Bolivia: Consequences of a Diary

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Cuban Revolutionary Che Guevara spent the last year of his life trying without success to topple the government of Bolivia. Ironically, Che has come close to doing in death what he could not achieve in life. Last week the 14-man Cabinet of Bolivia's President René Barrientos resigned in the embarrassed furor following the leak of Che's diary to his old boss, Fidel Castro.

Barrientos' troubles began two weeks ago, when his Minister of Government, Antonio Arguedas, fled abruptly to Chile. There he admitted giving the diary to Castro so that Fidel could be the first to publish it. Describing himself as a "Marxist," Arguedas said he had airmailed the diary to a Castro mail drop in Paris to demonstrate "my position as a revolutionary and friend of the Cuban revolution."

Barrientos tried to be understanding about the defection of his friend and chief assistant: "He claimed to be a Marxist, and I tried to convert that into Bolivian nationalism." Though he flew off to London at week's end—the Argentines and the Peruvians had refused him a visa—Arguedas professed a willingness to return to Bolivia and "confront the responsibilities inherent in the deed that I committed." Barrientos at first considered his favorite resort in times of stress: a flight into the hinterlands to talk with the Indian campesinos, who provide much of his popular support. But at week's end he settled down to the task of forming a new Cabinet that would be Che-proof.