At 1:30 one morning last week, the traffic cops of La Paz, Bolivia, raised their authoritative hands, stopped all passing cars and took them to headquarters. More cops, with members of the National Revolutionary Movement, invaded the telephone exchange, seized a radio station, broadcast the premature news that the revolt was already successful. Government troops were confused, taken over by plotting officers. Only one regiment held out, in Calama Barracks, where it was soon reduced by mortar fire. Forty nine were killed and 120 wounded. Sporadic shooting continued for two days, but the revolution was practically won in the first hours.
"Down the U.S.!"
By such ultra-slick modern methods, the MNR (Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario) came into pow er in Bolivia. The rebels dashed about in Lend-Lease jeeps, invaded the homes of Government leaders and dragged them off to prison. Pro-U.S. President Enrique Peñaranda was later exiled to Chile. His 80-year-old mother died of fright. Two of Bolivia's three great tin barons, Mauricio Hochschild and Carlos Victor Aramayo, went into hiding. The greatest, Simon I. Patino, was safe in the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, where he refused to answer the telephone.
As soon as the Calama Barracks was safely surrounded, the revolutionists in vited the people by radio to a celebration. Street mobs screamed: "Down with the Jews! Down with the North Americans!" They stoned the U.S. Embassy, looted the offices of the Aramayo mining company, tore the roof off President Peñaranda's house, paraded about with the Presidential bathtub over their heads. Soon MNR members with white armbands stopped the party, but the people of La Paz had shown their dislike for the U.S., had cast doubt upon: 1) the U.S. State Department, and 2) the practical effect of the Good Neighbor policy.
"Up Villaroel!"
In quick-march order, the MNR designated Bolivia's new rulers. The principal leaders were notably young, aggressive:
President: Major Gualberto Villaroel, 35, short, dark, green-eyed. No stooge, he was a hero of the Chaco war, unknown outside of Bolivia.
Minister of Finance: Dr. Victor Paz Estenssoro, 36, slender, professorial, head and brains of MNR, whose members call him "el jefe" (the boss).
Agriculture: Carlos Montenegro, 40, pockmarked, dour, good hater and trickiest politico of MNR.
Interior: Major Alberto Taborga, 36, red-cheeked, stocky, blue-eyed, head of the efficient traffic cops and strongest man in the Government.
Forceful Smell.
The coup had jangled the alarms in every "Good Neighbor" capital. Only from Argentina, whose authoritarian Government is busily cultivating an anti-U.S. bloc, came published approval. Buenos Aires' pro-Government newspaper El Cabildo could not "disguise our joy" at the revolt, "which had not surprised us. . . . We had expected it." The great democratic papers of Argentina, La Prensa and La Nation did not rejoice. The U.S. State Department, caught with its striped pants down, reserved comment until it could belatedly discover what elements were behind the revolt.