BOLIVIA: Black Ballot

Four men convicted of assassinating (in 1917) General Jose Manuel Pando, onetime (1899-1904) President of Bolivia, were gathered together at La Paz to draw lots to see who among them should die for the crime. Loud and long did the daughters of the murdered man cry out that all four were guilty. But the court directed that the lottery proceed. Three white and one black ballot were placed into a black hat—the black one signified death.

The four prisoners, amid hysterical excitement in the court, calmly put their hands into the hat and withdrew their ballot, stoical resignation imprinted upon their features. Twenty-eight-year-old Alfredo Jauregui, youngest of the quartet, blanched—he drew the black ballot. Fiercely protesting his innocence, he called upon the court to hasten his execution by a firing squad, saying that he would not appeal.

But the court was moved to anguish; it was announced that President Hernando Siles would be asked for a pardon for him.