Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, American Republics; Cuba 1961–1962; Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath, Volumes X/XI/XII, Microfiche Supplement

5. Memorandum of conversation, July 21 between Rusk and Bolivian Ambassador Andrade¹

July 21, 1961

SUBJECT

• Bolivian Government’s Request for $11 million Emergency economic Assistance

PARTICIPANTS

• The Secretary
• Ambassador Victor Andrade
• WST/B—Robert W. Weise, Jr.

Ambassador Andrade said he did not wish to take much of the Secretary’s time and that the principal purpose of his visit was: 1) to inquire about the status of the GOB’s memorandum handed Adlai Stevenson, and 2) to acquaint the Secretary with the urgency of the Bolivian situation. He described briefly how the Bolivian revolution had been conceived, inspired and executed; that it was an independent Revolution; that it was the desire of President Paz to maintain the independence of this movement, free from Communist domination; how communist-inspired and pro-Castro elements were endeavoring to gain control of the Government and had in fact made substantial inroads into the labor movement to now alarming proportions; and finally how the Bolivian Government on June 7, 1961 undertook decisive steps to round up and arrest the principal Communist labor leaders of the country—some thirty-five in all—through a declaration of a “state of siege”. This action, Ambassador Andrade said, involved grave risks for the Bolivian Government, since it already was confronting a serious economic crisis in which it was, in part at least, dependent upon financial assistance from the United States.

During the visit of Adlai Stevenson to La Paz on July 16, 1961, Ambassador Stevenson was handed a memorandum from the Bolivian Government in which the latter made application for an emergency loan of eleven million dollars to cover Bolivia’s critical needs pending the re-establishment of social peace and the stabilization of the tin industry under the so-called “triangular operation” in which the USG, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Inter-American Development Bank will participate. Ambassador Andrade said his Government was very much concerned as to what consideration was being given to this memorandum of the GOB, since the “state of siege” would end in fifty days and the Bolivian Government would have to determine what steps it would take next in meeting the immediate social and political crisis.

The Secretary informed Ambassador Andrade that careful and serious consideration was being given to the GOB memorandum; that although the USG was prohibited under the mutual security legislation from financing the internal debts of any country, we were studying ways in which the US could assist Bolivia in meeting its present crisis in areas where our assistance would contribute to economic progress and long-range development.

1. Bolivian Government request for $11 million emergency economic assistance. Confidential. 2 pp. DOS, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 330.