BOLIVIAN POLITICAL PARTIES CONDEMN DICTATORIAL MOVE
Most political parties in Bolivia strongly condemned the seizure and exiling of Juan Lechfn Oquendo, holding that it consti-~ tuted a dangerous precedent and a blow at the civil liberties guaranteed by the constitution.
As reported by the Catholic daily Presencia [May 16], Remo Di Natale, head of the Partido Demécrato-Cristiano, said that “the seizure of Juan Lechfn as main leader of the COB [Central Obrera Boliviana] and head of the PRIN [Partido Revolucionario de Izquierda
~1l2—
Nacionalista] constitutes an arbitrary act in violation of all the principles of civilized society."
"Even graver is the fact," continued Di Natale, "that Senor Lechin was deported from the country. This constitutes a tremendous blow against the country's constitution. The authors of such blows are responsible for the sudden worsening of the difficult political situation which the Bolivian people are undergoing.
"This is no time for our rulers to indulge in the luxury of starting persecution. I wish to appeal to them for a return to reason and I want to issue a warning that the people have firmly decided to establish in this country a democratic regime that respects human dignity."
Gustavo Stumpf Belmote, chairman of the Consejo Directivo Nacional of the Falange Socialista Boliviana [FSB], a right-wing formation, held that the seizure and exiling of Juan Lechin was an outrage and that it was also a violation of trade-union rights and of the rights and guarantees belonging to every citizen, especially the heads of political parties.
He stated that the FSB “protested this attitude which indi-~ cates a dangerous contempt for the norms of peaceful society and reveals a grave attempt to do away with the rights of citizens, dragging the country into. conditions of violence.”
The Unién Popular Demécrata Cristiana likewise protested the detention of Juan Lechfn, calling it "arbitrary." In a statement the party said that "Senor Lechfn, as a person and as a union leader, cannot be made the object of a political seizure because he enjoys the freedom bestowed by our laws and the rights which represent a conquest of the working class. It is lamentable that the Military Junta has taken the road of arbitrariness, disregarding the most elementary legal principles."
The Partido Revolucionario Auténtico energetically protested the seizure of Lechfn and indicated its worry over the “unnecessary aggravation" of Bolivia's social problems, stating that the “error of the military junta, which constitutes a violation of constitutional guarantees, must be corrected, otherwise "the Armed Forces will take on the responsibility of governing the country as a dictatorship that cannot serve to correct the evils from which the country suffers at present. Instead, they are running the risk of destroying the army as an institution, thus adding grave additional damage to what has already been inherited. from the deposed: regime Lof Paz Estenssoro]."
These protests come from bourgeois and petty-bourgeois circles in Bolivia.