Word: gueiler
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...Guevara in a coup. But Natusch decided to vacate the presidential palace-literally through the back door -after widespread protests against his usurpation. Ignoring the fact that Guevara was, at least technically, the country's lawful acting President, Congress named a new interim chief executive. She is Lydia Gueiler Tejada, 53, a veteran leftist politician and an accountant by profession. Diplomatic observers in La Paz suspect that sooner or later-and it probably will be sooner-the first female to serve as the country's chief executive will be pushed through the revolving door of Bolivian politics...
...gravest threat to Gueiler's administration arises, as it usually does in Bolivia, from the armed forces. Three days after she was presented with the red, gold and green ceremonial sash of the presidency, Gueiler was handed a blunt de mand by a coalition of young pro-democratic army officers. Its substance: that she oust all of the high military officials appointed by Natusch, including General Luis Garcia Meza, a right-wing officer who had been named commander of the army. Gueiler was happy to oblige; she selected General Rene Villaroel, a moderate officer, for Garcia Meza...
...Finally Gueiler, who had been a confidante of Chile's late Marxist President Salvador Allende Gossens, caved in to Garcia Meza's demand, appointing Rocha Patino to the army post last week. He obligingly proclaimed that the protesting officers were now ready "to bear with dignity and stoicism whatever sacrifices are demanded by the democratic cause." But Rocha Patifto's statement, cynics noted, was at best a rather lukewarm endorsement of Gueiler's fledgling regime...
...Gueiler-or whoever will be running the country in the months ahead-faces some hard, unpopular decisions. In essence, Bolivia is broke. A representative of the International Monetary Fund has recommended a devaluation of the Bolivian peso, which is artificially pegged at 20 to the dollar, to help solve a complex of economic problems ranging from severe inflation to a foreign debt of $3 billion. Natusch, unrealistically, had promised to attack these economic woes by raising workers' salaries "without provoking inflation and without devaluing the currency...