A Model

In 1964, the New York Times wrote of Bolivia: "No country in the Western Hemisphere is more dependent on Washington's aid and nowhere has the United States Embassy played a more obtrusive role in establishing that fact." So in 1970, when President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by U.S. 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 U.S. trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, U.S. Air Force Major Robert Lundin placed the U.S. Air Force radio at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of "political subversive agitation provoked by anarchists opposed to the new institutional order," the Soviet Embassy was closed, and Banzer raised a foreign loan to pay Gulf Oil compensation. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial.
As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were forced 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. Migration Under Secretary Guido Strauss told the U.N. the goal was to create 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. After his dictatorship, Banzer is elected president in 1997 and serves until 2001, resigning because of cancer.