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In-Depth Information
were given back to indigenous peasants to be managed collectively through community or-
ganizations - the resulting indigenous federations emerged as a powerful force, and have
played a major role in national politics ever since.
With the support of the newly enfranchised peasants and workers, the MNR easily won sub-
sequent elections in 1956, with
Hernán Siles
taking over as president from
Paz Estenssoro
.
But with the economy in crisis, the MNR leadership shied away from further revolutionary
measures and turned to the US for financial aid; this was given, in return demanding open
access for US oil corporations, an end to workers' control of the mines, a wage freeze, and
limits on government expenditure and action.
These harsh measures stabilized the economy to a degree and helped attract foreign invest-
ment, while
US loans
were used to build an extensive road system, invest in health and edu-
cation and drive development in the Santa Cruz region - all key aims of moderates within
the MNR. Despite this, a bitter factional rift opened within the party, with Siles and the trade
unions eventually driven into opposition. To counterbalance this, Paz Estenssoro began re-
building and rearming the army in an attempt to shift the balance of military power away
from the workers' militias. This quickly proved a terrible mistake. In 1964, Paz Estenssoro
was elected for a third term with an army officer,
General René Barrientos
, as vice-pres-
ident. Within a month, a military junta led by Barrientos had turned on Paz Estenssoro and
ousted him from power.
Military rule
At first it was thought that the
coup
would be only a temporary break from civilian rule, but
instead the army remained in government for the next eighteen years. Barrientos immediately
moved against the left: the leaders of workers' organizations were sent into exile, wages were
slashed and thousands of miners sacked; the army also occupied the mining camps to crush
strike action, resulting in a major massacre at the Siglo XX-Catavi mine in 1967. A charis-
matic orator and fluent Quechua-speaker, Barrientos simultaneously maintained the support
of the
peasant federations
(who, having secured their rights to land, had become relatively
conservative) by promising not to reverse the Agrarian Reform in return for their continuing
loyalty. This relationship underlay the failure of Argentine revolutionary
Che Guevara
's at-
tempt to launch a continent-wide guerrilla war in Bolivia, which was crushed in 1967 without
gaining a single peasant recruit.
Barrientos remained in control until his death in a helicopter crash three years later. After
a brief civilian interregnum he was replaced by
General Alfredo Ovando
, who was ousted
just over a year later by
General Juan José Torres
. Torres sought to move military gov-
ernment to the left, but was ousted within a year by right-wing army colleagues backed by
the US. This brought to power
Colonel Hugo Banzer
, whose regime lasted for the next sev-
en years. Initially, Banzer ruled in coalition with the conservative Falange Socialista Bolivi-
