Chaos in the Clouds

If large infusions of democracy and U.S. aid were the easy, automatic antidotes to backwardness and poverty that they are often assumed to be, mineral-rich Bolivia (pop. 3,300,000) should be a paradise. The bloody uprising of 1952 led Bolivia into the world's most comprehensive social security, illiterate Indians got the vote and land, the coup-prone army got abolished, and the mines that enriched tin barons of old got taken over by the government. The U.S. chipped in $129 million in aid during the next six years--more Yankee aid dollars per Bolivian than for any other people on earth.

Last week a U.S. embassy official added up the results and made a wry face. "We don't have a damn thing to show for it," he said. "We're wasting money." Up in the clouds of La Paz (alt. 11,900 ft.), inside the drab, grey palace where he is guarded constantly by a manned machine gun, Hernan Siles Zuazo. 44, Bolivia's President, admitted: "The situation is critical and explosive."

Now that it owns the mines and runs things, Bolivian labor toils hardly at all. Workers get a 13th month's pay as a holiday bonus, a 14th month's pay as profitsharing, full pay while striking, fixed weekly overtime whether worked or not, a law prohibiting firings and layoffs. Private employers must allocate a sum equal to 60% of their payroll to social security. Said a desperate glass manufacturer: 'I've offered many times to give my plant to the union."

Gross tin income, from which comes two-thirds of the country's export revenue, fell from $93 million in 1951 to $57 million in 1957, and is still dropping. The world's worst case of inflation toppled the boliviano from 200 to the dollar in 1952 to 11,900 in January.

Starting in 1953 with $1,300,000, the U.S. taxpayer now pours in an average of $25 million yearly, more than Bolivian income tax payers themselves contribute to their treasury. Washington's remittance is now expected on a regular basis. Said Finance Minister Eufronio Hinojosa last week: "The 1959 budget will be perfectly balanced." Then he added hastily: "Including, of course, American aid to cover the 30% deficit."

One inevitable outcome of this dependent relationship is a growing antagonism toward the U.S. Foreign Minister Victor Andrade, onetime Ambassador to Washington and Manhattan teacher, complains that U.S. aid is niggling and adds: "I think the whole trouble is the U.S. was forced to take a leading role in the world before it was really ready. Your people need some preventive education before going abroad."

Even President Siles sighs: "But for your recession, Bolivia would be going through the happiest period of its history." Then he looks around at his office's portraits of two recent Presidents, one a despairing suicide and one hanged by a mob, and adds morosely: "The man sitting here always feels the rope around his neck."

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