Flying High

The Air Force was testing a new aircraft--a snappy little twin-engined Helio Courier light plane--and naturally, there was only one pilot for the job. Grinning broadly,. Air, Force General Rene Barrientos, 46, the more equal of Bolivia's two co-Presidents, strapped himself into the pilot's seat and roared off into the blue. After buzzing over La Paz, Barrientos flitted for about 30 minutes around the jagged 21,325-ft. peak of nearby Mount Illimani, then pushed the shuddering plane to 21,425 ft., setting a new altitude mark for that type of aircraft.

The symbolism could hardly be lost on Bolivians. As command pilot of Bo livia's nine-month-old military junta, Barrientos may fall into a flat spin one day; but in the meantime, he is flying high. His most notable accomplishment is something no other modern Bolivian ruler had ever achieved: control over the country's potentially rich, but notoriously inefficient tin mines.

Men at Work. Under Communist leadership since 1952, the nation's 26,000 miners had become a law unto themselves, refusing even to allow representatives of U.S. and West German investors to examine the mines' books. Determined to break the Red hold, Barrientos declared the mines under military control, sent in troops to subdue the troublemakers in a series of battles that left 70 dead, 250 wounded. He then rounded up some 200 union leaders, including Top Boss Juan Lechin, and unceremoniously air-expressed them off to exile (TIME, May 28).

Last week the only sounds from the mines were the sounds of men-at-work. The army had collected 900 rifles and 200 machine guns, many of which had been voluntarily turned in. Mine output for the week was the highest in 13 years, and foreign investors have agreed to underwrite the final stage of modernization to put the mines on a money-making basis. "We made the miners understand that it was not the army that was defeating them but, instead, that they themselves were defeating the corrupt union leaders who had used them for their own political purposes," said Barrientos, who, along with co-President Alfredo Ovando, flew to the mines shortly after the fighting ended to explain the government's policy.

Planning to Stay. The junta's success" with the mines has sent Barrientos' popularity soaring to new heights and, for a time at least, silenced criticism by the country's normally noisy political parties. One day last week he flew with co-President Ovando to the country's historic capital of Sucre to talk about his own version of the Great Society. "The Second Republic," he declared, "will be a new fatherland, where everybody will live together free from fear and poverty. Just as we have eradicated Communism and anarchy, we shall clean up the bad habits in our system, making the executive branch more dynamic, the legislative branch more wise and effective. Archaic structures will be renewed with a new sense of social justice, political balance, and economic order."

On the question of elections--which Barrientos has been ducking ever since he overthrew Victor Paz Estenssoro last November--the President was less positive. Getting the Second Republic going, he said, will postpone elections for at least two to four years.

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