CarwilBJ's avatarCarwilBJ's Twitter Archive—№ 33,329

              1. Browsing the archive of declassified US Government documents on Bolivia shows some pretty dramatic conversations before and after three events: the 1964 coup by René Barrientos, the 1967 San Juan massacre, and the 1979 Natusch Busch coup. Three very different US roles, perhaps.
            1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
              1. Prior to and after the Barrientos coup, the US monitored the pending military moves, and put forward its demands and priorities for them.
          1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
            Per an October 29, 1964 cable: “Barrientos told [US} Air attache last evening that Armed Forces would depose [President Víctor] Paz [Estenssoro] within week. He wished to be absent from country so could return with clean hands as constitutional successor after Paz deposed.”
        1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
          Processing this news, the State Department concluded "our understanding is that government would be taken oven either by military or by non-communist civilian elements supported by military"
          oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
      1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
        This cable orders the Embassy to get out of the way, and let the coup happen: "no U.S. national purpose is to be served by U.S. intervention into present political situation in Bolivia and many disadvantages to intervention by us."
    1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
      Further, like Barrientos it urged no direct US fingerprints on the coming coup, thanking the Embassy for refusing to offer him a plane and for formally expressing its non-encouragement of a military takeover.
      oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
  1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
    Meanwhile, Embassy staff and the Air Attache were to cease their conversations with the military. “Warn them to refrain from intervening in the next days … until situation is more stable.”
    oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
    1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
      There were, however, two hints that this "non-interventionist stance" was a ruse: first, the Embassy was to prepare to intervene directly if a leftist takeover was possible. Second, we learn that "tear gas and gas masks are being readied" for the Bolvian government.
      oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
      1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
        (part 2, on the San Juan massacre and a strange coincident request from the Barrientos government, tomorrow)