REGIS DEBRAY'S WHEREABOUTS A "MILITARY SECRET"
On May 13 General Alfred Ovando, the commander in chief of the Bolivian armed forces, announced that Régis De~ bray, the young French journalist seized py the Barrientos dictatorship, would be tried in accordance with the country's constitution.
This was the first indication from anyone in authority that Debray might be granted the elementary rights to which prisoners are entitled under the norms of all democracies.
But it was not clear exactly what
REGIS DEBRAY the general's assurances meant specifically. To all intents Bolivia's constitution has been nonexistent under the Barrientos dictatorship. In fact the country is being ruled under an Andean version of McCarthyism.
"The place where Régis Debray is being held is a military secret," General Ovando added. Debray is accused of being associated with the new guerrilla front. He was even said to be the "political commissar" of the guerrillas.
The fear that the death penalty might be exacted was discounted by Vicepresident Siles Salinas. He said that Bolivia had abolished the death penalty and that the maximum penalty was a 30-year sentence.
Under Barrientos, it should be noted, summary executions without benefit of trial have been common. This is varied in some instances by exile to jungle hellholes where the prisoners are faced with slow starvation and illness without medical help. Hundreds of leaders and members of the political opposition are now being held in exile under these conditions today in Bolivia.
Up to now, Régis Debray's mother, who flew to La Paz to try to save her son, has not been permitted to see him. She has not yet learned what charges have been preferred against him, if any. She does not even know yet, whether he was tortured after he was arbitrarily arrested.
And in La Paz she has been greeted by slogans painted on the walls, obviously at the instigation of the government, calling for her son's death.
Nevertheless, General Ovando's statement to the press was an indication that the dictatorship is finding the international campaign in behalf of Régis Debray embarrassing.
It is necessary to keep up the canpaign and to intensify it.