Word: bolivian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...classic Bolivian happening, part brute force and part black magic, asking more questions than it answered! A sea of gold braid, army olive and air-force blue swept silently out of the President's office, down one flight of stairs, and swirled around a small table bearing a crucifix. There, as his colleagues looked on, Air Force General Rene Barrientos solemnly swore in Army General Alfredo Ovando Candia as his co-President of Bolivia's ruling junta. Ovando, Barrientos dryly observed, came "from the very entrails of the army" and was a man worthy of his new position...
...always what they seem in Bolivia's dizzying Andean atmosphere. After a week of bloody revolt and political confusion, there were at least as many reasons to believe that the promotion was largely a Barrientos maneuver designed to remove his rival from active command and prepare the Bolivian army for a final showdown against the country's Communist-dominated tin miners...
...snarled down to strafe sniper roosts. The factory workers refused to surrender, and as the dead and wounded were carried back to La Paz, Ovando seemed to lose his nerve, retiring to his bed and announcing that he was sick. Next day he met with emissaries from the Bolivian Workers Confederation, abruptly agreed to a cease-fire and negotiations for settlement of the miners' demands...
With Communists deeply rooted in the unions, Bolivian tin production has slipped 30% since the 1950s; annual losses run to $6,000,000. Of the 26,000-man payroll, fully 7,000 are feather-bedders. So severe is the crisis that the U.S., West Germany and the Inter-American Development Bank have cut off the third phase of a $38 million mining-development program. Yet Le chin had discouraged every attempt to cut costs, either by reducing the work force or by modernizing the mines...
...Down with the Boot." Predictably, Lechin's Bolivian Labor Confederation called a general strike that shut down the railroads, factories, textile mills and tin mines. In La Paz itself, 4,000 factory workers shouting, "Down with the military boot!" sacked and burned the office of the military's domestic airline before police rifle fire dispersed the mob, killing one rioter and wounding 19. The demonstrations went on for six days. Then the workers started trickling back to work, leaving only the miners still storming around...