José Luis Tejada Sorzano

Who was José Luis Tejada Sorzano?

José Luis Tejada Sorzano was a Bolivian lawyer and politician appointed by the military as president of Bolivia during the Chaco War. He had previously been the country's Vice-President for three years.

Tejada was born in La Paz. A lifelong member of the Liberal Party of Bolivia, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1914, and appointed Minister of Finance by President José Gutiérrez Guerra in 1917. In 1931, his party joined forces with the Republicano-Genuino party of Daniel Salamanca for the general elections, and Tejada was sworn-in as Salamanca's Vice-President in March of that year. The administration was immediately plagued by serious difficulties stemming from the Great Depression and the eruption of the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay.

A relatively hands-off Vice-President, the portly Tejada deferred to Salamanca in all matters, and distinguished himself very little in his own right during his term as Vice-President. He seems to have been "second-fiddle" even on intra-party matters, as the true leader of the Liberals was the septuagenarian, twice-elected former President Ismael Montes.