The coup in Bolivia came at an interesting and vital juncture. The leading figure in it is General Alfredo Ovando Candia, who was credited with much of the responsibility for the killing of Che Guevara and the dispersal of his guerilla force. Commentators in the bourgeois press (see Richard Gott's report in the GUARDIAN September [illegible]) have speculated as to the possibility of the new regime making some sort of concessions to the left (nationalist) along the lines of the moves by the regime in Peru -- certain measures of nationalisation as a leftish dressing for a repressive military regime. Gott even thinks that the new regime may release Regis Debray (the best known of its political prisoners) and whilst this cannot be ruled out, it should be noted that the regime in Peru, has taken no steps to improve the conditions of, let alone release its own political prisoners, among whom the Trotskyist Hugo Blanco is well known. More fitting then to regard the coup as the culmination of the recent moves against the left, including the killing of Inti Peredo (see below) and the gaoling of many of his comrades and allies.
DEATH OF INTI PEREDO
Guido "Inti" Peredo, leader of the Bolivian Army of National Liberation, was reported to have been killed in a battle with police in La Paz on September [illegible]. The announcement was made [by] Colonel Eufonio Padilla, Minister of the Interior.
Padilla said Peredo was surrounded together with two companions in a house in the Bolivian capital. Two men with him were wounded and captured, one of them, it was reported, was Fernando Martinez, said to be a representative of the Cuban press agency, PRENSA LATINA.
Another fatality among the ranks of the guerilla was Rita Emilia Valdivia (Maya). Her death came at the start of the wave of government repression recounted in detail elsewhere in this issue. Maya and her comrade Enrique Ortega (Victor Guerra) are reported to have defended themselves against an attack by police, until their ammunition ran out - Victor Guerra was seriously wounded and taken prisoner. Maya, aged 23, died in the struggle. Police claim that the house they were defending was an ELN headquarters. From the prison hospital Victor Guerra has declared that the ELN would continue the struggle.
WIDESPREAD REPRESSION
The death of Inti Peredo and the massacres of repression against the peasant and working class militants, are undoubtedly severe setbacks. [illegible]
The savage wave of repression which has swept Bolivia in the last few weeks has led to the arrest of a number of revolutionary militants. They comprise for the most part militants of the POR (Partido Obrero Revolucionario = Revolutionary Workers Party, the Bolivian Section of the Fourth International), and of the ELN (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional = National Liberation Army - the guerilla movement of Che Guevara and Inti Peredo), Many of whom have been tortured by the Bolivian authorities. The repression is still under way, and the list of its victims not complete. We list below those affected, basing our report on information in Intercontinental Press, itself compiled from Paris sources.
AMONG THE VICTIMS....
ANTONIO MORENO (BRAULIO) and VICTOR CORDOVA (HUASCAR): Arrested after a street battle on July 15 in Cochabamba, they publicly declared themselves members of the POR. Moreno, a former railway worker, is accused of being a guerilla warfare instructor. Cordova is a leader of the peasant movement. Captured with them were the students [illegible] a [female student aged illegible] tortured - she declared herself a member of the ELN they were accused of associating with [illegible] Moreno.
In La Paz the police claim to have discovered the ELN headquarters, and a number of POR militants were arrested. They include: TOMAS CHAMBI, a peasant leader from Camacho province; ANSELMO [illegible] LOPEZ, a [illegible] youth leader; GABRIEL GUZMAN [illegible], a leader of the railway workers whose health is very poor; CECILIO ALCON and VICTOR ALCON: students who are charged with setting up a [illegible] laboratory for preparing time bombs, fire bombs, and other explosives. HUGO GONZALEZ MOSCOSO, the leader of the POR, is being hunted by the authorities - his family have been harassed and threatened by armed police, who wore masks to cover their identity as they stole belongings from Gonzales' family. The Minister of the Interior has claimed that Gonzales' own home was being used as a general headquarters and training centre.
Also arrested were a number of foreign nationals: [illegible] F. MELGAR, a member of the FRIN (Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left), who is alleged to have joined the ELN after a visit to Cuba. The painter LUIS [illegible] was arrested but managed to escape to the Ecuadorian Embassy.
FELIPE and ELI VASQUEZ, both are miners' leaders who are well-known as members of the Fourth International. Felipe helped to found and lead the underground miners unions following the military occupation of the mines. [Eli] was one of the leaders of the miners in the battle against the army in Sora Sora in the last days of the Paz Estenssoro regime. Felipe, before being thrown into the dungeons was stripped and savagely beaten by the police, in front of his wife and three children. The two were arrested allegedly for organising terrorist activities in the mining areas, operating from an ELN headquarters [illegible].