Word: lechin
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Last year when Paz gained the upper hand, Lechin chose semi-exile as Bolivia's Ambassador to Rome. Paz then set about reorganizing the nationalized mines that normally produce 90% of the country's export income. To win $35 million in foreign help (from the U.S., West Germany and the Inter-American Development Bank), Paz reformed the mine management, reduced the power of the unions, and boldly fired more than 1,000 unneeded miners...
Call to Revolt. Lechin hurried home from Rome to fight. In radio broadcasts to the tin miners, he accused Paz of selling out to the "imperialists." At a labor rally, under a banner proclaiming THE WORKING CLASS AGAINST THAT CALAMITY CALLED THE ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS, Lechin announced his own presidential candidacy...
...night two weeks ago, police laid a roadside ambush for two longtime Lechin lieutenants, Federico Escobar and Irineo Pimentel, who were wanted on a series of charges ranging from embezzlement to manslaughter. After a blazing gunfight, the two union men were dragged off to jail. When word of the arrests reached the mines, raging workers surged through the streets, tossing sticks of dynamite into...
...Gringo!" they ourst into the house and hauled out the foreigners. By dawn, 17 hostages were prisoners in Siglo Veinte's union building. A radio message went out from the mines to the government in La Paz: the hostages in exchange for the two union leaders "or else." Lechin casually denied all responsibility in the kidnaping: "It is a tradition in the mines...
Full Assistance. The U.S. Government was outraged. Secretary of State Rusk fired off a wire to Lechin holding him personally responsible for the hostages' safety. An angry President Johnson immediately offered the Bolivian government "full assistance"-whatever it wanted, including arms and men-to secure the prisoners' release. In Bolivia there was talk of helicopter-equipped U.S. Army Special Forces troops standing by in Panama, ready to fly to Bolivia for a lightning rescue...