Exclusive: The U.S. Paid Money to Support Hugo Banzer’s 1971 Coup in Bolivia

[L. Coyote]

Source: digitalemunction.com

Robert P. Baird

For nearly four decades, there’s been an open ques­tion about the 1971 coup that brought dic­ta­tor Hugo Banzer Suárez to power in Bolivia: was the U.S. gov­ern­ment involved? Thanks to newly declas­si­fied doc­u­ments, we now have an answer.

....

Amer­i­can sup­port for Banzer before and after the coup was never in doubt. He had trained at the School of the Amer­i­cas in Panama and the Armored Cav­alry School in Texas, and in the late 60s served as mil­i­tary attaché in Wash­ing­ton. In the five months after he ousted left-​wing dic­ta­tor Gen­eral Juan José Torres, Banzer was rewarded with $50 mil­lion in grants and aid from the Nixon Administration.

But while U.S. sup­port for Banzer during the coup has been widely assumed among Boli­vians and his­to­ri­ans of Latin Amer­ica, the only proof (until now) was a Wash­ing­ton Post report pub­lished a week after the event, which said that U.S. Air Force Major Robert J. Lundin had advised the plot­ters and lent them a long-​range radio. The report was never sub­stan­ti­ated, how­ever, and the State Depart­ment denied it imme­di­ately, assert­ing unequiv­o­cally that the U.S. played no part in the over­throw of Torres.

A col­lec­tion of declas­si­fied doc­u­ments recently released* by the same State Depart­ment proves that this denial was not only incor­rect, but a lie: the Nixon Admin­is­tra­tion, acting with the full knowl­edge of the State Depart­ment, autho­rized nearly half a mil­lion dollars—”coup money,” accord­ing to the ambas­sador in La Paz—for the politi­cians and mil­i­tary offi­cers plot­ting against Torres. The CIA handed at least some of this money over to the coup’s lead­ers in the days lead­ing up to Banzer’s seizure of power.

Read more: http://www.digitalemunction.com/2010/05/30/exclusive-the-u-s-paid-money-to-support-hugo-banzers-1971-coup-in-bolivia/

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Past is Prologue.

[PDJane]

1. If there has been a conflict anywhere in the world

In the last 60 years, the US fingers will be there somewhere.

[laughingliberal]

5. True, dat! nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. He was an evil dictator, hideous, and a racist.

COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia

In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests, and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres, led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians, the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

Summary written in 1995, before his last grotesque presidential term, in which he brought out troops and government snipers to quell the Cochabamba water riot.

[aquart]

3. Sounds like Nixon's kinda guy.

Heard the Watergate tapes?

[JDPriestly]

4. Wonder if some of our active or former Green Berets were

physically involved in that? I heard something that suggested that way back when. Just some guy making a strange comment about it.

[Judi Lynn]

7. I had never heard that until I found this after reading your post:

Hugo Banzer Suárez Biography

~snip~
Sparks Revolution

Arrested in August 1971 during one of his secret visits to his native Santa Cruz, Banzer became the sparkplug of a revolution which broke out the next day, spearheaded by the elite Ranger regiment trained by American Green Berets--and, it is said, by a handful of American military advisors in that city. Most of the nation accepted the Banzer revolution (Bolivia's 187th), but there was considerable fighting for several days in La Paz.

~snip~
Innovative Responses To Unrest

The innovative president responded in a very unique way; in late 1974 he informed Bolivians that he had just performed an "autogolpe," or coup from above. This legerdemain permitted him to disband all political parties and rule by decree. In essence, he was following the post-1964 "Brazilian Model" of authoritarian rule hinged upon economic development. In fact, he reoriented Bolivia away from its traditional symbiotic relationship with Argentina to a heavy dependency upon Brazil both diplomatically and economically. So many long term economic packages were negotiated with Brazil that some Bolivians felt he "sold out" the nation's natural resources to that giant neighbor.

More than most Bolivian presidents, Banzer was willing to use force to suppress his critics. He literally invaded (and had the Air Force strafe) San Andrés University in La Paz, enacted censorship in the media, frequently used troops against striking miners, and often jailed or exiled dissidents. In the process, Bolivia was turning in the largest trade surpluses in its history and the middle classes--including importers, manufacturers, Santa Cruz agribusinessmen, and others--raked in the profits.

More:
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/hugo-banzer-suarez/

This looks like an important area to research when time permits. What a shame certain U.S. presidents have always gone to such great pains to make sure the taxpayers NEVER know what has been done until decades later when it's far too late to do anything about it but feel sick.

You've probably seen the stupid remarks about "but where's the proof" when we all know most vicious, evil, murderous acts have been done COVERTLY toward our neighbors in this hemisphere because the truth is simply hideous, and the taxpayers would NEVER approve if it knew the truth at the same time these events happened. That's why they make everything classified until it's far too late to change anything, to prevent more tortures, more assassinations, more death squad massacres.

[Hannah Bell]

6. another "conspiracy theory" turns out to have been true.

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

[Octafish]

9. CIA found Klaus Barbie safe haven in Bolivia.

The NAZI war criminal helped rebuild -- cough, line the pockets of the elite -- Bolivia's economy through cocaine trafficking.

http://boliviaweb.com/outsiders/barbie.htm