This article was written in 1995, missing the fact Banzer got the Presidency back again before dying in office, but not before privatizing Bolivia's water and raising the cost of water for Bolivian people far, FAR beyond their ability to pay.
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~~~~~~~~~~Still a School of Assassins
from SOA Watch
Update - March 2001
~snip~
When the Bolivian government sold the public water system of Cochabamba to a private corporation, water prices skyrocketed and thousands took to the streets in protest. Bolivia's president and former military dictator, SOA Graduate Hugo Banzer, declared a state of siege and ordered the troops into the streets. A 17 year-old boy was shot and killed by a Bolivian army officer.
More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/SOA/StillSchoolAssassins.htmlF
A more recent massacre in Bolivia:
In 2003, after several weeks of massive protests and violent state repression, Bolivian President Gonzalo “Goni” Sánchez de Lozada signed his resignation and fled to Miami. It was October 17. The day is etched in the collective memory of Bolivians as the victorious culmination of a hard-fought battle—a war, in fact, or the “Gas War” as most Bolivians still call it.
Protests over a government plan to export Bolivia’s vast natural gas reserves to the United States through a Chilean port intensified in early October. In response, Goni signed Supreme Decree 27209, which militarized El Alto, the largely indigenous city neighboring La Paz where protests were fiercest. Despite the suspension of constitutional guarantees under the pretense of a state of siege, El Alto’s residents were squeezing La Paz with a total blockade of roads leading into the capital, causing food and fuel shortages.
Only three days into the president’s El Alto decree, Bolivian security forces had already killed 50 people, and by the end of the protests 17 more lost their lives. Even Carlos Mesa, the vice president at the time, publicly denounced the murders, but Goni refused to de-militarize.
A graduate of the University of Chicago and nicknamed “El Gringo” for his North American-accented Spanish, Goni currently resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Despite repeated extradition requests by Bolivian President Evo Morales and his ruling party, the Bush Administration has repeatedly refused to extradite Goni. Bolivian activists fear he may never be brought to justice.
Last fall, North American activists living in Bolivia organized the Bolivia Solidarity Network (BSN) and declared October 17 the International Day of Solidarity with Bolivia. One of the BSN’s central goals is to support the extradition of Goni and two of his cabinet members, who also live comfortably in the United States, to Bolivia to face trial for the El Alto massacre.
More:
http://nacla.org/node/1416~~~~~~~~~~Much more recently, a massacre engineered by the fascist right-wingers in Bolivia in an attempt to intimidate the indigenous people prior to a referendum the European descended fascists were trying to block:
UNASUR: Bolivian Pando’s massacre a crime against Humanity
by rahul | December 3, 2008 at 02:35 pm
http://media.nowpublic.net.nyud.net:8090/images//37/7/37732efdb33cc1718c00397834101644.jpgA report issued by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) concludes that the massacre of Porvenir was a crime against humanity. During a Summit at UN, UNASUR had agreed to investigate the anti-government violence that took place in Pando on September 11, 2008 and provoked by anti-Morales protesters who opposed his plans to redistribute land and wealth. The Argentinian human rights secretary and chief of enquiries, Rodolfo Mattarollo, submitted the UNASUR report in Bolivia to President Evo Morales today. According to Mattarollo "local authorities like detained former prefect Leopoldo Fernandez participated in the crime against humanity that left over 18 dead and dozens of wounded and disappeared persons". "Opposition radical sectors criticized UNASUR investigations, saying they favor the Bolivian government."
More:
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/unasur-bolivian-pando-s-massacre-crime-against-humanityThis doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of Bolivia's tortured history at the hands of US-backed and supported dictators.
Do yourself a favor: try getting a sense of what you're attempting to discuss before sharing your impressions at a serious message board.
Use more of your time to learn about the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, like DU'ers who intend to understand events, policy, and history.
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