BOLIVIA: The Senator & the Revolution

President Victor Paz Estenssoro knew he would have his hands full one day last week. U.S. Senator Homer Capehart, chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee, a man who might influence future U.S. aid to needy Bolivia, was due in La Paz on a study trip. And police intelligence agents reported that a plot to overthrow the government, long simmering and long spied on by the cops, had been moved up to coincide with Capehart’s visit.

The Senator arrived on time and so did the revolution. At 7 a.m. a group of youths —some only 14 years old—belonging to the right-wing, anti-government Socialist

Falange Party attacked the President’s suburban home. Forewarned, Paz Estenssoro had long since slipped off to the presidential palace. The rebels went on to seize a police station. “We heard lots of shooting,” said Capehart. By 9 o’clock, armed members of the pro-government unions had put down the minor revolt in the capital; then word came that the main uprising was at Cochabamba, 140 miles away. Battle Reports. Neither Capehart nor Paz Estenssoro scares easily, and they had business to attend to. Punctually at 10 a.m., Capehart arrived to keep his appointment with the President at the palace. Early reports received there indicated that Cochabamba’s central plaza, prefecture and air base had fallen to the rebels. Coolly Paz Estenssoro turned to explain his country’s towering economic problems to his visitor. More dispatches came in: Minister of Mines and Petroleum Juan Lechin, in Cochabamba for a visit, had been captured by a rebel band. The

President and the Senator talked about tin mining. Fresh reports disclosed that loyal forces were now fighting back strongly in Cochabamba. Capehart chewed on his cigar. Another telegram told how a boy on a bicycle had ridden, like a young Paul Revere, to the nearby town of Ucurena to alert the area’s Indian farmers and tin miners to mobilize against the rebels. The President, the Senator and their aides calmly moved on to the U.S. embassy for a reception honoring Capehart. There, just after 1 p.m., messengers brought the victory report: “Cochabamba is ours.”

Asylum in B.V.D.’s. The revolt, the sixth attempt since Paz Estenssoro himself took power in the revolution of April 1952, was over, except for the usual scramble to safety by the defeated. Fifteen succeeded in getting to airfields, where they commandeered three planes and flew off to Peru and Chile. The revolt’s leader. Oscar Unzaga de la Vega, dramatically appeared two days later clawing his way up a river bank behind the Uruguayan embassy for a successful dash to asylum inside. Another leader, in a hospital with wounds, dodged his guards one night, leaped from his second floor window and landed safely in the garden of the French embassy next door dressed only in his underwear.

The revolution cost Bolivia 23 dead, 42 injured—and one newspaper destroyed. After freeing Lechin, Cochabamba’s irregulars had gone on to wreck the offices of the anti-government Los Tiempos. Paz Estenssoro jailed hundreds of rebels and his government announced it would try 723 persons for rebellion. Senator Capehart, having seen a genuine South American revolution at first hand, packed up his notes and moved on to Chile.