BOLIVIA’S NAZIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 198, 23 July 1941, Page 6

BOLIVIA’S NAZIS.

Unrest in a Latin American State occurs so frequently as to pass ' generally without much comment, in these days of Nazi infiltration, however, when Germany is seeking to penetrate countries, susceptible to changes in government, to bring about totalitarian rule, more than ordinary interest is aroused when attempts are made to destroy a South American Administration. Lately llie INazi 1 element in Bolivia has grown to such strength that it resolved to carry its activities beyond the bounds of good conduct. The Bolivian President acted with speed and determination, however, to completely frustrate the subversive faction by proclaiming a 'state of siege, thereby dissolving : the revolutionary German rnovejment. Bolivia appears to have had a quiet time since the former young President, General Busch, deciding in 1939 that this coun- j try needed “order, work, and, morale to fulfil its destiny,”! issued a decree dissolving Con- j gress, suspending the Constitution and civil rights, and vesting i all powers in himself. The process is not unfamiliar in Latin America, but General Busch invested his plans with the up-to-date language of the Nazi and j Fascist Powers. But he promptly ! denied all reports that he had j gone “totalitarian,” by no means; apparently seeking the honour of having set up the first totalitarian State in the estern! Hemisphere, and declaring there j was no room in Bolivia for Fascist or Nazi ideas. He pre- j ferred the military dictatorships so common in the Latin States.' A new President has now taken | General Busch’s office and he is ! determined that there can be no place in Bolivia for Nazi subversiveness which would quickly overthrow the Administration.