BOLIVIA: Go Slow

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After last month's bloody triumph, Bolivia's new revolutionary regime split over the question of how fast to nationalize the all-important tin mining industry. Juan Lechin, tough boss of the republic's 40,000 tin miners and the new Minister of Mines, demanded swift action, and talked as though the job could be done in a month or so. But President Victor Paz Estenssoro insisted that nationalization must be carried out slowly and cautiously.

At a showdown cabinet meeting last week, Lechin backed down. Afterwards, addressing 15,000 partisans with Paz Estenssoro, he made a mild speech terming nationalization "an act of national defense." Later he added: "We shall nationalize, but we shall have to study the matter. Surely no one thought I was serious when I mentioned 30 days?"

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La Paz also announced an army purge. Thirty-six officers, among them eleven generals, have been discharged to face trial for alleged crimes committed under the preceding regimes since 1946.