 188–194 (1953): 202–5Google Scholar.

84. Arts. 1, 23, 54–62, Ley orgánica de las fuerzas armadas de la nación, Law # 280 of December 20, 1963. See also Art. 201, Constitución política de la República de Bolivia, August 6, 1961.

85. Paz Estenssoro, “Mensaje del presidente”; Historia de un soldado-colono,” La Nación, July 28, 1956, 5Google Scholar; Historiando algo con respeto a la película ‘Ofensiva de Paz’,” La Nación, August 15, 1958, 6Google Scholar.

86. Revista militar 178–182 (1952): 90Google Scholar.

87. El camino Coroico-Caranavi estará a cargo del ejército de la revolución,” La Nación, November 11, 1952, 5Google Scholar.

88. El Regimiento Colorados realiza eficaz labor de beneficio público,” La Nación, May 8, 1954, 5Google Scholar; Varias obras públicas ejecutaron unidades del Ejército,” La Nación, June 21, 1954, 5Google Scholar; Actividad territorial y desarrollo de la exposición agrícola ganadera de Challapata,” Revista militar 199–200 (1954): 70Google Scholar.

89. Lt. Col. Hugo Antezana, “El camino al Ichilo,” Revista militar 246–248 (1961): 8185Google Scholar.

90. Historiando algo con respeto a la película ‘Ofensiva de Paz’,” La Nación, August 15, 1958, 6Google Scholar.

91. Joaquin de Lemoine, “Proyecto de Migraciones Internas,” July 3, 1957, 49, 34 Bolivia—General, Papers of Robert J. Alexander, Rutgers University Libraries, New Brunswick, NJ (hereafter cited as RUL/MC974); Bolivia. Dirección Nacional de Informaciones, Bolivia: 10 años de revolución (La Paz, 1962), 147.

92. Arts. 23 and 58, Ley orgánica de las fuerzas armadas de la nación, Law # 280 of December 20, 1963.

93. La Región Militar no. 5 ayuda al autoabastecimiento,” La Nación, May 19, 1954, 5Google Scholar; Activa labor de la Región Militar No. 5 en el Oriente,” La Nación, June 7, 1954, 5Google Scholar.

94. “Civic Action, Bolivia, South America,” July 1963, RG 111, LC-47212, LC-47214, LC-47215, NARA.

95. Loveman, Brian and Davies, Thomas M. Jr., eds., The Politics of Antipolitics: The Military in Latin America, 2nd revised and expanded ed. (Lincoln, 1989), 78Google Scholar.

96. Actividades del ejército de la Revolución Nacional,” Revista militar 184–185 (1953): 106–8Google Scholar; Col. Clemente Inofuentes, “Necesitamos un ejército que sea síntesis del anhelo popular,” Revista militar 184–185 (1953): 6368Google Scholar; de Lemoine, “Proyecto de Migraciones Internas.”

97. My. Elka, La vialidad y el ejército nacional,” Revista militar 174–175 (1952): 1415Google Scholar.

98. El camino Coroico-Caranavi estará a cargo del ejército de la revolución,” La Nación, November 12, 1952, 5Google Scholar; Col. E. M. Clemente Inofuentes G.Plan de cooperación del Ejército a la producción agraria,” Revista militar 186–187 (1953): 6165Google Scholar.

99. Juan Acarapi Mamani statement, May 1, 1953, MUE-71-009, AHM-TPJM.

100. Undated Department of Defense Handout on civic action, quoted in William H. Brill, “Military Civic Action in Bolivia” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1965), 23.

101. Gen. René Barrientos quoted in Barrientos dijo que cada integrante de las FF.AA. es vigía del desarrollo,” El Diario, November 22, 1967, 6Google Scholar.

102. “Community Development,” May 1966, RG 111, LC-50029, NARA; “Civic Action US Military Group,” September 1970, RG 111, LC-56148, NARA; Acción cívica militar en todos los ámbitos de la patria,” Revista militar 291 (1967): 139Google Scholar.

103. Faltan 6 kilómetros para concluir camino de Riberalta a Guayaramerín,” El Diario, September 14, 1969, 5Google Scholar.

104. Klein, A Concise History of Bolivia, 220.

105. Susceptibilidad en mineros por presencia de la FF.AA.,” Presencia, May 26, 1974, 10Google Scholar.

106. Nash, June C., I Spent My Life in the Mines: The Story of Juan Rojas, Bolivian Tin Miner, updated ed. (New York, 1992 [1979]), 346–50Google Scholar.

107. Salmón, Gary Prado, Poder y fuerzas armadas, 1949–1982 (Cochabamba, 1984), 212–14Google Scholar.

108. Historiando algo con respeto a la película ‘Ofensiva de Paz’,” La Nación, August 15, 1958, 6Google Scholar.

109. de Lemoine, “Proyecto de Migraciones Internas.”

110. Aclaran que no hubo motín sino queja de conscriptos,” El Diario, February 23, 1974, 3Google Scholar.