Word: estenssoro
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Thus ended ten days of imprisonment in the dingy tin miners' union hall at Siglo, Veinte, 135 miles from the Bolivian capital of La Paz. Until the end, there was no certainty that the men - pawns in a power struggle between Bolivia's moderate President Victor Paz Estenssoro and its leftist Vice President Juan Lechin - would get out alive. Even after Lechin backed down, many of the rebellious miners whom he leads seemed in a mood to set off a civil war in the bleak Andean nation. They demanded that Lechin appear personally before them to explain...
...grimy miners gathered in front of the union hall. Many of them were in an ugly mood. "Down with the stooges of Yankee imperialism," they chanted. "To the wall! To the wall!" A note of urgent pleading in his voice, Lechin told them that President Paz Estenssoro had promised a fair trial for the jailed union men. "Down with Paz Estenssoro!" howled the miners angrily. "About midway through," recalled U.S. Consul Thomas afterwards, "I began looking around for the embassy car in case I had to clear out fast...
...more than the arrest of the two union leaders was involved: the miners were in open defiance of the government in La Paz. And their leader, Juan Lechin, 50, Bolivia's far-leftist Vice President, was using their grievances as a defiant bid for power against Victor Paz Estenssoro, Bolivia's constitutional President, who intends to run for re-election next...
...release of the hostages to prevent a " bloody massacre." The miners refused, believing that their leaders were coerced into making the plea. Lechin himself returned to La Paz, and in a desperate attempt to make a deal, offered to resign as Vice President and return the hostages if Paz Estenssoro would free the two union leaders and three other leftists in jail. "It was a mistake in the first place to take the hostages," he admitted...
...miners, a weary, red-eyed Lechin urged them to honor Paz's conditions for settlement-assurances of a fair trial for the two jailed union leaders if the hostages are freed. Lechin then said he was leaving for Siglo Veinte to make a personal appeal, and President Paz Estenssoro announced terms had been agreed on and that the prisoners would soon be released. Even so, said a U.S. Embassy official, "We won't be happy until we see.the hostages right here...