MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Bolivian president and dictator dies

Former Bolivian president Hugo Banzer, a military dictator who later was democratically elected died this week in his hometown of Santa Cruz.

The former Army General was forced to resign last August when terminal lung and liver cancer was diagnosed in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

He first came to power in 1971, --until 1978--, as a military dictator, surviving 13 coups, and with democracy restored in Bolivia in 1982, he finally won the presidential election in 1997.

A controversial figure of Bolivian politics, as elected president Banzer will be remembered for his close relation with the United States, --he was a student at the notorious School of the Americas in Panama--, his rather autocratic methods even in democracy and for having advanced the campaign to eradicate drug crops in spite of the fact most of his support came from poor indigenous constituents.

As a dictator his regime was among those world known for human rights violations, banning all political activity and "disappearances" of opponents.

However during his tenure, particularly since 1973, booming oil and tin prices plus growing agricultural exports helped him solidify his following among Bolivia's middle and upper classes. In 1978 he was forced out of power but the country regained democracy in 1982 and in 1985 the political Banzer emerged.

In the 1985 election he won the first round but since he didn't have sufficient Congressional support moved aside and Paz Estensoro was named.

But in 1997, and is spite of having only 20% of the vote, Congress finally agreed to vote him in. In August 2001 he handed power to his vice president Jorge Quiroga.