12 Facts About Bautista Saavedra

Bautista Saavedra Mallea was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as the 29th president of Bolivia from 1921 to 1925.

Bautista Saavedra had a turbulent term, as his party fragmented almost immediately after the coup, with a large fraction of it going on to form the Partido Republicano-Genuino.

Bautista Saavedra quickly expelled from the country most top-leaders of the Genuino party, and often made use of extra-constitutional means to remain in power.

Unable to run for re-election in 1925, Bautista Saavedra did the next best thing and made sure a hand-picked successor would follow him, presumably one firmly under his thumb.

Nationwide protests at this transparent effort to manipulate the elections and prolong Bautista Saavedra's stay in office forced the President to resign, leaving in his place Felipe Segundo Guzman, the President of the Senate.

The latter, clearly a "Bautista Saavedra's man," called elections for 1926.

Bautista Saavedra thus renewed his quest to find the ideal proxy candidate through which to rule.

Bautista Saavedra found the perfect man in Hernando Siles, who ran in the elections along with Bautista Saavedra's own brother, Abdon Saavedra, as his Vice-Presidential running mate.

However, President Siles eventually, tired of Bautista Saavedra's heavy-handed meddling, exiled him along with his brother.

Bautista Saavedra remained an influential political leader after that, but never returned to power, especially since his arch-rivals of the Partido Republicano Genuino finally gained power in 1930.

Bautista Saavedra died while exiled in Chile on May 1,1939.

The Bautista Saavedra Province was named after this former president.