Under the gun: The Bolivian press and military rule,1964-1982

Abstract

Military intervention in civil government comes and goes in Latin America, fre quently crushing any opposition by the press. Bolivia has experienced more military coups d'état than any other Latin American or Caribbean country. This study of the relationships between the Bolivian press and military between 1964 and 1982 thus has a wider significance. In some ways repression has grown more subtle, but in Bolivia brute force still was commonly employed. Bolivia also has experienced the second social and economic revolution in Latin America, beginning in 1952. Poverty and social maladjustment breed militarism and a vulner able press, but on the other hand, resistance to authoritarian rule - sometimes at a terrible cost - marked the beginning of professionalism within the Bolivian press.