Manuel Isidoro Belzu (4 April 1808-27 March 1865) was President of Bolivia from 6 December 1848 to 15 August 1855, succeeding Jose Miguel de Velasco and preceding Jorge Cordova.
Biography[]
Manuel Isidoro Belzu was born in La Paz, Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in 1808 to mestizo parents. He served under Andres de Santa Cruz and Agustin Gamarra during the South American Wars of Liberation, and he remained in the Bolivian Army and fought in the battles of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation and at the 1841 Battle of Ingavi. While he was initially a close friend and supporter of President Jose Ballivian, he rebelled against him in 1845 after Ballivian attempted to seduce Belzu's wife, and Belzu overthrew Ballivian in 1847 and served as President from 1848 to 1855. Belzu embraced his mestizo heritage by railing against the power of the white oligarchy and promising to advance the interests of the poor and the Indian. He became popular among the peasantry, and he modernized the country through division of wealth and rewarding poor workers. He also kept the nation's resources out of the hands of British, Peruvian, and Chilean shipping and mining companies, and he promoted state-sponsored social welfare projects that resonated with local Indians. His liberal policies led to frequent rebellions from Ballivian's supporters, from ambitious fellow warlords, and from Jose Maria Linares' anti-caudillo camp. He came to rule despotically during the 1850s before retiring in 1855, and he secured his son-in-law Jorge Cordova's election as president in 1855. Cordova was overthrown in 1855, and, after Cordova's murder in 1862, Belzu returned to Boliiva and led an uprising in 1865. However, he was murdered by Mariano Melgarejo at the Palacio Quemado in March 1865.