Resistance to coup folds as generals outlaw trade unions

Press, 26 July 1980, Page 9

Resistance to coup folds as generals outlaw trade unions

NZPA-Reuter La Paz Bolivia’s influential Central Labour Organisation was virtually outlawed yesterday after the country’s coup leaders banned the activities of most trade unions and professional organisations. A. decree issued yesterday said the armed forces, which seized power on July 17, were studying the establish-, merit of a new 'labour system- “which will overcome the demagogic style of social policy being practised in the country. “It is necessary to banish definitely the influence of those who have used the unions’ leadership as an in-, strument in the service of, foreign and anti-national; ideologies,” it added. The Right-wing military officers issued the decree after some- 10.000 of 50,000' miners who have been re sisting the military takeover agreed to return to work. A spokesman for the state mining corporation. Comibol, said workers at the- Catavi' and Quechisla tin mines south of La Paz. the capital/ had accepted the military’s;

: proposals for a peaceful settlement. But sources close to the miners said the 10.000 had given in because troops surrounding the mining districts had cut off their food sup- ! plies. The return to work of the 10.000-miners indicated that the last resistance to the . take-over headed by the Army commander. General Luis Garcia Meza. was .crumbling. Hundreds of people were arrested on the day of the coup and this seemed to have prevented widespread civilian resistance such as occurred after a coup d’etat ■ last November. Civilian un-j rest on that occa n forced! the military to back down. I j The Foreign diplomatic; i corps in La Paz called on I ■the armed forces to supply j information on the prisoners! ■who include the Central i Labour Organisation’s Juan! .Lechin. some Roman Catho-'i lie priests, and Ministers of; the deposed government of < President Lidia Gueiler. who , took asylum in the Vatican | mission in La Paz. ' The coup has brought a 1 wave of protests from civil- t ian governments in Latin [ ;America, the United States. ,

and some Western European countries. Several Bolivian diplomats based in Europe have resigned in protest against the coup and Ecuador’s civilian Government has severed dip. lomatic relations with Bolivia. A group of Bolivians living in Venezuela yesterdav staged a peaceful sit-in at the Bolivian Embassy in Caracas. Similar occupations of Bolivian embassies have oc-' curred in France. Yugo-' slavia. and Switzerland.