Word: paz
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Both Lechin and Paz are members of Bolivia's ruling M.N.R. Party, and together they plotted the 1952 revolution that toppled the country's feudal tin-mining aristocracy. But once in power, Paz and Lechin swiftly became bitter rivals. As Minister of Mines, Lechin, who is part Arab and part Indian, styled himself a "Trotskyite Communist," turned the 40,000-man miners' union into his private militia, and proceeded to featherbed the nationalized mines with 6,000 unneeded workers. The miners called him "El Maestro"-but the once profitable mines became a shambles, losing money...
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...
...piled 60 miners. Waving Czech mausers and pistols, shouting "Gringo! 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...
Fearing the effect of such a U.S. offer on the already aroused miners, the Bolivian government quickly denied that any U.S. arms aid was requested-or needed. President Paz ordered 3,000 troops to encircle the mine area, then made his own position clear: there would be no exchange of prisoners, and the miners must release their captives. But neither Paz nor the miners would give in. To send the army in to rescue the hostages, Paz feared, might bring on their deaths and plunge the nation into bloody civil...