The Revolutionary Left Front (Spanish: Frente Revolucionario de Izquierda, abbreviated FRI) is a populist centre-right political party in Bolivia, founded in 1978.

Foundation

FRI was formed at a national conference of leftwing forces, held in La Paz April 23, 1978. The meeting was organized by an initiative committee (led by Dr. Guido Perales Aguilar as permanent secretary). The founding of FRI in April 1978 was a formalization of an already existing informal cooperation between different political groups. FRI was composed of the Communist Party of Bolivia (Marxist–Leninist) (PCB(ML)), Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left (PRIN), Revolutionary Party of the Workers of Bolivia (PRTB), POR-Combate, Vanguardia Comunista del POR (the latter two were Trotskyist groups) and an independent grouping led by Manuel Morales Dávila.[6][7][8][9] POR-Masas was blocked from joining FRI.[6] Óscar Zamora Medinaceli was the founding chairman of FRI,[10] and politically FRI was under the control of PCB(ML).[6] Lidia Gueiler Tejada was the vice president of FRI.[8]

The declaration of principles of FRI reads that "FRI is the political instrument of the masses, which enables the accumulation of forces in order to defeat the dictatorship, impose democratic freedoms and achieve national liberation."[6]

1978 and 1979 elections

The presidential candidate of FRI in the 1978 elections was Casiano Amurrio. Amurrio obtained 23,459 votes (1.2% of the national vote). In the parliamentary elections the FRI obtained the same result.[11]

PRIN left FRI ahead of the 1979 elections, and joined UDP.[12] Morales Dávila also broke away from FRI. FRI became little more than the public facade of PCB(ML), as other factions had deserted it. The group sought to merge with UDP, but failed.[6] In the 1979 elections FRI was part of a larger coalition, the Democratic Alliance (along with the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, the Christian Democratic Party and Wálter Guevara's PRA).[13] Lidia Gueiler was the vice-presidential candidate of the alliance.[14] The FRI won 5 seats.

Later period

In the parliamentary elections of 1980 and 1985, it ran in alliance with the conservative MNR winning each time three seats. In 1989 and 1993 elections, FRI was part of the Patriotic Accord (the electoral pact between Hugo Banzer's Nationalist Democratic Action and the Revolutionary Left Movement) winning four and two seats respectively.[15] In 1997 it won one seat on a list of the MIR.

On October 6, 2018, Carlos de Mesa Gisbert announced on his YouTube channel, that he would run for president under the Revolutionary Left Front party, almost one year before the 2019 Bolivian general election.[16] In the 2020 election, FRI once again supported Mesa and elected three Deputies, returning to Parliament.[17]

Municipal and regional politics

Electoral flyer for the FRI candidate for mayor of La Paz in 1999, Eusebio Gironda

During the 1990s, the intervention in municipal politics of the party was generally limited to the Tarija and Cochabamba departments.[18] The FRI chairman Zamora Medinaceli was mayor of Tarija in 1987–1989, 1994–1996 and 1996–1997.[10] In the 1991 municipal elections, the party got 20,179 votes (1.55% of the nationwide vote), whilst in the 1993 municipal election it obtained 25,099 votes (2.24%).[19] In the 1991 municipal elections, the party had the highest percentage of female candidates in the major cities amongst all contesting parties (8 out of 36 candidates, 22.2%).[20] In 1993 eleven out of 52 FRI candidates were women.[20] In the 1995 municipal elections, the vote of the party reached 53,540 (3.12%).[21] The party won 27 municipal council seats (out of 1585 in all of Bolivia).[22] The party won 17 municipal council seats (out of a total of 1,700 in all of Bolivia) in the 1999 municipal elections.[23]

The party supported the candidature of Mario Cossío [es; ko] for governor of Tarija in the 2010 elections.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ The party has also been labeled as centrist[3] and right-wing.[4]

References

  1. ^ Souverein, Jan; Rodríguez, José Luis Exeni (2022). (Re)configuración del campo político en Bolivia: balance y horizontes del ciclo electoral 2020-2021 (in Spanish). Fundación Friedrich Ebert Bolivia. ISBN 978-9917-605-32-4. En 1991 se realizan elecciones municipales con un número importante de nuevos votantes: los indígenas de la Marcha por Territorio y Dignidad (1990), principalmente de tierras bajas, que fueron carnetizados y que se adscribieron a partidos populistas como UCS, Condepa, MBL y el FRI.
  2. ^ Bigio, Isaac (2019-11-11). "Bolivia sin presidente". América Latina en movimiento (ALAINET) (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-02-21. Su movimiento se ha estructurado en torno al Frente Revolucionario de Izquierda (FRI), un partido de derecha "moderada" que originalmente se fundó en 1978 como el brazo legal del Partido Comunista Marxista Leninista que 8 años antes había hecho el primer ejemplo de "guerra popular maoísta" en los Andes, inspirando al que en 1980 inició el Partido Comunista del Perú – Sendero Luminoso. [Their movement has been structured around the Revolutionary Left Front (FRI), a “moderate” right-wing party that was originally founded in 1978 as the legal arm of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party that 8 years earlier had made the first example of a “Maoist people’s war” in the Andes, inspiring the one that in 1980 started the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path.]
  3. ^
    • "Jeanine Áñez Chávez". CIDOB. Líder politico (in Spanish). 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2025-02-20. El retraso en la publicación de los resultados oficiales levantó las sospechas del principal competidor del presidente, su predecesor en el cargo (2003-2005) Carlos Mesa, candidato del Frente Revolucionario de Izquierda (FRI, una formación centrista a pesar de su nombre) y de la coalición Comunidad Ciudadana, quien rechazó los datos desfavorables del conteo preliminar y denunció un "fraude gigantesco" en su contra. [The delay in the publication of the official results raised suspicions among the president's main competitor, his predecessor in office (2003-2005) Carlos Mesa, candidate of the Revolutionary Left Front (FRI, a centrist party despite its name) and the Citizen Community coalition, who rejected the unfavorable data from the preliminary count and denounced a "gigantic fraud" against him.]
    • "Election Delay, Pandemic Keep Bolivian Policy Plans in Suspense". Fitch Ratings. Fitch Wire. 7 August 2020. Retrieved 2025-02-20. The leading candidates for the presidency are Anez of the centre-right Democrat Social Movement (MDS), Carlos Mesa of the centrist Revolutionary Left Front (FRI), and Luis Arce of the left-wing Movement for Socialism (MAS).
  4. ^ Mora, Castor David (1 January 2020). El Golpe de Estado en Bolivia Conformación y activación de una estructura pentagonal contrarrevolucionaria. Grupo de Investigación y Difusión en Educación Matemática (GIDEM). ISBN 978-3-9822196-1-5. Esta agrupación consistió en una coalición electoral conformada el 13.11.2018 entre los partidos de derecha "Frente Revolucionario de Izquierda" (el cual no tiene nada que ver con revolución ni mucho menos con izquierda) y "Soberanía y Libertad" de tendencia fascista, cuya finalidad consistía en apoyar la candidatura del derechista Carlos Mesa durante las elecciones del 20 de octubre de 2019.
  5. ^ "Los 130 nuevos diputados uninominales, plurinominales y de circunscripciones especiales".
  6. ^ a b c d e POR-Masas. F
  7. ^ Alexander, Robert J.. Trotskyism in Bolivia
  8. ^ a b Crespo Rodas, Alfonso. Lydia: una mujer en la historia. La Paz: Plural Ed, 1999. p. 121
  9. ^ Mega: siglo XXI : diccionario enciclopédico. [Colombia]: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2004. p. 435
  10. ^ a b Directorio: 1997 - 2002. La Paz: Centro de Investigación del Congreso Nacional (CICON), 2002. p. 50
  11. ^ Nohlen, Dieter. Elections in the Americas: A Data Handbook 2 South America. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. p. 150
  12. ^ Nohlen, Dieter. Elections in the Americas: A Data Handbook 2 South America. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. p. 139
  13. ^ Alcántara Sáez, Manuel. Partidos políticos de América Latina - Países Andinos. Salamanca: Ed. Univ. de Salamanca, 2001. 94
  14. ^ Dunkerley, James, and Rose Marie Vargas Jastram. Rebelión en las venas: la lucha política en Bolivia. La Paz, Bolivia: Plural, 2003. pp. 314, 329
  15. ^ Alcántara Sáez, Manuel. Partidos políticos de América Latina - Países Andinos. Salamanca: Ed. Univ. de Salamanca, 2001. 101
  16. ^ "Carlos Mesa va por la presidencia y el MAS aviva su pasado con el MNR". Los Tiempos. October 7, 2018.
  17. ^ "Los 130 nuevos diputados uninominales, plurinominales y de circunscripciones especiales". www.paginasiete.bo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  18. ^ Jost, Stefan. Bolivien: politisches System und Reformprozess 1993 - 1997. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 2003. p. 273
  19. ^ Jost, Stefan. Bolivien: politisches System und Reformprozess 1993 - 1997. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 2003. p. 405
  20. ^ a b Latin American Social Sciences Institute. PARTIDOS POLÍTICOS ('Political Parties'), part of the study Mujeres Latinoamericanas en Cifras ('Latin American Women in Numbers'), published in 1994.
  21. ^ Jost, Stefan. Bolivien: politisches System und Reformprozess 1993 - 1997. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 2003. p. 406
  22. ^ Jost, Stefan. Bolivien: politisches System und Reformprozess 1993 - 1997. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 2003. p. 407
  23. ^ Albó, Xavier, and Victor Quispe. Quiénes son indígenas en los gobiernos municipales. Cuadernos de investigación CIPCA, 59. La Paz: CIPCA [u.a., 2004. p. 92
  24. ^ CEDIB. La Ley Anticorrupción bloqueará candidaturas (El País 11/02/2010)
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Left_Front_(Bolivia)
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