Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz
Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz | |
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Socialist Party-1 | |
Spouse |
Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz (13 March 1931 – 17 July 1980) was a noted writer, dramatist, journalist, social commentator, university professor, and
Biography
Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz married María Cristina Trigo in 1954. She gave birth to their daughter María Soledad in Santiago in 1957, and to their son Pablo Rodrigo in Salta in 1959.[1]
Political career
As a congressman of the
Upon returning to Bolivia in 1977, Quiroga participated in the presidential elections of 1978, 1979 (inconclusively) and in 1980. He did particularly well in the 1980 contest, when he finished fourth with double the number of votes he had received in 1979. He was clearly on the rise, and, in fact, had become the most visible and popular spokesman for the Socialist left. From his congressional seat, he led the effort to bring to trial the former dictator Hugo Banzer, on charges of massive human rights violations and economic mismanagement.
Death and legacy
During the early hours of 17 July 1980, during the coup led by General
In 1986, Garcia Meza, interior minister Luis Arce Gómez, and their collaborators were found guilty in trials of responsibility for the deaths of Quiroga and others.[2] Garcia Meza was extradited from Brazil in 1995 and imprisoned until his death in April 2018. In a posthumous letter, he denied responsibility for Quiroga's death, and blamed many of his regime's crimes on Arce Gómez.[2]
Quiroga's remains were never recovered. In 2010, Quiroga's wife María Cristina Trigo filed a lawsuit before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) against the Bolivian government due to its lack of willingness to locate them.[3]
A gifted orator and uncompromising idealist, Quiroga is revered in Bolivia as one of the martyrs of the
List of works
Essays
El Saqueo de Bolivia (1979)
Novels
Los Deshabitados (1964)
References
- ^ Sánchez, Víctor L. (13 January 2015). "Recordando a María Cristina Trigo Viaña" [Remembering María Cristina Trigo Viaña]. Correo del Sur (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ dw.com(in Spanish). 30 April 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ Alanoca, Jesús (30 December 2014). "Muere viuda de Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz" [Widow of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz Dies]. El Deber (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 October 2019.