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Chapter 10 García Meza Coup Back to Holland In early 1980,Valeria, Emilse’s and my first daughter, was born at the COMIBOL hospital in Catavi. In Holland I had learned about the importance of physical exercise during childbirth, so we walked to the hospital by foot,a little over one-half mile.I would have liked to have been present during the birth, but such practices were not accepted in Bolivia and the doctors threw me out of the delivery room. I was deeply moved by the birth of my daughter, and it cemented a firm commitment to our family. Life became very busy for us after she was born,because I had to balance helping to take care of her with my political activities.Three months after she was born my time with her was cut short, because the García Meza coup turned the country, and my life, upside down once again. When the coup was imminent,compañeroArtemio Camargo,the general secretary of the Siglo XX Miners’ Federation, approached me to join him as secretary of conflicts and help strengthen the union. He encouraged me, “With the dangerous political situation the country is facing,we need your advice as an experienced activist. Please join the union’s leadership.” I accepted to help unify the movement. Almost at that exact moment, García Meza launched his coup and completely devastated us. Later, after I had fled into hiding and exile,Artemio was assassinated with a group of his compañeros from the MIR party in a house on Harrington Street in La Paz. With this new coup, once again the miners led the effort to defend democracy, and we offered more resistance at Siglo XX than anywhere else in the country. For almost two weeks the district was a war zone, with the military pouring out of the barracks at Uncía to attack the civilian population. Soldiers attacked day and night, lighting their assaults with flares shot from airplanes. They raided repeatedly, firing at anything that moved, killing whatever human or animal crossed their path. Because they couldn’t muster sufficient strength to occupy the entire settlement, their 157 aim was not so much to conquer the place as to terrify the population. Clearly they were biding their time, waiting for reinforcements from other parts of the country to consolidate their occupation. We attempted to fortify the mining camps and block all road access.On the second night, I snuck out with workers from the “sink and float” plant and from“block caving”to close the road into Llallagua from Oruro. About fifty of us placed explosives on the surrounding cliffs and blasted tons of rock onto the road, effectively cutting it off.We were pleased because we had carried this off without directly confronting the military. On the third day, while I was guarding the urban perimeter of the settlements,other miners assaulted a military post in Catavi to steal arms so that we could continue the resistance.We were joined by the campesinos who lived around Siglo XX, because in 1979, the Confederation of Campesino Workers’ Unions of Bolivia (Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia, or CSUTCB) had affiliated with the COB.With this newfound unity, the COB provided the leadership for the national resistance. García Meza The García Meza coup was arguably the worst Bolivia has ever suffered. On July 17, 1980, the ultraconservative Luis García Meza Tejada, a career military officer from La Paz, seized power in what was often called the “Cocaine Coup” because of its strong links to drug trafficking. He outlawed all political parties, exiled opposition leaders, shut down unions, and silenced the press. During his thirteen-month dictatorship about a thousand people were murdered, often after being tortured (Dunkerley 1984). García Meza did not act without help: he received strategic assistance through Operation Condor from a secret Argentinean army intelligence unit. The “Butcher of Lyons,” Klaus Barbie, a Nazi officer known for his brutality against French resistance during World War II, had found haven in Bolivia and was one of García Meza’s key advisors. But unlike in the past, this coup had no U.S. backing, as President Jimmy Carter’s commitment to human rights led him to denounce the regime almost immediately. Marcelo Quiroga de Santa Cruz, congressman, writer, university professor, and outspoken socialist leader, who had publicly denounced military dictatorships since the time of Barrientos, is...

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