Coup for the Colonel

With a swiftness born of practice, the Andean capital of La Paz returned to normal last week after a bloody three-day coup d'etat that left 110 dead and 600 wounded. Little evidence remained of the bitter fighting, except for the assault vehicles guarding La Paz University, where students loyal to deposed President Juan Jose Torres holed up in a futile battle that ended when seven were killed. Torres himself went the way of many of his predecessors: he flew off to exile in Peru.

In his place as head of a new military regime was Colonel Hugo Banzer Suarez, 45, a career army officer who promptly named his regime "the government of the Nationalist Popular Front." He declared that his government would not reverse the 1969 nationalization of the Gulf Oil Co.--for which Bolivia has agreed to pay $78 million compensation. Banzer also affirmed that his regime would continue "traditionally friendly" relations with the U.S.--as well as with the Soviet Union.

By the Lamppost. The slight, urbane colonel, who comes from a family of landowners, trained at U.S. Army schools in Panama and the U.S. before serving as Bolivian military attache in Washington, D.C. He has a reputation for being cool under fire. One day in 1966, when Banzer was Minister of Education in the late Rene Barrientos' government, an angry crowd of teachers demonstrated outside his office. "String up Banzer!" they shouted. Suddenly Banzer appeared in their midst. "I will be waiting near the lamppost to see who is the brave one who is going to hang me," he said. The crowd dispersed.

Banzer's regime--backed by an odd marriage of left-and right-wing parties--is expected to reverse the anti-U.S. drift of the Torres government, which expelled the Peace Corps and nationalized several U.S. mining companies. Whether Banzer can achieve the elusive goal of political stability for Bolivia remains questionable.

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