Bolivia: Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1960-1963
The backstory to this archive revolves around the rise of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), which emerged as a broadly based party. Under President Victor Paz Estenssoro (1907-2001), the MNR “introduced universal adult suffrage, carried out a sweeping land reform, promoted rural education, and nationalized the country's largest tin mines. Twelve years of tumultuous rule left the MNR divided.” In 1964, a military junta overthrew President Paz Estenssoro at the outset of his third term. Documents in this collection offer insight into the U.S. state department during the Cold War. Examples include analysis of labor union leadership and its relationship to Communists “united in opposition” and attempting to impose a “Fascist regime in Bolivia.” Periodicals such as Prescenia and El Diario are characterized as “organs at service of Communists” (December 1960). The embassy notes how El Pueblo, the Communist newspaper in La Paz, reports a Pravda correspondent expressing “great interest in ‘promoting’ relations with USSR” (March 1962).