Fighter to the Fore

Standing beneath the oil portraits of Bolivia's greatest heroes of the past, a man who is himself an authentic hero of Bolivia today will receive this week the gold medallion and green-red-yellow sash of the presidency. Hernan Siles Zuazo, 42, is following in his father's steps: 30 years ago, Hernando Siles stood in the same spot in the Chamber of Deputies to receive the presidential insignia.

Though a President's son, Hernan Siles literally had to fight his way. Slight (5 ft. 4 in.), nearsighted and mild-mannered, he has endured war and exile, and led a bloody revolution. At 20 he was wounded in Bolivia's Chaco War with Paraguay. At 27 he helped found the Movement of National Revolution (M.N.R.). the mildly leftist party that now runs Bolivia. During the next decade he was exiled twice by anti-M.N.R. governments, fled the country twice more to escape imprisonment. In 1951 he slipped back into Bolivia from exile to direct the campaign that brought a plurality that year to exiled M.N.R. Presidential Candidate Victor Paz Estenssoro. When the army nullified the election. Siles led a workers' uprising, defeated the military in three days of fierce civil warfare.

Paz Estenssoro returned from exile to take over as President, and Hero Siles stepped back into vice-presidential obscurity. With growing revenues from Bolivia's oilfields and more than $50 million in handouts of foodstuffs and dollars from the U.S. Government, Paz Estenssoro kept the nation's economy from

collapsing into chaos, but he left harrowing problems behind for his successor. "The honeymoon of the revolution is over," says Siles. "I will have to face the realities." Among the grim realities: P: Inflation has galloped to the point that 7,000 bolivianos bring only $1 on the free market.

P: Three out of four Bolivians of voting age are illiterate, and most are direly poor. P: The nation's tin mines, main source of government revenue before Paz Estenssoro & Co. nationalized them, operate at a loss because of administrative inefficiency and lack of labor discipline.

Characteristically, Siles speaks of his problems as "four big battles"--against inflation, for increased production, against illiteracy, for national unity. He vows to undertake the unpopular measures that he considers necessary: freeze wages, cut out government subsidies, "insist on labor discipline" and "run the mines like a private business."

The U.S. intends to aid Siles, as it aided Paz Estenssoro, and he will need the help. For Fighter Siles, the toughest battles lie ahead.

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