Item: i113278

Authentic Coin of:

Bolivia
General Melgarejo
1865 FP Silver Melgarejo 35mm (19.87 grams) 0.666 Silver (0.4282 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 146 (1865)
AL PACIFICADOR DE BOLIVIA F P , General Melgarejo facing left.
GRATITUD DEL PUEBLO POTOSINO EN 1865 666.Ms 400.Gs AL VALOR DEL JENERAL MELGAREJO, Inscription.

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Manuel Mariano Melgarejo Valencia (13 April 1820 – 23 November 1871) was a Bolivian military officer who served as the 15th president of Bolivia from 1864 to 1871. His tenure, nicknamed the “sexenio”, was characterized by repression and mismanagement. For this reason, he is sometimes regarded as Bolivia’s worst president, though some authors have also argued that his vices have been overstated by the predominantly Chilean sources who wrote the earliest authoritative sources about his career.

Melgarejo was born on 13 April 1820 in the Department of Cochabamba, being the illegitimate son of a Spanish-Bolivian and a Quechua Indian. He did not receive formal schooling, instead joining the army at an early age.

A career military officer from the department of Cochabamba, Melgarejo slowly climbed the hierarchy of the armed forces, aided by his sycophancy, willingness to participate in rebellions, and feats of personal valor. Having participated in an 1854 military revolt against long-time dictator Manuel Isidoro Belzu, Melgarejo was tried for treason but pardoned, as he had begged for his life and blamed alcohol for his participation in the ill-fated coup. General Melgarejo originally supported the Linares dictatorship (1857–61) and then fought on the side of the rebellious General José Maria de Achá, who became President in 1861. In December 1864, he then rose up against Achá and, prevailing against both the forces of Achá and former President Belzu (then struggling to return to power himself), proclaimed himself President of Bolivia. As Belzú continued to control part of the country and army, Melgarejo sought him and, by most accounts, murdered him personally.

As president, Melgarejo quickly became notorious for his erratic behavior. He ruthlessly suppressed the opposition, violently crushing protests and dispossessing the country’s indigenous population of their land. Melgarejo worked on behalf of a new mining elite in Bolivia, during a period of resurgent silver production and investment from Chile, Peru, North America, England and European capitalists. Despite the rising prices of guano and nitrates on the international market, the government of Bolivia faced recurring financial problems throughout Melgarejo’s tenure.

Some of Melgarejo’s most infamous acts as president included signing treaties that gave away large stretches of land to Brazil and Chile. One such example was the 1867 Treaty of Ayacucho, where Melgarejo traded over 100,000 square kilometers of territory to Brazil; it was rumored that Melgarejo was given a white horse to convince him to sign the treaty.

Melgarejo also carried on a hedonistic personal life during his presidency, reportedly drinking heavily and holding frequent orgies throughout his tenure.

Melgarejo eventually galvanized the opposition in a concerted effort to rid the country of his tyranny. On 15 January 1871, he was toppled by the Commander of the Army, General Agustín Morales. Melgarejo fled to Lima after his ouster. On 23 November of that year, he was assassinated by Aurelio Sánchez, the brother of his longtime lover Juana Sánchez.

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Spanish: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia), is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. The capital is Sucre while the seat of government is located in La Paz. The largest city and principal economic and financial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales (tropical lowlands) a mostly flat region in the east of Bolivia.

It is constitutionally a unitary state, divided into nine departments. Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands, situated within the Amazon Basin. It is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, to the southwest by Chile, and to the northwest by Peru. One-third of the country is within the Andean mountain range. With 1,098,581 km² (424,164 sq mi) of area, Bolivia is the 5th largest country in South America and the 27th largest in the world.

The country’s population, estimated at 11 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Mestizos, Europeans, Asians and Africans. The racial and social segregation that arose from Spanish colonialism has continued to the modern era. Spanish is the official and predominant language, although 36 indigenous languages also have official status, of which the most commonly spoken are Guarani, Aymara and Quechua languages.

Before Spanish colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire, while the northern and eastern lowlands were inhabited by independent tribes. Spanish conquistadors arriving from Cuzco and Asunción took control of the region in the 16th century. During the Spanish colonial period Bolivia was administered by the Royal Audiencia of Charcas. Spain built its empire in great part upon the silver that was extracted from Bolivia’s mines. After the first call for independence in 1809, 16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th century Bolivia lost control of several peripheral territories to neighboring countries including the seizure of its coastline by Chile in 1879. Bolivia remained relatively politically stable until 1971, when Hugo Banzer led a coup d’état which replaced the socialist government of Juan José Torres with a military dictatorship headed by Banzer; Torres was murdered in Buenos Aires, Argentina by a right-wing death squad in 1976. Banzer’s regime cracked down on leftist and socialist opposition and other forms of dissent, resulting in the torture and deaths of a number of Bolivian citizens. Banzer was ousted in 1978 and later returned as the democratically elected president of Bolivia from 1997 to 2001.

Modern Bolivia is a charter member of the UN, IMF, NAM, OAS, ACTO, Bank of the South, ALBA and USAN. For over a decade Bolivia has had one of the fastest economic growths in Latin America, however it remains one of the poorest countries in South America. It is a developing country, with a medium ranking in the Human Development Index, a poverty level of 38.6 percent, and it has one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America. Its main economic activities include agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and manufacturing goods such as textiles, clothing, refined metals, and refined petroleum. Bolivia is very rich in minerals, especially tin.