DISCONTENT GROWS IN BOLIVIA —
La Paz, Bolivia
The circumstances of the attempted "assassination" of General René Barrientos Ortuno, president of the Junta Militar de Gobierno, March 22 has not yet been cleared up. It was reported at the time that he had been hit a number of times while riding in a jeep near Cochabamba but had been saved by a bullet-proof vest.
Rumor has it now that only one shot was fired. The mystery is heightened by the location of the wound. Why would a would~be assassin aim at the seat of the general's pants? Even murkier is the fact that the general was seated behind the steering wheel, driving the jeep himself,
Unkind critics say that the true story is that the general had had one too many before hitting the road, that he ran off the shoulder into a ditch and that his own pistol accidentally discharged,
Whatever the truth, the military caste closed ranks in face. of the hairts-breadth escape. General Ovando Candia, who had been making moves toward some of the political parties, was forced to beat a retreat,
Its "unity" thus reinforced, the Military Junta stiffened its line toward the masses, A strike of the oil workers was met with military occupation of the refineries and other oil centers, The workers demands were rejected and the dispute was referred to the Ministro de Gobierno and the Ministerio de Defensa for solution.
The general political situation leaves much to be desired from the viewpoint of the military caste.
Discontent is growing at a rapid rate. The popularity reaped by Barrientos upon the downfall of Paz Estenssoro is vanishing and the political opposition is growing. . ,
Barrientos and the Military Junta have tried various maneuvers such as a "dialogue" with the political parties, a political "truce," etc., but these efforts have not succeeded. .
Barrientos is now declaring that his “program is "left center"; i.e., against “Communism," against "extremism," against strikes, the trade-union leaders, etc., but at the same time against reaction and against the tin barons. He has even set up a new party, the "Movimiento Popular Cristiano"; but this has proved to be stillborn.
In his search for a social base, the general is even project~ ing construction of an army of "50,000 men."
The workers are against the Military Junta. The broad peasant masses feel that the agrarian reform is endangered by pressure from the reactionary forces behind the Falange Socialista Boliviana [FSB] and are suspicious of the Military Junta. But some of the peasant bureaucrats have granted support to Barrientos and thys the peasants remain undecided. -
Among the middle classes, the upper layers are with the FSB but are suspicious of Barrientos and his claim to have made "a revolution within the national revolution." The poverty-stricken layers are against the Military Junta.
It would thus seem that a period of grave confrontations lies ahead. If the government decides to mobilize the army in order to occupy the centers where the workers are entrenched, sharp struggles will most certainly break out. ~
SPRAKERS CALL FOR