Catavi Massacre in Bolivia 1967

Determined to keep the labor sector under control, General René Barrientos Ortuño, the Bolivian president, took away most of the gains it had achieved during the rule of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario -- MNR). He placed the state-owned Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Corporación Minera de Bolivia -- Comibol) under the control of a military director and abolished the veto power of union leaders in management decisions. The president also cut the pay of the miners to the equivalent of US$0.80 a day and reduced the mining work force and the enormous Comibol bureaucracy by 10 percent. Finally, he destroyed the Bolivian Labor Federation (Central Obrera Boliviana -- COB) and the mine workers' union, suppressed all strike activity, disarmed the miners' militias, and exiled union leaders.

During the ELN insurgency, army troops again occupied the mines. At daybreak, on September 24, 1967, government forces massacred hundreds of miners and their families at the Siglo XX mines near Catavi. The victims were accused of being guerrilla sympathizers.

References

Bolivia - A Country Study; May 17–24, 1965.

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