Good Neighbor Trouble

At 1:30 one morning last week, the traffic cops of La Paz, Bolivia, raised their authoritative hands, stopped all passing cars and took them to headquarters. More cops, with members of the National Revolutionary Movement, invaded the telephone exchange, seized a radio station, broadcast the premature news that the revolt was already successful. Government troops were confused, taken over by plotting officers. Only one regiment held out, in Calama Barracks, where it was soon reduced by mortar fire. Forty nine were killed and 120 wounded. Sporadic shooting continued for two days, but the revolution was practically won in the first hours.

"Down the U.S.!"

By such ultra-slick modern methods, the MNR (Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario) came into pow er in Bolivia. The rebels dashed about in Lend-Lease jeeps, invaded the homes of Government leaders and dragged them off to prison. Pro-U.S. President Enrique Penaranda was later exiled to Chile. His 80-year-old mother died of fright. Two of Bolivia's three great tin barons, Mauricio Hochschild and Carlos Victor Aramayo, went into hiding. The greatest, Simon I. Patino, was safe in the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, where he refused to answer the telephone.

As soon as the Calama Barracks was safely surrounded, the revolutionists in vited the people by radio to a celebration. Street mobs screamed: "Down with the Jews! Down with the North Americans!" They stoned the U.S. Embassy, looted the offices of the Aramayo mining company, tore the roof off President Penaranda's house, paraded about with the Presidential bathtub over their heads. Soon MNR members with white armbands stopped the party, but the people of La Paz had shown their dislike for the U.S., had cast doubt upon: 1) the U.S. State Department, and 2) the practical effect of the Good Neighbor policy.

"Up Villaroel!"

In quick-march order, the MNR designated Bolivia's new rulers. The principal leaders were notably young, aggressive:

President: Major Gualberto Villaroel, 35, short, dark, green-eyed. No stooge, he was a hero of the Chaco war, unknown outside of Bolivia.

Minister of Finance: Dr. Victor Paz Estenssoro, 36, slender, professorial, head and brains of MNR, whose members call him "el jefe" (the boss).

Agriculture: Carlos Montenegro, 40, pockmarked, dour, good hater and trickiest politico of MNR.

Interior: Major Alberto Taborga, 36, red-cheeked, stocky, blue-eyed, head of the efficient traffic cops and strongest man in the Government.

Forceful Smell.

The coup had jangled the alarms in every "Good Neighbor" capital. Only from Argentina, whose authoritarian Government is busily cultivating an anti-U.S. bloc, came published approval. Buenos Aires' pro-Government newspaper El Cabildo could not "disguise our joy" at the revolt, "which had not surprised us. . . . We had expected it." The great democratic papers of Argentina, La Prensa and La Nation did not rejoice. The U.S. State Department, caught with its striped pants down, reserved comment until it could belatedly discover what elements were behind the revolt.

The MNR had a Nazi smell. Its Army officers were strutting militarists. Two years ago Dr. Paz Estenssoro was arrested when Penaranda's Government charged him and German Minister Ernst Wendler with plotting its overthrow.

Forceful Friends?

Yet the new Government fired a barrage of statements pledging support for the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations. When a TIME Correspondent appeared in the sun-room of the Government Palace, nearly all the Cabinet crowded around him, anxiously denied that they were influenced by Argentina, promised to help win the war. Said President Gualberto Villaroel, rubbing bloodshot eyes: "Democracy was fiction under Penaranda . . . the Government was controlled by the capitalists [tin barons] . . . the people were getting nothing out of the national resources. We are going to have free elections. We will nationalize Axis firms [which Penaranda did not do]. We are in the same war with the United States, which is our ally."

Forceful Facts.

Such declarations put the State Department in a fix. If it recognized the new Bolivian Government, might it not assure the position of a hostile regime, as it did when it hastily recognized the Ramirez Government in Argentina? If it withheld recognition, might it not drive the MNR into alliance with Argentina, which wants Bolivia in her anti-U.S. bloc?

The facts were that: 1) Bolivia's new Government, despite its anti-democratic elements, could conceivably be a real friend to the U.S.; 2) the State Department has no contact with any strong Bolivian group which might forward that friendship.

MNR contains two elements. The civilians supplying the brains and led by Dr. Paz Estenssoro, though not necessarily democratic, say they want to improve the condition of the Bolivian masses, thus strengthen the country as a whole. The militarists, supplying the force, want an Army Officers' Government like Argentina's.

The developed parts of Bolivia are mostly a bleak, cold barren plateau. Her population of about 3,500,000 is largely illiterate Indians who speak Aymara and Quechua, not Spanish. Her Government has been incredibly bad, averaging something like one revolution a year since her independence. When miners struck at Simon Patino's mines last year, President Penaranda's soldiers fired into a crowd of 8,000, killing 19 by government count, 400 by other counts (TIME, Jan. 25). Bolivians have not forgotten this massacre, and one of the men they blame for it is the U.S. Ambassador, Socialite Pierre de Lagarde Boal.

Dr. Paz Estenssoro, while not democratic on the U.S. model, seems to favor enlightened social legislation. Perhaps in the past he would have welcomed U.S. collaboration; but the State Department, through Ambassador Boal, has allowed the U.S. to become identified in the public mind with the hated tin companies. To break their hold on his country, Dr. Paz Estenssoro made an alliance with Nazi-tinged Army officers, who have already shouldered him toward the background.

Forceful Doubt.

The U.S. buys Bolivia's tin, helps her with loans, technicians, Lend-Lease. But these favors do not touch the heart of the Bolivian people. When they stoned the U.S. Embassy, they were criticizing U.S. policy in the only way they knew how.

Nationalism is rising all over Latin America. This nationalism, however uncouth or suspect, springs from the emerging popular forces of Latin America. With those forces, U.S. officialdom has very little contact. They are the only native elements which are apt to admire U.S. institutions, welcome U.S. influence, make Good Neighborliness a practical reality.

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