Page 10-Saturday, July 19 1980-The Michigan Daily
Women
injured
protesting
Bolivian
takeover
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -
Sixty women protesting the Bolivian
military coup tried to force their way
into the United Nations women's con-
ference here yesterday and skirmished
with Danish police before they were
locked out. Several of the women ap-
peared to have been hurt in the clash.
Bolivia's military overthrew interim
President Lidia Gueiler and blocked the
return to power of leftist former
president Hernan Siles Zuazo who had
been expected to succeed Gueiler after
the country's recent elections. It was
the South American nation's 189th coup
in 155 years of independence.
THE LATIN American women and
their sympathizers burst into 'the Independent
exhibition building where the conferen- Number 10 1
ce was heing held. Officers warned Republican ti
them in Spanish toleave within five
minutes and when the women did not
move, the police roughly bundled them
through the doors, draggingsome along
the ground. B ol
Some weeping women seemed to be
hurt. One had her arm bandaged.
The protesters were part of a group
holding a parallel women's conference
near the site where 1,500 delegates from e
141 nations are meeting to map a plan of
action for the remaining five years of
the U.N. Decade of Women. Their goal LA PAZ, Boliv
is to improve the conditions of women new three-man
throughout the world, troops and tank
The U.S. delegation presented a draft southern tin-minin
proposal for an .aggressive" program end labor resistar
to help women refugees across the old coup, military,
world, and the timing of the move The United Sta
yesterday was seen as part of an effort bassador to Boliv
to distract attention from the polemics Department calle
that have disrupted the conference. disapproval" of th
Commenting. on the incidents that takeover, which1
have plagued the conference, U.S. temporary halt a1
delegate Mary King told The to restore civiliai
Associated Press that "mounting impoverished nati
frustration is discernible among the SOME 5,000 unio
women here that the conference is Indians, took up;
being side-tracked." barricades on tl
I
4
4
Anderson meets with Thatcher AP Photo
presidential candidate John Anderson poses withBritish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at her
Downing Street residence in London Thursday. Anderson said hearing the news of the Reagan-Bush
icket has "inspired" him to carry on his independent campaign.
ivian junta moves to
resistance o co
I
ia (AP) - Bolivia's
military junta sent
:s to the country's
ng region yesterday to
rnce to their one-day-
reports said.
tes recalled its am-
'ia in what the State
d a sign of "extreme
he right-wing military
brings to at least a
U.S.-supported effort
n democracy to this
on.
inized miners, mostly
arms and put down
lhe mountain roads
new
Bre ers Vogurt
allnaturalfo
H [
---.--- ~ QRH3
leading to the tin mines, according to
broadcasts by radio stations controlled
by the miners' union. The mines are
two to three miles high in the Andes in
an area 100 to 200 miles south of here.
"We are going to resist the coup until
the ultimate consequences," said one
broadcast. There were no immediate
reports of fighting in the area.'
Two air force planes flew over the
outskirts of La Paz yesterday morning,
apparently reconnoitering areas where
workers had set up barricades to resist
what they called the "fascist coup-
makers."
THE GENERALS declared yester-
day to be a national holiday, hoping to
neutralize a call by labor leaders for a
general strike throughout Bolivia. The
strike and the holiday combined to shut
down all public transportation in La
Paz, shutter markets and shops, and
virtually empty the streets.
The capital was generally quiet after
a night of sporadic gunfire, apparently
small clashes between soldiers and lef-
tists or other civilians.
The armed forces overthrew the in-
terim civilian government of President
Lidia Gueiler on Thursday in order to
b
ZO'OFFCOVER
GREATLY REDUCED PRICES ON
ALt BEVERAGES $u+ f . .
prevent the expected election of a leftist
president next month.
IT WAS THE 189th change of gover-
nment in coup-prone Bolivia in its 155
years of existence.
Gueiler, 51, and 17 of her top aides
were seized at the presidential palace
Thursday, and a spokeswoman for the
junta later read a letter in which the
president resigned and declared, "God
save Bolivia."
Roman Catholig sources said Gueiler
and her ministers remained captive at
the palace yesterday, with the papal
nuncio, the Vatican's diplomatic
representative, present to guarantee
her safety.
NO NEWSPAPERS published
yesterday, and most radio stations
were not broadcasting.
There was no official report on
casualties in Thursday's coup, but an
unofficial Red Cross report said at least
two people were killed and five woun-
ded when troops swept through the
city's working-class outskirts, and it
was unofficially reported that some
deaths occurred when the insurgents
seized the headquarters of the Bolivian
Labor Confederation.
The unconfirmed reports said
miners' union leader Simon Reyes, a
member of the Bolivian Communist
Party's executive committee, and
Socialist presidential candidate Mar-
celo Quiroga Santa Cruz had been killed
at thelabor headquarters.
The members of the new ruling junta
were identified as army commander
Gen. Luis Garcia Meza, air force chief
Gen. Waldo Bernal and Adm. Ramiro
Terraza. One of them isexpected to be
-des p~naed president. .