LUIGI LONGO PLOT TO TAKE OVER BOLIVIA?
Boliviats well-known political and trade-union leader Juan Lechfn Oquendo was seized and exiled to Paraguay under extraordinary charges. "The Government Military Junta," reads the official statement issued May 15 by Minister of State Oscar Quiroga Teran, "has knowledge of a vast subversive plan, of international character, planned and financed for some months by Communist leaders of world renown, in combination with the Bolivian-Chilean citizen Juan Lechin Oquendo, a conspiracy which reached its 'climax! with the formation of the inter-union front, violating the good faith of the workers; the announcement of a general strike and the constant incitements to subversion broadcast by Communist radio stations and agents of extremism,"
Specifically, the military junta charged Lechfn with holding an identity card in Chile under the name of Juan Latorre, of being in "permanent" contact with the "high Italian Communist leader Luiggi Longo [sic], whose instructions he was following in carrying out a vast conspiratorial plan" also allegedly involving Federico Escobar, the well-known miners! leader and member of the Bolivian Communist party.
As to why its charges against Lechfn were not brought to court, the junta said it could not do so because of “the imminence of the subversive coup d'état, whose gradual development was being
ay oa
systematically unfolded, misleading our working class which under guise of wage or union demands was being utilized for the sinister aims of international Communism,"
Thus as an "elementary preventive" measure to safeguard the "social peace and the tranquility of all the citizens" the military junta had to exile Juan Lechfn "or Juan Latorre."
Besides this, Juan Lechfin had been consistently , misleading" the Bolivian masses for "30 years," leading them into "economic bank-= ruptecy and social anarchy."
~It is thus up to Juan Lechfn "from outside the country," to "clear up the enigma of his double and illegitimate nationality."
Friends of Lechfn stated that there was no "enigma" about the Chilean identity card. Lechfn got it during a period of exile in Chile in order to be able to travel about the country freely. It is ridiculous to accuse a former vice-president of Bolivia and one of its most prominent figures of being a "Chilean."
The "evidence" offered by the government on Lechfn's alleged participation in an international "conspiracy" with Luigi Longo has all the earmarks of a very crude frame-up. Photostats of three letters in "code" were given to the press. The letters are handwritten or rather hand drawn in strange symbols that might have been taken from manuals on Gregg and Pitman shorthand, suitably varied by childish pictograms and occasional letters from the Roman alphabet, But the Bolivian DIC [Direccién Investigacién Criminal] was up to the challenge and managed to decode the subversive letters which had come into its hands. The texts as published in the May 16 issue of the Catholic daily Presencia are as follows [the English translations are by World Outlook
First Letter
Ttalia 5 de marzo de 1965. Camarada Lechfn:
Doy respuesta a su atenta de fecha 24 de febrero, he tomado nota de todo lo que en ella me dice: hasta el dfa 24 del presente tendrd usted en su poder el dinero que solicita; Sjala que con esto pueda hacer algo efectivo por la causa.
Seguin opinién de los camaradas que nos dirigen, en Bolivia ha sido nulo el movimiento que usted dirige; nos cuesta mucho dinero para nada efectivo.
Ojala camarada que trate usted de encaminar su polftica para
= Gan bien de nuestro Partido que en esa se encuentra en estado lamentable.
Lo saluda atentamente,.
Fdo Luigui Longo [sic]. Translation Italy March 5, 1965. Comrade Lechfn:
I am replying to your letter of February 24, I have noted everything you tell me in it: by the twenty-fourth of this month you will get the money you ask for; I hope that you can do something effective for the cause with this.
In the opinion of the comrades directing us, the movement you are directing in Bolivia has accomplished nothing; it is costing us a lot of money for nothing effective.
I hope comrade that you will try to get things going for the good of our Party which in this respect is in a sorry state.
Yours cordially.
Signed Iuigui Longo. Second Letter Italia 9 de marzo de 1965, Camarada Lechfn:
Tal vez le cause extraneza el recibir nuevamenta comunicacién mfa y lo hago porque se ha presentado el siguiente problema:
RecibY una carta del camarada Federico Escobar en la que me comunica que usted no le entregé el dinero a dicho dirigente. Escobar indicd ser muy urgente para entregar a los mineros y asf obtener de ellos una colaboracidén mds.efectiva, segiin indica todos ellos se alistardn para la revuelta siempre que se les dé dinero para sus mds urgentes necesidades. No sé cémo explicar camarada, esta negligencia suya, siendo que de esta superioridad recibié usted la orden; subsane usted a la brevedad posible esta falta que lo perjudicarfa demasiado en su trayectoria polftica, entregue a Escobar el dinero para no entorpecer la revolucidén en. marcha,
Una vez recibida la ayuda procedan de inmediato.
Fdo,. Luigui Longo [sic].
—Qee-
Translation
Italy March 9, 1965 Comrade Lechfn:
Perhaps it will surprise you to receive another communication from me and I am doing it because the following problem has been presented: 7
I received a letter from Comrade Federico Escobar in which he tells me that you did not deliver the money to the said leader. Escobar indicates that it is very urgent to deliver to the miners and thus obtain from them more effective collaboration, according to what he indicates all of them are ready for revolt whenever they are given money for their most urgent necessities, I don't know how to explain this negligence of yours, comrade, since you received orders from higher up; correct as soon as possible this fault which would be too damaging to your political trajectory, deliver the money to Escobar in order not to slow down the revolution underway.
Once the aid is received, proceed immediately.
Signed. lLuigui Longo. Third Letter
Roma 19 de marzo de 1965,
Camarada Lechfn:
Doy respuesta a su atenta carta y me complace demasiado que sus negociaciones estén bien adelantadas. Como le prometf el dfa 24 tendrd usted el dinero; ademfs celebro mucho que hasta ese dfa habrd en esa, grandes novedades que cambiaran radicalmente el gobierno de su pafs, de ser cierto esto ya sabe que contarg@ con nuestra incondicional ayuda.
No olvide usted entregar al camarada Escobar el dinero que le indique. Trate usted de aleccionar a toda le gente de las minas y los campos para el momento dado. Le envidéd 25.000.-ddélares que creo serdn suficientes para esta oportunidad.
Esperando sus gratas noticias lo saluda atentamente,
Fdo, Luigui Longo [sic].
Translation
Rome March 19, 1965,
Comrade Lechfn:
I am replying to your letter at hand and I am very pleased that the negotiations have proceeded well. As I promised, you will have the money on the twenty-fourth; in addition I am very happy that following that date there will be great happenings that will radically change the government of your country, to be certain of this you already know that you can count on our unconditional support.
Don't forget to deliver to Comrade Escobar the money which I indicated. Try to alert all the people of the mines and the fields on the time set. I sent you 25,000 dollars which I believe will be sufficient for the occasion.
Waiting for pleasant news, yourscordially.
Signed Luigui Longo.
In releasing the texts of the letters, the military junta forgot to specify in what language they were originally written -the Italian used by Luigi Longo, the Spanish used by Juan Lechfn, or something more exotic like the Russian used by Kosygin or the Chinese of Mao Tse-tung. It is thus difficult to determine exactly how much credit to give the military junta for cracking the code,
Of course the originals may have been supplied in English by the Central Intelligence Agency, in which case the military junta is to be congratulated only for its skill in providing a Spanish translation and a cryptogram in perfect gibberish.
As for the content of the letters, this reveals a level of imagination that is even lower than that of Stalin's GPU in the notorious Moscow frame-up trials. The money which the absent-minded Lechfn could never seem to remember to get to Escobar is particularly intriguing. You would think Luigi Longo would give up using such an undependable messenger and send the money directly to Escobar, Instead he sends another $25,000 to the inefficient Lechfn and spells it out in a letter. There's nothing like Communist persistence, stupidity and ineffectiveness to help the secret political police of a military junta like the one in Bolivia. It is to be hoped that only the letters and not the dollars fell into their hands. They're already getting more than enough dollars directly from Washington,
And how did Luigi Longo send the money to Lechfin? Did he enclose it in one of his letters in the form of crisp one-dollar bills? Finally, was it the sight of these American dollars, as the diabolical Luigi Longo plotted, that really inspired the Bolivian miners to defend themselves arms in hand against the American-armed troops sent by the American-backed military junta.to occupy the mines?
-=li~
"WORKERS MILITIA TAKE OVER THE MINES"
The reaction of the Bolivian working class to the seizure and exile of Juan Lechf£n Oquendo can be judged from the main headline in the May 16 issue of the Catholic daily Presencia: “