Bolivia: A Call to Revolution

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As three jet fighters and a lone helicopter flew overhead, some 300 troops backed by armored cars fanned out through the streets of La Paz last week. Another coup in a country that has seen 189 governments overthrown since its founding in 1825? Not this time. The sweep was ordered by President Hernan Siles Suazo as a twelve-day-old general strike, which had already crippled transport and commerce, threatened to push the nation into anarchy. Declared Siles: "Tolerance and patience have a limit."

The troubles began early this month when tin miners walked off their jobs, calling for higher wages. Other workers soon joined the miners, paralyzing much of Bolivia. As the tumult grew, radical labor leaders issued a political ultimatum: that Siles, a moderate leftist, resign in favor of a Socialist government. Siles, whose 2 1/2-year-old administration has been marked by indecision, at first sought to compromise. He reiterated an offer of "coadministration" under which seven labor leaders would have been taken into his 16-member Cabinet, but was turned down. At week's end the strike was still on, but both sides had agreed to let the dispute be mediated by a third party, La Paz Archbishop Jorge Manrique Hurtado.