The Bolivian Revolution of 1952 and Chile: From Alberto Hurtado to Frei and Allende’s reforms

Abstract

The Bolivian Revolution of 1952 led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, MNR, had an impact on Chile, advancing key measures that the Social Christian President Eduardo Frei Montalva implemented in Chile starting in 1964: the nationalization of mineral resources (the “chilenization” of copper), the agrarian reform, the right to vote for illiterate persons, the prominence of trade unions. Social reformism as an alternative to oligarchic governments and a communist revolution had significance for progressive segments of the elites and social leaders, where the Social Christian networks played a key role. Prior to the Revolution, in 1950 Bolivian bishops organized a national meeting of the so called Economic Social Apostolate, inviting to Cochabamba Alberto Hurtado, a famous Chilean Jesuit, where he presented a communitarian discourse about the mystical body as a synonym for solidarity. This was the time of the boom of Social Christian ideas prior to the II Vatican Council and the creation of CELAM, as well as the growing social unrest that led to the period of revolutions in Chile (Frei and Allende) when the changes that took place in Bolivia in the 1950s were part of the background.