CAMIRI OIL WORKERS INDICATE SYMPATHY FOR REGIS DEBRAY
The January 5 issue of the Paris daily Le Monde reported that in the previous week Corrado Corghi, a national councillor of the Italian Christian Democratic party, who had been delegated by the League for the Rights of Man to go on a mission to Bolivia, visited Régis Debray in his cell at Camiri.
According to a previous report circulated in La Paz, Debray had been transferred to the military base at Choretti. Corghi found, however, that Debray is still being held in a military "“barracks" in Camiri.
Debray's morale is high, Corghi said, but he complained of being "cut off from the world" because "his mail is not delivered to him." Also, he feels that "his security is not guaranteed."
Corghi's mission was to study the conditions under which prisoners are held in Bolivia, sound out the Bolivian authorities on a possible exchange of foreigners like Debray with prisoners like Hubert Matos in Cuba, and solicit the Bolivian government to turn Guevara's body over to his family.
Besides Debray, Corghi managed to visit the Argentinian, Roberto Bustos, and four Bolivians, Choque Choque, Barrera Quintana, Rocabado Terrazas, and Tapia Aruni, who were acquitted in the Debray trial but who are still being held in prison.
Le Monde's correspondent, Marcel Niedergang, quoted Corghi as saying: "The comportment of the heads of the Bolivian army may seem paradoxical. They condemned Régis Debray to the maximum penalty but they are contemptuous of him and frequently reproach him with not being a 'genuine' guerrilla while they express the highest praise for Comandante Guevara, who was killed at Higueras October 9 in a way that has become public knowledge."
Although Debray's "relations with Colonel Reque Teran have recently improved," according to the prisoner himnself, his life remains at the mercy of imponderables because of "the climate of
instability prevailing in Camiri as well
as La Paz."-
A number of officers have told
Debray, “If we wanted to, we could have
killed you ten times."
Some of them even added: "Keeping
you imprisoned costs us more than a hun-
dred Bolivian political prisoners."
But it seems that the strongest
safeguard favoring the young French rev-
olutionist is "the sympathy felt for him
by part of the population in Camiri."
In a parade which they staged
during a celebration held by the con-
pany, the Camiri oil workers set up a
flaming torch in front of Debray's cell.
This sympathy is irritating to
the military authorities. In Corghi's
opinion it could cause them to either
transfer him to a different place or to
agree to negotiations to exchange him
and his Argentinian companion.
"As long as Régis Debray remains
in Camiri," Corghi said, “we need not
feel too uneasy. The most ominous would
be if the prisoners should be transfer-
red to Choretti, where there is a small
fortress about forty kilometers from La
Paz, or to a fortress in the Chaco, which
is another possibility..."
Concerning a possible exchange of
prisoners, Corghi gained the impression
that this depended essentially on the way
certain conflicts within the Bolivian
government turn out. The regime is far
from being stable. The recent contradic-
tory accounts given out by generals Ovando
and Barrientos concerning the final dis-
position of Guevara's body illustrated
perfectly the "conflict of tendencies."
And there are other instances.
On the other hand, Vice-President
Siles Salinas told Corghi that the govern-
ment was "greatly concerned about the
safety of the prisoners" and had not ex-
cluded the possibility of an exchange de-
spite the "great difficulties."
BEHIND BARRIENTOS' DOUBLE-TALK ABOUT EXCHANGING DEBRAY
General René Barrientos, the Bolivian dictator, was in Switzerland at the beginning of January for "health" reasons, according to the official story. Later it became known that he did some windowshopping for arms. It has not yet been confirmed whether he visited any banks to
make deposits of cash.
In Zurich January 5, he brought up
the question of Régis Debray. "It is in-
exact to say that I officially offered to
exchange the Frenchman Régis Debray for
the Cuban Hubert Matos," he told the
press. "I did not speak expressly about an exchange proposal. On the spur of the moment, without any preparation, in reply to a question that was asked, I expressed a completely personal feeling about the matter."
"This personal feeling," the dictator added, "could constitute a point of departure. I don't know how long it would take the Bolivian people to agree with me. I repeat that it represents a beginning on my part. I did not make any offer, because in our regime I don't have any dictatorial powers."
The dictator also said, "I have felt this way since General de Gaulle interceded with me in April 1967 in behalf of Debray. Perhaps General de Gaulle could make the same gesture with Fidel Castro today to obtain the freedom of Mr. Matos.
"If Matos were freed, he would be welcomed in Bolivia with open arms and the right of asylum would obviously be granted to him. If the decision depended on the Cuban people, both those inside the country and those living abroad, Matos would be freed and thus Debray also."
Le Monde, which is known to have very good connections with the French government and, consequently, with sources of information not easily available to others, made the following editorial comment:
"This new retraction made by General Barrientos, who left Zurich Saturday to return to La Paz, after spending a few days in Switzerland, will surprise no one, especially the Bolivians, who are commenting with irritation, as was shown
-35-
by the La Paz newspaper Presencia on Sat-
urday, on the unfortunate, contradictory
declarations made at short intervals on
the Debray affair by some of the leading
personalities.
"General Barrientos repeated for
several months and again in New York last
week, that he was ‘absolutely opposed to
the idea of exchanging Régis Debray.' It
is thus strange that the head of the Bo-
livian state should declare that his
‘present personal feelings' coincide with
the intervention made by General de Gaulle
in the month of April 1967.
"After all, General Barrientos
knows, as the chairman of the Supreme
Court in La Paz has just indicated, that
a possible exchange of Régis Debray could
not be undertaken without amending the
Constitution of Bolivia, which at present
bars ‘any remission of sentence when the
accused is sentenced to a penalty of
thirty years' (which is exactly the case
with Régis Debray and the Argentinian
Ciro Bustos, whose lawyer is going to
file an appeal for amnesty).
"Many Bolivians hold that the
‘personal' offer of General Barrientos
is a product of domestic political con-
siderations. The general, according to
these Bolivians, is seeking to embarrass
the heads of the army by presenting him-
self before international public opinion
as a 'liberal.' In fact it is no secret
to anyone in La Paz that the heads of the
army are hostile to any projected release
of Régis Debray and that some of them are
preparing almost openly to succeed Gen-
eral Barrientos. It is held in La Paz
that only the hesitation of the United
States has caused this 'reshuffling of
the government' to be deferred up to now."
CASTRO