BOLIVIAN TROTSKYISTS OPPOSE BARRIENTOS
The unstable political situation in Bolivia was underlined March 22 by the attempted assassination of General Rene Barrientos, head of the military junta that seized power after Paz Estenssoro was deposed. Barrientos was wounded while riding in a jeep in Cochabamba. He was hit a number of times by someone using either an automatic rifle or a machinegun but was saved, according to the press, by a bullet-proof vest which he was wearing,
Following the assassination attempt, the junta indicated that it would postpone the elections which were scheduled for September 26, According to article 87 of the constitution, a candidate for the presidency must resign other posts six months before an election, Since Barrientos is one of the main candidates, there has been con= siderable pressure on him to live up to the constitution. He has displayed reluctance to do this, however, apparently feeling that this would weaken his grip in the junta.
The point was one of the principal topics discussed by representatives of ten Bolivian parties who met on invitation of the > Ministro de Gobierno to discuss the political situation. [Five parties did not send representatives. ]
In reporting the discussion, the Bolivian press: quoted the positions of each of the participants, El Diario [February 16] said that "the most incisive of the representatives was Hugo Gonzdles" of the Trotskyist Partido Obrero Revolucionario [POR].
Gonzfiles noted that some of the parties who had supported Barrientos last November were now demanding his resignation but that this did not indicate they had decided to oppose him, It was an. indication of internal disputes among his backers, The position of the POR, he said, has not changed. It is opposed to Barrientos,
"We hold that the military junta does not express popular sentiment, because instead of responding to the uneasiness of the people it is turning in a different direction and encouraging the regressive tendencies," .
"To try to reach the Bolivian people through the parties as General Barrientos proposes," continued the Trotskyist leader, “appears utopian to us because there can be no speaking with the traditional parties that are against the development of Bolivia,"
Gonzdles observed that Barrientos was talking a lot about Busch and Villarroel, but what he ought to do is "attack the super state of the mining interests and break with the conservative forces, The problem that must be discussed is not the electoral one, because the working class and the peasantry are not interested in article 87 of the constitution," .
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"In the factories and in the mines," said Gonzdles, “they aren't talking about the constitution but asking when will unemployment end and when will wages §0 Up. The junta has increased salaries, a right we don't deny them, but we believe that. all the workers in the country are entitled to similar consideration,"
UN COMMITTEE