Word: paz
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...face of it, the ceremony last week seemed to indicate that Rene Barrientos was no longer the No. 1 man in Bolivia. Army Chief Ovando has been pressuring Barrientos to share power ever since the November coup that toppled President Victor Paz Estenssoro. But things are not 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...
...Bolivia was like a two-horse cart headed for a precipice before my November revolution," says Air Force General René Barrientos. One of the horses was President Victor Paz Estenssoro, "and we got rid of him in November. Now we are rid of the other...
That other horse was Juan Lechin, 52, Paz's onetime Vice President and a longtime leftist union leader. In a surprise raid, Barrientos' police had picked him up in his home and packed him off to exile in Paraguay aboard an air force C-47. Lechin's crime, according to Barrientos, was masterminding a "Communist conspiracy" to overthrow the Bolivian government. "Bolivia was at the crossroads," cried Barrientos in a radio speech. "The choice was Communism or democracy...
...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...
Diplomats in La Paz tended to believe that the demonstrations were largely directed and engineered by Barrientos. Nevertheless, he does have wide popular appeal among the peasants, who see him as a young and vigorous reformer. He campaigns tirelessly, promises land, food, health and education to all within earshot. How much support he has in the La Paz capital is questionable. His incessant speechifying raises the hackles of some of his fellow generals who fear that he has ambitions to become a Bolivian dictator. Last week army brass were privately demanding that Barrientos share the junta leadership with General Alfredo...