At 3:15 a.m., as Pan American World Airways' El Presidente winged northward across the Brazilian jungles, one of its four engines ran rough. The steward woke the 38 passengers, explaining that their Stratocruiser would have to land for brief repairs at Belem, near the mouth of the
Amazon. A grumbling line formed outside the men's room as passengers hurried to wash and shave. Suddenly, a huge figure in white silk pajamas brushed past the queue, commandeered one of the wash-stands and vigorously commenced a predawn toilet. Don Mauricio Hochschild, Bolivia's fabulously wealthy tin magnate, was in a hurry to get...