Foiling a Coup

A kidnaped President is freed

Bolivia has undergone nearly 80 changes of government during its 159 years of independence, not even counting the 100 or more regimes that managed to cling to power for only a few hours. So citizens were not exactly surprised when they heard that, at 5 a.m. last Saturday, some 60 police and army recruits had pulled up to the presidential residence in La Paz, ordered a sleeping President Hernan Siles Zuazo from his bed and bundled him off to an undisclosed location in the 12,000 ft. high Andean city.

Siles' troubles began right after his election in 1980, when the armed forces prevented him from taking office. Two years later, following a general strike and a cutoff of U.S. aid, the military relinquished power and invited Siles back from his exile in Peru. But his coalition of four left-of-center parties, including the local Communists, has bickered incessantly ever since; a series of economic mistakes, coupled with severe drought and flood, have brought the country to the brink of ruin. The inflation rate reached 328% in 1983, and could hit 2,000% this year. Although the treasury is bare and foreign banks have been calling for a solution to Bolivia's $3.4 billion foreign debt, the country has yet to take the hard measures that would permit it to receive help from the International Monetary Fund.

Siles' abductors were thought to be members of an elite police group known as the Leopardos, created to combat the country's rampant cocaine trade. At first it appeared that Siles' days as President were over. But the show of loyalty to democracy was impressive. A military communique stated that "the armed forces reject this attempt against the President." The powerful Bolivian Confederation of Workers, which has been staging a series of strikes to protest worsening economic conditions, also declared its support for "constitutional order." Scarcely ten hours after the incident had begun, Siles was found in a La Paz warehouse and was released.