Bolivia has initiated a nationwide witch-hunt aimed at tendencies standing in the political opposition to the left. The tendencies hit the hardest include the Trotskyists, the pro-Peking Communists, the followers of Juan Lechin and even very small groups like the one that pays allegiance to J. Posadas.
The main targets of the repression are the POR [Partido Obrero Revolucionario —- Revolutionary Workers party], the PRIN [Partido Revolucionario de Izquierda Nacionalista -- Nationalist Left Revolutionary party], the MNR [Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario -- Revolutionary Nationalist Movement], and the pro-Peking Communist party.
The list of leaders who have been rounded up reads like a "who's who" of the entire left. At the beginning of March they included the following:
Zan6n Barrientos Manani Filimon Escobar Victor Reynaga
Sinforese Cabrera Gabriel Guzm4n I. Eulogio Sanchez T.
Luis Canipa Alberto Jara Daza Oscar Sangines
Orlando Capriles Guillermo Lora Victor Sosa
Alejandro Carvajal Miguel Lora Amadeo Vargas
Nuflo Chavez Ortiz Carrasco Marin Felipe Villanueva
Carlos Daza L. Edwin Moller Oscar Zamora
Jorge Echazi Alvarado José Palacios
The prisoners were exiled in remote regions -- Pokin, a village in the Beni area notorious for leprosy; Ixianas and Puerto Rico, extremely unhealthy places in the jungle; and Ulla Ulla, high in the mountains near the Peruvian border.
As in previous instances, the government used the excuse that it had discovered a "plot." To create the proper sensational headlines, the secret political police said the "plot" was aimed at assassinating "high government figures."
No trials were held, naturally, and no evidence was brought forward beyond the assertions of men appointed to office by Barrientos. Without further formalities all those seized by the secret political police were hustled out of La Paz and confined to the camps indicated above.
The nature of the witch-hunt can be judged from the account of a press conference that appeared in the March 2 issue of Presencia published in La Paz. The following is a translation of extracts sent to World Outlook:
The cabinet minister charged that armed bands, organized by extremists, were to carry out the mission of physically eliminating high government figures. Minister Arguedas indicated in his charge that the PORists had bought a piece of land near Santa Cruz in order to train its militants, who were also taught guerrilla tactics. He also said that upon discovering these terrorist plans, the emergency measure had been taken of exiling twelve extremist leaders to Puerto Rico.
The cabinet minister made some statements on the latest arrests that have occurred in the country. Upon beginning his exposition, he said that Miguel Lora and Filemon Escobar declared a hunger strike in the cells of the DIC [Direccién Investigaci6én Criminal -- the secret police] as a protest against the security measures adopted by the government.
In response to the first question, Minister Arguedas said that intense work in subversive agitation was going on; this was synchronized with the preparation of armed bands organized by the Peking Communist party, the POR and the PRIN. Arguedas then added: "In reality, the one that ought to declare a hunger strike is the entire people of Bolivia, the victim of the divisive, anarchistic work of these tiny factions interested in blocking, by all the means within their reach, the institutionalizing of the country and its development."
He then added: "Our intelligence service succeeded in discovering that with funds coming from abroad, the POR acquired a piece of land in the outskirts of the department of Santa Cruz. This was done with the objective of preparing armed bands, the aim of which was to carry out terrorist acts against indicated figures in the government and acts of sabotage. In legitimately defending the constituted order and safeguarding the Bolivian people from the grave danger they ran in the event these groups succeeded in carrying out their plans, I was obliged to fix the residence of twelve extremists in the locality of Puerto Rico."
In reply to another question, he said that the security measures adopted by his office had no relation whatsoever with the arbitration dispute that is to be decided by the Ministry of Labor. "On the contrary," he said, "the members of the so-called Left Front [Frente de Izquierda] which includes the Peking and Moscow Communist parties, the FLIN [Frente de Liberacién Nacional], the POR, the PRIN and the MNR, have mobilized and sent more than 200 activists into the miner's districts." He said that the objective was to incite the workers to launch a general strike of an insurrectional nature in case the Ministry of Labor did not approve the demands of the miners one hundred per cent.
He then indicated that when Miguel Lora, Victor Sosa and Oscar Sangines were arrested, the government discovered that the POR and its allies were not only carrying on a campaign of distorting what was happening in the country but they were also passing out arms among their members. He added: "Victor Sosa in his capacity of principal of a school, did not limit himself to teaching Trotskyism, but also corrected and added to the teachings written by Che Guevara on guerrillas, imparting concrete instructions on carrying out acts of terrorism."
Minister Arguedas said that in the mining districts, those named above had carried on recruiting in Huanuni and Catavi, and had enlisted young elements as supposed forces of national liberation charged with "executing the feverish plans of the extremist leaders."