Mamerto Urriolagoitía

Career In 1917, he started working at the Bolivian Embassy in London as First Secretary and Chargé d'affaires. He also represented Bolivia at the Postal Union Congress and the Monetary Congress. He left London in 1937 and returned to Bolivia. and was the senator representing the Chuquisaca Department. Urriolagoitía assumed the role of president on 24 October 1949. The existing Cabinet resigned and Urriolagoitía re-filled it to best suit his needs.

Much of Urriolagoitía's presidency was dedicated to repressing the reformist movement headed by the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) of Víctor Paz Estenssoro and Juan Lechín. In 1950, he issued decrees, first to make opposition parties illegal, then to outlaw unions. Opponents were thrown in prison or killed; The Bolivian port would be established in Arica. In Bolivia, he ensured completion of the 1950 Census, the first census which was to be held in Bolivia since the turn of the 20th century. This was even though, under the law, only about 200,000 privileged, educated, and propertied Bolivians could vote. Urriolagoitía refused to give power to Paz and instead installed the head of the Bolivian military, General Hugo Ballivián, as president to prevent the MNR from taking power.

With the elections annulled and Ballivián firmly installed in the Palacio Quemado, Urriolagoitía fled to Chile, where he settled in Arica. In exile, he wrote Bolivia (1825–1925) and stayed out of the political scene. He eventually returned to his native Sucre, where he died on 4 June 1974 at the age of 78.