Language

Army's Involvement in Bolivia

Submitted June 22, 2005 - 10:31 am by Jean Friedsky
(sorry for the delay in responding...)
Here is my understanding of the Army's involvement: (you also might want to just review Luis Gomez's many postings because he wrote in more detail and with more firsthand knowledge than i am right now)

About two weeks or so into the uprisings here, two officers came out and called on the Armed Forces to stand down, support the demands of nationlization and not work on behalf of the government who was fighting against its citizens. Now, these were only two men but rumors were that there was a significantly large contingent within the Armed Forces that felt this way. But nothing really came of this. This two officers were reprimanded and it all part quieted down. There continued to be rumors of a leftist -military alliance with Jaime Solares and others who were plotting to take power but this obviously didn't happen and I don't know how much this idea ever progressed.

Then after Mesa resigned there was very serious worry about Vaca-Diez teaming up with the army to create a military-civil government to calm the streets. The day that the Congress moved to Sucre to decide on Mesa's resignation and successor, the heads of the Armed Forces held a press conference and basically said that they would carry out whatever duties were mandated from the head of state (interpretation: if Vaca Diez comes to power and sends us into the streets, we will follow his orders) BUT that for the good of the nation, they were hoping that they would not have to be called out and that there be a peaceful solution (interpretation: we do not want to have to have a civil war and kill our own people, so we hope that Rodrigeuz can ascend to pacify things).

Later that day around 6pm or so, as Luis Gomez reported, Vaca Diez cancelled the session and it looked like we were on the verge of real violent conflict in the country.  During the next few hours, there are reports that Vaca Diez met with heads of the military and asked for their support to take power and use them to secure his presidency. See, he knew that he didn't have enough popular support to govern so he realized that his only option would be to have the military at his side.  Basically, the army said no to him and so he had no choice but to renounce his ascension and clear the way for Rodriguez.

So, that's what I know of the story. If it all did happen this way, it's one of those rare instances in which the armed forces are partially responsible for not creating a blood bath...

Hope this helps,

jean.

Reply

Our Policy on Comment Submissions: Co-publishers of Narco News (which includes The Narcosphere and The Field) may post comments without moderation. All co-publishers comment under their real name, have contributed resources or volunteer labor to this project, have filled out this application and agreed to some simple guidelines about commenting.

Narco News has recently opened its comments section for submissions to moderated comments (that’s this box, here) by everybody else. More than 95 percent of all submitted comments are typically approved, because they are on-topic, coherent, don’t spread false claims or rumors, don’t gratuitously insult other commenters, and don’t engage in commerce, spam or otherwise hijack the thread. Narco News reserves the right to reject any comment for any reason, so, especially if you choose to comment anonymously, the burden is on you to make your comment interesting and relevant. That said, as you can see, hundreds of comments are approved each week here. Good luck in your comment submission!

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

More information about formatting options

User login