Bolivia: The War Goes On
Volk, Steve
Che Guevara saw Bolivia as one of the weakest links in the long imperialist chain. A country with a rich history of worker and peasant struggles, including the democratic- bourgeois revolution of...
...Under Barrientos the military had become so unpopular that, according to Torres, "we were not even able to get on to the buses...
...Dual exchange rates for imports were prohibited, thus crushing national industry which previously could import machinery and equipment at a low cost...
...The new president, Col...
...In contrast to countries like Chile, the Bolivian ruling class has always suffered from severe internal divisions...
...But the similarities ended at that point, for by 1971 the U.S...
...The Destruction of the Old Bourgeoisie...
...the United States had "bought enough time...
...As in earlier periods of Bolivian history, the workers' support could maintain the government in power-at least temporarily--but it was not sufficiently strong to dictate its course...
...Designed to control the severe inflation, the IMF's plan actually aimed at controlling labor...
...MIR: MOVIMIENTO DE LA IZQUIERDA REVOLUCIONARIA (Leftist Revolutionary Movement...
...Ruben Sanchez had been captured and released by Che Guevara's guerrillas in 1967...
...3) universal suffrage;4)disnemberment of the bourgeois armed forces...
...change would flow from above...
...It has been led by Juan Lechin since its earliest days...
...Mining production declined as workers encountered massive problems in the administration of an industry which had been disintegrating for over twenty years without capital input...
...aid and an extensive training program for Bolivian officers in the Canal Zone and the United States...
...COMIBOL: CORPORACION MINERO DE BOLIVIA (Bolivian Mining Corporation...
...Of these, the most important were: 1) nationalization of the "Tin 'Barons' " properties and the creation of a state mining corporation (COMIBOL) to administer them...
...Three crucial manipulations were necessary: 1) the division and demoralization of the proletariat...
...Organized in 1940 by a group of Marxist intellectuals who accepted the direction of the Third International...
...Gulf Oil is a case in point...
...Although most of Bolivian history has been concentrated on the5 Glossary* COB: CENTRAL OBRERA BOLIVIANA (Bolivian Workers' Federation...
...the Santa Cruz- Yacuiba, Argentina, railroad financed by Argentina (begun in 1955...
...The MNR governed from 1952-1964 (Victor Paz Estenssoro: 1952-56...
...For example, while altiplano production of corn and potatoes increased 21 percent and 31 percent respectively between 1962 and 1971, production of cotton (up 809 percent), coffee (+375 percent) and sugar (+242 percent) had boomed...
...Since 1938 it has followed the ideological position of the Fourth International (Trotsky), and is now affiliated with the Paris-based Organization Communiste Internationaliste...
...The Falangist Carlos Valverde, Minister of Social Services and Public Health, is a well-known liquor and cigarette smuggler who operates between Santa Cruz and Paraguay...
...1 The war, which Bolivian leaders thought they could easily win, was disastrous...
...Air Force wings which he proudly wore even though he was a Bolivian, not a United States, officer...
...Since 1952 was an election year, the problem of Bolivia was left to the incoming Eisenhower administration...
...Bolivia's bourgeoisie was even less able to reach an agreement within its own ranks on how "development" should occur...
...future...
...Andres Selich, Interior Minister, combined a Santa Cruz background with extensive training by the U.S...
...Ovando nationalized Gulf Oil in 1970...
...Copyright O 1974 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...Both carried out nationalizations, were dominated by institutional loyalty and negotiated with the imperialist powers...
...On that date, for the first time since 1952, all sectors of the left fought together against the common enemy...
...5 Yet an imperialist victory in Bolivia required more than patience...
...Cited in Laurence Whitehead, The United States and Bolivia: A Case of NeoColonialism (London: Haslemere Group, 1969), 23...
...Member of the FRA...
...It is true that Barrientos received some support from sectors of the peasantry which had developed a reactionary petitbourgeois mentality following the agrarian reform measures of the 1950's...
...The strength of the party is in the mines as well as among the proletariat in general...
...1 (December 1972), 23...
...Manifesto del FRA," Causa Obrera (Bolivia), Vol...
...The Falange is a neo-fascist party founded in 1937 by five university students and modeled after the Spanish fascist party of the same name...
...But his government brutally attacked the working class whenever the occasion arose...
...In fact, previously moderate sectors of the labor movement have become increasingly radicalized in the face of government attempts to destroy their organizations...
...imperialist strategy would now concentrate on what was impossible in 1952: the physical repression of the workers' movement...
...Barrientos, in return, threw his country open to U.S...
...The DCR is a movement based on radicalized petit-bourgeois intellectuals...
...Three years further into Barrientos' term, Gulf held 82 percent of production and the YPFB share slipped under 20 percent...
...economic adviser Cornelius Zondag reminded Siles that he needed political strength to push through the IMF Stabilization Program...
...He wanted both to wipe out the most dangerous elements on the left and to maximize the army's prestige...
...Since the revolution of 1952 it has been a right-wing party with very little support...
...PC(ML): PARTIDO COMUNISTA (MARXISTA-LENINISTA) (Communist Party-Marxist Leninist...
...Le Duan, Secretary General of the Vietnamese Workers' Party (Lao Dong), has written: "the revolutionary army . . . can only be the workers' and peasants' army .. placed under the immediate and undivided leadership of our Party, the party of the working class...
...It recently broke that coalition...
...While Banzer has nearly run out of strings to pull in order to maintain himself in power, the future success of the Bolivian revolutionaries depends on their ability to unify their ranks, combat sectarianism and form a political party capable of directing their struggle...
...and Brazilian support for the Banzer regime, the present popular movement focuses on the contradiction between imperialism and the exploited countries...
...The party is strongest in urban areas and in some of the mines...
...2) basic agrarian reforms for the altiplano, the high plateau where two-thirds of the population lived...
...Supported the Villarroel government (1943-46) and led the 1952 revolution...
...The Foreign Minister, Mario Gutierrez, leader of the party since 1958, is one of the wealthiest Santa Cruz cattle ranchers...
...Only the tin industry provided the bourgeoisie with a solid economic base, and the three dominant figures of this industry--Patino, Aramayo, and Hochschild-had already begun to move their profits out of Bolivia...
...The international depression of the early 1930's had hit Bolivia with particular fury, sharpening internal class conflicts and intensifying the differences which already existed within the ruling class...
...Instrumental in overthrowing the Villarroel government in 1946, the Falange fostered continual attempts to remove the MNR during its years in power...
...military in Panama and the United States...
...The MNR-FSB coalition shattered in late November 1973, and the old opportunist, Paz Estenssoro, has again been forced into exile...
...Che often wrote in his diary that, "we continue without contacts of any kind and without reasonable hope of establishing them in the near...
...The wheels of this U.S.style machine were greased with U.S...
...In general, one can say that revolutionary violence is based on two forms of struggle: armed struggle and political struggle, one combined with the other...
...While he had hoped to substitute support from the military (created under his auspices) for that of the left, his plan backfired...
...This contradiction prevented him from arming them until it was too late...
...investments...
...It obviously cannot replace the political analysis of these groups which is presented in the body of the articles.6 relatively narrow altiplano, the easternlowlands constitute 70 percent of the national territory.And, while mining generally occurs in the highlands, the eastern regions have abundant reserves of oil, natural gas, and wood, and present optimal conditions for the cultivation of rice, sugar, cotton, and the raising of cattle...
...David Toro, Lieut...
...7. Lenin, "What is to be done...
...Formed in May 1971 as a coalition of various popular, leftist and Marxist groups and parties...
...Le Duan, La revolucion vietnamita (Buenos Aires: La Rosa Blindada, 1971), 25, 41...
...imperialists...
...Formed from the ranks of Che's guerrilla column, the ELN has carried on the majority of military attacks directedat the reactionary governments since Barrientos...
...Based on the miners' militant positions (See "The Thesis of Pulacayo" in this issue), the MNR continued to chip away at the ruling class...
...The counterinsurgency forces led by U.S.-trained Bolivian Special Forces (Rangers), also understood the importance of isolating Che's column...
...But the leadership, clearly, would always come from the former...
...The importance of this cannot be underestimated...
...And leftist leaders, jailed, exiled and persecuted, manage to return to the struggle at the first opportunity...
...loans helped construct sugar mills, import mechanized agricultural equipment, explore for oil, support colonization programs, and subsidize sugar, rice and cotton producers...
...Although it took no open steps to punish the Toro government for the 1936 nationalization of Standard Oil of New Jersey, the United States did refuse to recognize the Villarroel government until MNR leaders were removed from its first cabinet...
...1,128-29...
...He understood that the separation of the U.S...
...2. Milton Eisenhower's recommendations for his brother's Latin American policy were written in his book, The Wine is Bitter: The United States in Latin America (Garden City: Doubleday), 1963...
...The war goes on...
...Formed shortly after the 1952 revolution, the COB represents all sectors of the organized labor movement...
...Steel, Phillips Brothers Ore Cor- poration, and Englehard Minerals and Chemical s Corporation...
...It participated in the guerrilla movement of Teoponte, and joined the MIR in 1971...
...The POR is presently led by Guillermo Lora...
...The dimensions of the tragedy greatly weakened the old oligarchy, which was not in very good shape to begin...
...FRA: FRENTE REVOLUCIONARIO ANTI-IMPERIALISTA (Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Front...
...Embassy, Green Berets and the CIA called the political shots...
...Castro, op...
...The vast majority of leftist and popular parties and organizations have joined the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Front (FRA...
...As Commander of the Bolivian Military Academy in 1955, he received training in the Canal Zone...
...In short, unions isolated from a party tend to be over-concerned about short-term economic demands while neglecting larger issues of the securing of class power, react in a spontaneous rather than a politically conscious manner, and follow populist positions...
...The plan blamed the proletariat for the severe inflation rather than the bourgeoisie which had systematically decapitalized the tin industry, or the petit- bourgeois sectors of the MNR, up to their ears in graft...
...When congressmen attending hearings on the aid program to Bolivia ($20 million for fiscal year 1956, for example) complained that it was only "subsidizing inefficiency of production," they were reminded that "we are having to buy time here (Bolivia...
...loans (1954-9...
...9 Severe inflation and generalized economic disruption resulted from these programs...
...DCR: DEMOCRACIA CRISTIANA REVOLUCIONARIA (Revolutionary Christian Democracy...
...Both generals knew that only by moving the military within a nationalist framework could they protect its institutional continuity...
...The PIR, while very strong in organized labor before 1943, lost that support as a common front strategy allied it with the reactionary elements who overthrew Gualberto Villarroel...
...and, 3) the construction of a new bourgeoisie to replace the one traveling downhill since 1929...
...aid money...
...The MNR closely identified with the ideas of the "military socialists," and even shared the government with Villarroel (19431946...
...The process reached crisis proportions by mid-1951...
...Disruption in the agrarian sector-especially on the highlands-in the early years of the agrarian reform and a U.S...
...The violent years of the Barrientos dictatorship during which the CIA openly ran the Interior Ministry (according to the Minister, Antonio Arguedas),1 3 greatly accentuated the contradictions building in Bolivia...
...Gil Reyes (Agriculture), and Raul Lema Pelaez (Treasury) are all members of the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie...
...In the final analysis, though, the Assembly failed to develop into the political organ of a workers' state since it neglected the fundamental problem of power, of its own defense...
...The Assembly was to represent the working class in the same way that the Congress had always represented the bourgeoisie and the petit-bourgeoisie...
...All forms of sectarianism are counterrevolutionary...
...One hundred and thirty-two worker delegates, 53 delegates for white collar groups, 23 for the Independent Peasants' Confederation and 11 for the most important left parties composed the bulk of the Assembly...
...Without a working class political party to lead the masses, the MNR's reforms could not be turned into revolutionary measures...
...Col...
...The Diary of Che Guevara (San Francisco:.Ramparts Magazine, July 27, 1968), 6. 15...
...The Banzer regime recently outlawed the federation in an attempt to smash it...
...Fidel Castro, "A Necessary Introduction...
...The union, by itself, "is able to develop only trade-union consciousness," 7 when what is needed is proletarian socialist consciousness...
...As with the military leaders, the MNR also sought an alliance between certain "enlightened" sectors of the bourgeoisie and the masses...
...The stabilization plan was drawn up by George Jackson Eder, a North American adviser invited to Bolivia by Paz Estenssoro only after the United States threatened to curtail their aid program.11 One of its provisions greatly en- couraged the creation of the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie...
...Che did not conceive of the struggle in Bolivia as an isolated fact," Fidel later wrote, "but as part of a revolutionary liberation movement which would permit the incorporation of all those who wanted to fight for the liberation of Bolivia and the rest of the peoples subjugated by imperialism in Latin America...
...But here the similarities end...
...The correlation of forces within the country shifted out of the workers' favor...
...These programs also led to the decay of the Bolivian flour milling industry since flour could be imported more cheaply from U.S...
...This struggle intensified after a reactionary alliance overthrew (and hung) Villarroel in 1946...
...In countries like the United States the military is generally used by a united ruling class against the working class either at home or abroad...
...1 2 So the MNR re-built the army with large doses of U.S...
...He also nationalized the properties of the Dallas-based International Metals Processing Company.8 The Torres government reach its high point with the convocation of a Popular Assembly, a measure demanded by the workers and peasants who supported the general's bid for power...
...imperialism cannot govern an exploited area without the direct participation of a local bourgeoisie...
...The Korean War again demonstrated that the United States4 could ill afford to lose Bolivia, the only major tin-producer in the Western Hemisphere...
...The first government established after Torres' downfall illustrates their force and the important role of the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie...
...And the other "crop" flourished, as well...
...Food-for-Peace program which sold Bolivia wheat at below world market prices discouraged producers from planting certain important food crops...
...The crisis of the Chaco War was also instrumental in the formation of the MNR, * founded in 1941...
...common borders with many South American republics, physical isolation...
...Though momentarily defeated, Che's guerrillas produced a profound and lasting effect in...
...Member of the FRA...
...The result of this has been continual revolts, nearly two-hundred presidents in 150 years of national independence, and a tendency to rely on the military to rule...
...25 per year for profit-making and government organizations ($48 for two years...
...Bank employees, teachers, miners and others have also militantly demonstrated their opposition to the Banzer regime, undoubtedly the most repressive in Bolivian history...
...The Santa Cruz Bourgeoisie and the Reactionary Offensive...
...A Case History of Inflation and Stabilization in Bolivia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1968), 479...
...But most saw the Assembly as an early stage of, or transition to, the proletarian state, and none viewed it as the final culmination of the socialist revolution...
...Economic conditions favored their movement as well: the petit-bourgeoisie flocked to the MNR as inflation ate away their earnings and savings...
...Labor militancy has not decreased since the coup...
...PIR: PARTIDO DE LA IZQUIERDA REVOLUCIONARIA (Leftist Revolutionary Party...
...These included various projects designed to link the eastern region to the rest of the nation: completion of the Cochabamba-Santa Cruz highway with a $50 million loan from the Eximbank (1953-4...
...or the placing of U.S.-trained "free labor unionists" in workers' organizations to influence political decisions...
...6. Rene Zavaleta Mercado, "Bolivia-Military Nationalism and the Popular Assembly," New Left Review, Vol.77, 70...
...1 7 The power of both, according to Rene Zavaleta, was rooted in the army and based on personal control...
...While Ovando believed he could buy off the working class by nationalizing oil, and could then adopt a reactionary line, Torres was well aware that he had an active and powerful working class to deal with, and that without the workers, the balance on which his power rested would have collapsed...
...His U.S...
...The Santa Cruz bourgeoisie had prospered with the region's cash crops and basic resources...
...To a large extent, though, the war between these two countries also was encouraged by a conflict between two international oil giants-Standard Oil of New Jersey and Royal Dutch Shell-each of which wanted control over the supposedly oil-rich lands of the Chaco...
...German Busch, and Major Gualberto Villarroel, attempted to introduce radical nationalist reforms from above, but with the support of the working class and the peasantry...
...Fidel has summarized the idea which Che left in Bolivia, writing that "in all ages and under all circumstances there will always exist abundant reasons not to fight, but that will be the only way not to obtain liberty...
...The death (or murder) of Barrientos in a helicopter crash in 1969 opened the road for the governments of two military nationalists following a short civilian interregnum...
...By and large it is probably true that in a showdown the armed civilian militia comprised principally of miners, are the ones who can control the situation...
...See Gregorio Seizer, La CIA en Bolivia (Buenos Aires: Hernandez Editor), 1970...
...Based on a nationalist, petit-bourgeois ideology, the MNR represented large sectors of the proletariat, petit-bourgeoisie, and even a small sector of the progressive bourgeoisie...
...Che did not outlive his ideas, but he fecundated them with his own blood...
...PS: PARDIDO SOCIALISTA (Socialist Party...
...Since the early part of this century, labor unions rather than political parties have been the strongest organizational tool of the Bolivian left...
...Torres feared the workers as much as he realized that he could only survive if they remained strong...
...The FSB has become very influential in the Banzer regime where its leader, Mario Gutierrez, is Minister of Foreign Relations...
...In response to the revolutionary threat of the Popular Assembly, the international bourgeoisie sowed the seeds of another Vietnam in Bolivia...
...Falangist elements have dominated Bolivia since the reactionary coup d'etat of August 21, 1971...
...Although he spiced his speeches with nationalist rhetoric, Barrientos mortgaged his government to the First National City Bank, W. R. Grace and Company, and Gulf Oil while the U.S...
...The agricultural sector of the ruling class, on the other hand, was socially significant but it was weakened by its very limited economic importance...
...Bolivia, the geographical heart of the South American continent, symbolizes the contradictions of Latin American history: a rich country, a pauperized people...
...In that year Paz7 Estensoro, mastermind of the MNR's opportunist wing, arranged for his third term in office...
...By calling for the nationalization of the large tin mines and the re-assertion of national control over the economy, the MNR mobilized a mass movement to fight for social change...
...To the same extwnt the proletariat, organizedlargely aroundmining and some textile workers' unions, had enough power to cause the downfall of the nationalist military, but not enough to rule by itself...
...The FRA's unity, which represents only the first step in a very long march, was forged in the heat of battle on August 21, 1971...
...The MNR returned to the government in 1971 in a coalition with the FSB and the Banzer regime...
...By 1960 over sixty U.S...
...aid policy had sufficiently disarmed the labor unions, split the MNR, rebuilt the military, and joined the petit-bourgeoisie with the new bourgeoisie to permit a more characteristic U.S...
...A further split in 1964 divided the party into a pro-Soviet group (PCB) and a pro-China group (PC-ML...
...Formed immediately after the defeat of Torres as a coalition of the majority of leftist parties and movements in Bolivia...
...While the party's main strength is in the Santa Cruz region, it is very strong among university students and other sectors of the urban petit-bourgeoisie...
...Co-government" schemes without a proletarian party leading the government meant that the worker-ministers were used by the MNR to win mass support for bourgeois goals...
...The MIR is strongest among the radical petitbourgeois intellectual sectors of the urban areas and universities...
...A country with a rich history of worker and peasant struggles, including the democratic- bourgeois revolution of 1952, Bolivia still bears the weight of a reactionary bourgeoisie, an oppressive military, and no small number of U.S...
...In 1952 the proletariat and the petit-bourgeoisie acted together for both classes suffered from the misrule of the oligarchy...
...POR: PARTIDO OBRERO REVOLUCIONARIO (Revolutionary Workers' Party...
...Furthermore, sectors of the petit-bourgeoisie stood with the workers in 1971 as in 1952 since their economic foundation was shaken by both preceding governments...
...In early 1964 an assassin's bullet aimed at him was deflected by the set of U.S...
...In light of these considerations, U.S...
...Some of these conflicts were more important than others, but the Chaco War (1932-1935) was undoubtedly a major turning point in modern Bolivian history...
...If Che understood the fragility of the oligarchy's control of the country, his imperialist enemies also did...
...In one of its most conscious acts, the United States proceeded to create a new bourgeoisie to replace the old divided and demoralized ruling class...
...millers such as W. R. Grace & Co...
...On the other hand, the Assembly, or elements within it, pressed for certain revolutionary structural changes in the country without also tackling the problem of self-defense from the inevitable counter-revolutionary offensive...
...In 1964 Gulf produced 3 percent of the total Bolivian petroleum output and the state agency, YPFB, produced 95 percent...
...It was with this knowledge of the heightened contradictions that Che Guevara began his fateful guerrilla column in Bolivia...
...or, simply, how to encourage programs of short-term economist demands which, in effect, divided the labor movement within itself...
...It is presently led by Mario Monje and Koelle Cueto...
...Ambassador Edward Sparks convinced Milton during the latter's trip to La Paz that Bolivia could only be recaptured if a moderate, long-term strategy were planned.3 U.S...
...The Santa Cruz connection was important in the naming of the other new ministers as well...
...Recently split into two groups (MIR-Causa Obrera and MIR-DCR) over the question of mass political work or vanguard military actions...
...Remaining phases of U.S...
...Hugo Gonzales, Minister of Information, had carried on a persistent press campaign in favor of Gulf Oil (located in Santa Cruz) during the Ovando government when he ran the important paper, La Nacion...
...Member of the FRA...
...4 By refusing to recognize or deal with the new MNR government, the balance of power would swing even more in the workers' favor...
...Production of petroleum, natural gas, iron and cattle from the Santa Cruz region also flourished...
...16 per year for non-profit institutions ($30 for two years...
...Hugo Banzer, a former military attache to Washington, based his power in Santa Cruz, headquarters of the party...
...He also has strong ties to the reactionary governments of nearby Paraguay and Brazil...
...An outright invasion, on the other hand, could be ruled out because of the proximity of the Korean War...
...These measures naturally produced some splits within the ranks of the governing MNR but, for the moment, the armed workers in alliance with other oppressed sectors held more power than any other single sector...
...Founded in 1941 as a nationalist coalition of the proletariat, petit-bourgeoisie and progressive bourgeoisie...
...I, no...
...Torres nationalized the Matilde zinc mine owned jointly by U.S...
...Encouraged by the undying militancy of the Bolivian workers, Che foresaw the liberation of Bolivia as a strategic step in the liberation of all Latin America...
...Characteristic of both the old and the new bourgeoisie, Barrientos had strong ties to the United States...
...Member of the FRA...
...Bolivia has endured one of the most tumultuous histories in Latin America...
...In fact Lyndon Johnson, another cattle rancher, closely supported his rise to power...
...The United States also felt it was high time to reconstitute a full-scale armed force in Bolivia...
...Selected Works, Vol...
...Recently founded by Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, the Minister of Mines and Petroleum under General Ovando who nationalized Gulf Oil...
...Member of the FRA...
...and, 7) creation of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), a national labor federation under the leadership of Juan Lechin, one of the miners' top representatives...
...In the 1960's and 1970's, the majority of national leaders from Barrientos to Banzer either have close ties to the Santa Cruz bourgeoisie or are its direct representatives...
...the workers had just watched Ovando's installation...
...For more on the Chaco War, see Herbert S. Klein, Parties and Political Change in Bolivia, 1880-1952 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1969...
...Torres, however, knew the limitations of his power, but wanted such a limited power since the price of real power was a weaker army and a stronger working class.18 As Zavaleta points out, the biggest difference between the two was the role of the working class in the Torres govern- ment...
...Bolivia in 1952 posed a serious problem to the United States since such a local force did not exist...
...His Rangers were responsible for the death of Che in Nancahuazu in 1967.19 Santa Cruz's proximity-political and ideological as well as geographical-to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay confirmed Che's political analysis of 1967...
...Policy Paid Off in Bolivia," The Washington Post, March 22, 1967...
...State-owned mining corporation which took over the properties of the three largest mine owners (Patino, Aramayo and Hochschild) following the 1952 revolution...
...Two years later, Paz Estenssoro officially rescinded the workers' veto (control obrero) in the COMIBOL administration...
...Yet its all-out determination to destroy the leftist parties and its attempts to crush the labor movement can only mean its time is swiftly running out...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, NY3 became Paraguayan territory...
...When a miners' conference voted to support Che's forces in June 1967, the army moved in and massacred more than 100 at the large Siglo XX mine...
...tin prices tumbled down...
...Cornelius Zondag, La economia boliviana, 1952-1965 (La Paz-Cochabamba: Los Amigos del Libro, 1968), 84...
...C. Construction of a New Bourgeoisie...
...2 0 Pressure from the left and the internal contradictions of his own coalition are forcing Banzer into a corner...
...Over the next ten years, three "military socialists," Col...
...5) initiation of "cogovernment" (the coalition rule of the petitbourgeoisie/ bourgeoisie and the working class) with the naming of worker and peasant cabinet officials...
...By 1964 the twelve year U.S...
...strategy of re-building the Bolivian bourgeoisie had definitely paid off...
...The old problem of the Bolivian left persisted: unions, given to spontaneous activities and close to populist leaders, formed the backbone of its organization, not political parties...
...But, for the first time in Bolivian history, a new political alliance emerged after the Chaco War: the nationalist military supported by the proletariat...
...See "Tin and Imperialism" in this issue...
...General Rene Barrientos dumped him from office in a bloodless military coup late that year...
...PCB: PARTIDO COMUNISTA BOLIVIANO (Bolivian Communist Party...
...The United States reacted cautiously to events in Bolivia...
...The PCB was organized in 1950 after a split within the PIR, an older Marxist party...
...On April 9, 1952, the MNR led an open revolt against the Junta with the support of one of its own top officers...
...a revolutionary proletariat, no vanguard, no leadership...
...The regimes of General Alfredo Ovando (1969-1970) and General Juan Jose Torres (1970-1971) contained many similarities...
...Formed in 1964 by Juan Lechin, an important labor leader, who was expelled by Paz Estenssoro from the MNR...
...advisers in Bolivia may not have understood this conflict within the leftist movement in Leninist terms, but they did understand standard procedures of distributing enough money and materials to the unions to encourage graft among its leaders...
...FSB: FALANGE SOCIALISTA BOLIVIANA (Bolivian Socialist Falange...
...Con- sequently, they have spent twenty years and millions of dollars in an attempt to shore up their forces in that country...
...Member of the FRA...
...Organized proletarian support brought Torres to power in 1970...
...A last-ditch military Junta found itself forced to nullify presidential election results when the vote count showed a clear victory for MNR-leader Victor Paz Estenssoro, one of the party's founders...
...Address all correspondence to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025 or Box 226, Berkeley, CA 94701...
...The plan, highly touted by Kennedy as the model for Alliance for Progress lending and an early experiment in multi-lateral aid, required the massive firing of miners and justified the murder or exile of many of their leaders...
...Although it has gone through some opportunist political maneuvers, it remains the neo-fascist party of the upper bourgeoisie and the reactionary petit-bourgeoisie...
...He later attended advanced classes as an air force general in Oklahoma...
...Paz Estenssoro (1952- 1956) authorized the re-opening of the Military Academy in July 1953, but only in 1956 did Hernan Siles (1956-1960) seriously construct an army...
...They still have the arms and still represent the effective force in this Government...
...Outstanding unions such as the FSTMB of the miners have defined the nature of the struggle and provided its leadership since the mid-1940's...
...In short, this is the basic reason for an unusually chaotic political history...
...Since August 1971 Bolivia has been brutalized by Hugo Banzer and his Santa Cruz allies...
...By 1956 the U.S...
...Founded in 1944, the FSTMB has always been the most important single federation of mine workers and a key organization in the COB...
...La Paz: Jose Camarlinghi), 1969...
...Yet this alliance was particularly fragile as the petit-bourgeoisie always sought to maintain its vulnerable economic position...
...Steve Volk FOOTNOTES 1. See Sergio Almaraz Paz, Petroleo en Bolivia, 2nd ed...
...And a workers victory there-as Che realized-could dramatically alter the balance of power throughout the continent...
...When class strife threatened his government, Bolivian President Daniel Salamanca fostered a conflict with neighboring Paraguay as one way of meeting that crisis...
...Characteristic of the new bourgeoisie, Barrientos came from the lowlands (Cochabamba Valley) rather than the altiplano...
...For Bolivia's unusual position in the center of South America gives it an importance which its small population (5 million) and poverty cannot explain...
...Member of the FRA...
...The early steps of creating an economic infra-structure in the region were finished by 1961...
...It is still headed by Juan Lechin...
...The struggle of the Bolivian people became internationalized when the reactionary oligarchy of Santa Cruz turned to Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and the United States for aid in overthrowing Torres and supporting Banzer...
...The political situation of 1971 resembled that of twenty years earlier in that during both periods the proletariat was well organized and militant...
...The process of shoring up the ruling class and attacking the workers accelerated with the 1961 "Triangular Plan" financed by USAID, West Germany and the InterAmerican Development Bank...
...Ciro Humboldt (Labor), Carlos Serrate (Mining and Petroleum), Enrique Leigue (Urbanism and Housing), Col...
...George Jackson Eder, Inflation and Development in Latin America...
...cit., 64...
...6 Yet history has shown that only a politicalparty, based on the strength of the proletariat but more encompassing than a work-place organization, can develop and carry through a program designed to win power for the workers as a class...
...Lest it lose a good investment, the United States rushed Barrientos to the Canal Zone in an airplane from the Military Group for emergency treatment...
...strategists clearly saw that, following the revolution, armed Bolivian workers held the key to power even though they did not have a very firm grasp on it...
...construction of feeder roads and bridges on this highway with $33.7 million in U.S...
...A 1956 report to the State Department by U.S...
...Formed after the defeat of Torres by Major Ruben Sanchez, head of the Colorado regiment, the only loyal troops in the fighting against Banzer...
...Member of the FRA...
...3. Drew Pearson, "Wise U.S...
...4. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on the Committee on Government Operations, Hearings on United States Technical Assistance and Related Activities in Latin America, 84th Congress, 1st Session (October 1955),384-5...
...strategy for Bolivia, it seems, has paid off: it is no longer "buying time" in this land-locked country...
...New York Times, January 9, 1974...
...In 1956 the United States forced through an International Monetary Fund-financed "stabilization" program...
...Ibid., 65...
...Andres Selich, after he had begun to attack Banzer from the right...
...upper class into various competing economic sectors would produce a major confrontation, the Civil War...
...Member of the FRA...
...VIII, No...
...Revolutionary workers' control should have encouraged the realization that worker control of all enterprises was necessary before worker control of any could be assured...
...This glossary is designed to provide short descriptions of the various political parties, movements and organizations in Bolivia...
...strategy had begun to pay off...
...8. House of Representatives, Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, op...
...A 1970 split from the Bolivian Christian Democratic Party...
...FAR: FUERZAS ARMADAS REVOLUCIONARIAS (Revolutionary Armed Forces...
...1 4 Che encountered the same problem that has plagued the Bolivian left since 1952: no political party existed to direct and focus the struggle developing in the Nancahuazu region of Southeastern Bolivia...
...U.S...
...Parties, on the other hand-aside from the MNR-tend to be small and play a leadership role only in so far as their militants are also union members...
...15 Thus, a great danger exists for revolutionaries when these two struggles are separated...
...More than 80,000 Bolivians perished in the fighting and a sizable chunk of Southeastern Bolivia ARGENTINA SPROVINCE SOUDARY MA_ O ROADS -MA)OR RAILROADS AUtt Marp of Bolivia NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT Vol...
...Let us be worthy heirs of the sacrifice of those who fell on August 21st while defending Bolivia...
...Today's9 struggle is between the majority of the Bolivian people," states a FRA manifesto, "and the reactionary dictatorship of Banzer...
...A large part of the new bourgeoisie found political expression in the ranks of the Falange (FSB...
...Hernan Siles Zuazo: 1956-60...
...6) implementation of workers' control (control obrero) in COMIBOL mines as workers won veto power over all decisions...
...Rogelio Garcia Lupo, "Los separatistas de Santa Cruz dominan completamente al gobierno derechista boliviano," Inter-Press Service release NRO 992/971, August 1971...
...connections, in fact, once saved his life...
...Pro-China sector of the Communist Party which was formed in 1964...
...ELN: EJERCITO DE LIBERACION NACIONAL (National Liberation Army...
...MNR: MOVIMIENTO NACIONALISTA REVOLUCIONARIA (Revolutionary Nationalist Movement...
...Founded in 1934 as a Marxist party of the petitbourgeoisie and the proletariat...
...But the cold-warrior syndrome of Eisenhower-Dulles was tempered by the far-sighted advice of Milton Eisenhower, the President's brother.2 U.S...
...policy: support for an open military dictatorship...
...The United States turned its energies to this region, centered around Santa Cruz, in the hopes of cultivating yet another cash crop: a bourgeoisie...
...2 1 And even junior officers of Banzer's own military institution have begun to protest the massive mortgaging of the country to foreign capitalists...
...strategy toward Bolivia developed into one maxim: "buy time" until a "shift in the balance of power" could be effected...
...To the extent that the Bolivian bourgeoisie had crumbled away during the previous two decades, the United States was forced to keep a closer watch on the situation...
...Zavaleta, op...
...8 B. Destruction of the Worker-Petit-Bourgeoisie Alliance...
...Ovando believed that once he had nationalized Gulf Oil he could massacre the guerrillas (the ELN column at Teoponte) and carry out assassinations with impunity...
...Other U.S...
...2, February 1974 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, NY 10027...
...In Bolivia and similarly exploited countries, it is used both for this purpose and by one sector of the bourgeoisie against another...
...It has been one of the strongest parties in the mines since 1946 and was key in the formation of the left-wing of the MNR before the 1952 revolution...
...Political parties and organizations are annotated and described in a special glossary on page 5. Arms still in hand, the proletarian and peasant sectors of the new government pushed through some fundamental measures within a short period...
...1 6 Military Nationalism and the Masses...
...2) the destruction of the petit-bourgeois-proletarian alliance by the creation of a reactionary petit-bourgeoisie...
...Following three days of intense fighting highlighted by the valient offensive of dynamitewielding miners, the military collapsed and the MNR took over the government...
...Subscriptions: $10 per year for individuals ($18 for two years...
...General Rene Barrientos overthrew Paz at the beginning of his third term in office...
...See "Bolivia: Brazil's Geopolitical Prisoner" and "Alliance for Power" in this issue...
...Yet over the years Paz had gradually lost the support of important right-wing sectors as well as the left...
...By forcing Bolivia to compensate the "Tin Barons" for their nationalized mines, the United States further decapitalized the mining industry...
...assistance projects were operating in Santa Cruz...
...His economic base was cattle, and he had large herds in the eastern province of the Beni...
...Inter-American Economic Affairs, Vol.25 ,no.1 (S.1971 ),3-19...
...The U.S...
...Members of his own political police squad recently beat to death their former leader, Col...
...The Politics of Repression...
...PRIN: PARTIDO REVOLUCIONARIO DE LA IZQUIERDA NACIONAL (National Leftist Revolutionary Party...
...Labor Counselor Eugene A. Gilmore clarified this to a congressional committee, saying: The revolution was engineered largely by miners and they are organized in what is known as the Central Obrero Boliviano...
...The Movement has gradually lost most of its worker base and now draws its strength from sectors of the bourgeoisie and the petit-bourgeoisie...
...The leftist political parties disagreed in their analysis of this question...
...Abe Lincoln once noticed that "a house divided against itself cannot stand...
...Founded in 1937 by university students...
...Foreign wars have always provided the oligarchy with an opportunity to cement over class differences with the notion of "national interest" and "defense of the Fatherland...
...The United States Plans Its Strategy...
...Following the late 1972 devaluation of the Bolivian peso by 67 percent, the textile workers took to the streets to protest the exorbitant increase in their cost of living...
...The cost of living rose from an index of 100 in 1952 to 2,270 only four years later.10 Since inflation greatly affected the petit-bourgeoisie, they soon broke their tacit alliance with the workers and sought a more familiar union with the newly-forming bourgeoisie...
...Although the United States poured over $198 million into Bolivia between 1953 and 1961 (as opposed to only $23 million from 1946-1952), the net effect of the aid was to disrupt the Bolivian economy in all but certain areas...
...5. Ibid...
...It is important among peasant groups and, when Frederico Escobar was alive, the miners...
...To add to the already serious situation, the United States refused to negotiate a new contract for the purchase of Bolivian tin with the Junta in March of that year...
...Workers' control" in the COMIBOL mines led to the creation of a trade union bureaucracy, thus dividing each mine from the others and the miners from other laboring sectors...
...Bolivia is composed of three major geographical regions: the altiplano (highlands), the yungas (valleys or tropical highlands), and the oriente (eastern lowlands...
...and, the Santa Cruz-Corumba, Brazil, railroad financed by Brazil (begun in 1957...
...At present," he wrote, "with the army reduced to a nominal force, and the miners and peasants armed, the government seems to lack a certain element of strength...
...He has governed, until recently, with the combined support of the MNR and the FSB, arch-enemies of yesterday...
...1960-64...
...U.S...
...A. Division of the Proletariat...
...9. Melvin Burke, "Does 'Food for Peace' Assistance Damage the Bolivian Economy...
...Given the predominant level of U.S...
...Did the convocation of the Assembly herald the creation of a workers' state...
...While these officers feared the independent political power of the proletariat, they realized that they needed the workers' support to remain in office...
...But agricultural imports were also prohibited, thus strengthening the new eastern agricultural sector...
...When the workers' traditional militancy is channeled into a revolutionary political instrument, the victory will be theirs...
...It is logical, then, that as political crises occur, the union rather than the political party takes upon itself the direction of the response, functioning "as a kind of soviet, fulfilling the responsibilities normally the preserve of the state...
...FSTMB: FEDERACION SINDICAL DE TRABAJADORES MINEROS DE BOLIVIA (Bolivian Federation of Mine Workers...
...It left clandestinity for the first time to fight against the Banzer coup d'etat on August 21, 1971...
...In many respects it is similar to the Chilean National Party as both draw their strength from the upper bourgeoisie and the reactionary sectors of the petit-bourgeoisie...
Vol. 8 • February 1974 • No. 2
