José Manuel Pando - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

José Manuel Inocencio Pando Solares (1849 – 1917) was President of Bolivia

President of Bolivia

The President of Bolivia is head of state and head of government of Bolivia. According to the current Constitution, the president is elected by popular vote to a five year term, renewable once...

between October 1899 and August 1904. Born in Luribay (Department of La Paz), he studied medicine, joined the army during the War of the Pacific

War of the Pacific

The War of the Pacific took place in western South America from 1879 through 1883. Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the war against Spain, disputes soon arose over the mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the...

against Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

(1879–80), and later dedicated himself to exploring his country's vast and thinly populated lowland forests. In the 1880s he joined the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (Bolivia)

The Liberal Party was one of two major political parties in Bolivia in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The other was the Conservative Party. The Liberal Party was formally founded in 1883 by Eliodoro Camacho...

of Eliodoro Camacho

Eliodoro Camacho

Eliodoro Camacho was a noted Bolivian politician, party leader, and presidential candidate. The Eliodoro Camacho Province is named after him. Camacho was born in Inquisivi, Department of La Paz, but grew up in Cochabamba...

(in opposition until 1899), becoming its leader in 1894. Pando served as Congressional Representative from Chuquisaca during the administration of Severo Fernández

Severo Fernández

Severo Fernández Alonso Caballero was President of his country, Bolivia, from 1896 to 1899. He is best remembered as the last president of the 15-year period of Conservative Party hegemony ....

(1896–99) and was the nucleus around which coalesced the increasingly more vocal and seditious efforts of the Liberal Party to topple the Conservatives

Conservative Party (Bolivia)

The Conservative Party was one of two major political parties in Bolivia in the late 19th century. The other was the Liberal Party. Between 1880 and 1899, all of the Presidents of Bolivia were members of the Conservative Party....

from power.

Civil War finally erupted in 1899, under the guise of a regional dispute regarding whether Sucre should continue to be the capital of the country or the latter should be moved to La Paz. At this point, Pando's Liberals rallied around the movement to declare La Paz the capital and gathered considerable popular support behind the idea of turning hitherto unitary Bolivia into a federal republic. An undeniable fatigue of the populace against the Conservatives, who had monopolized power (often by means of electoral fraud) since 1884, was also probably a deciding factor in the upcoming denouement. After routing the Conservatives at the Battle of the Second Crucero, fought in Oruro province and quaintly pitting forces led directly by Pando (the Liberals/Federalists) against President Fernández, Pando became President. He did so first as member of a transitional Liberal Junta and then as sole leader when a hastily convened Congress (1900) named him Constitutional President with a full 4-year term. This kicked-off a period of 20-plus years of Liberal domination in Bolivian politics.

Pando's first task was to pacify the country in the wake of the bloody 1899 Revolution, which included the repression of the indigenous rural populations of La Paz and Oruro that had been previously mobilized to fight alongside the Liberal forces, essentially as useful cannon fodder. This done, the President tackled the thorny issue of determining the national capital and settling the federal issue. At the time, La Paz was clearly the largest and most powerful city in the country, but Sucre had the legal titles and the tradition. Rather deftly, Pando acquiesced to making La Paz the permanent seat of the Bolivian government but retained Sucre's status as the official capital, thus sparing everyone's feelings.

Despite the eruption of the brief Acre War against Brazil in 1903, in which Bolivia lost considerable but almost depopulated territory in its Northern frontier, Pando's term was as a whole rather peaceful, as he proved to be a popular leader. The main Liberal plank was not too different from that of the Conservatives in that it was pro-free trade and elitist (native Bolivians did not have the vote and hardly participated in the political affairs of the nation at all). On the other hand, some concessions were made to the masses, including the institution of a modest program of education for Indians. Also, the new party in power established freedom of religion and recognized civil marriages, fostering some friction with the Catholic Church.
In 1904, he transferred the Presidential sash to Ismael Montes

Ismael Montes

Ismael Montes Gamboa was a Bolivian general and political figure. He served as the President of Bolivia between 1904 and 1909 and again between 1913 and 1917....

, also of the Liberal Party, elected in that year's presidential elections.

Despite the emergence of Montes as the new "caudillo" of the Liberal Party, Pando remained universally respected—and increasingly critical of Montes and his efforts to perpetuate himself at the head of the movement. He was especially unhappy with Montes' alleged manipulation of the 1908 elections (which he annulled) and his re-election and return to power for the 1913-17 period. In 1915, Pando and a number of discontented Liberals and former Conservatives formed the Republican Party. It would be at first severely repressed by Montes and his successor, José Gutiérrez

José Gutiérrez

José Gutiérrez-Guerra, known as "the last Oligarch," was President of Bolivia between 1917 and 1920....

, but would eventually come to power in 1920. Pando saw none of this, however, for he was assassinated near La Paz in June 1917. His murder was never fully clarified, but it was largely attributed to the governing (Liberal) elites associated with Montes and Gutiérrez, only increasing the appeal of the Republicans.
On another note, he is also the great, great, great uncle of an Emma Barnett.

See also