DEPARTMENT OF STATE DIVISION OF BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-02771R000500210004-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 1, 1958
• Content Type: REPORT

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o O copies, Series 4
DEPARTMENT' OF STATE
Division of Biographic_'Iox;,o
LECHIN QQ11enc u
BOLIVIA
Leader of the Left-Wing Faction of the
Government Ruling Party, the Movimiento
Nacioralista kevoluc a riQ
Leftist labor leader Juan Lechin Oquendo can still be considered the
second most powerful politician in Bolivia, next to President Hern ;n
Sites Zuazo, despite the fact that his prestige and power have measurably
declined since the beginning of 1958. He has been intermittent head of
the Fe ragdn Sindical de r ~ba?iadoros M oros c k oljyj a (Syndical
Federation of Mineworkers of Bolivia -4 TSTMB5 since its founding in
June 1944; he is also founder (April 1952) and leader of Bolivian
labor's centralized federation, the Confe eracidn, Obre~iviana
(Bolivian Labor Confederation -.- COB). Since the year 1952, when the
Novimianto Naccna'ista RevolucioLario (National Revolutionary Movement ---
MNR returned to power in Bolivia, Lechin has been considered as engaged
in a subtle struggle for power, first with ex-President Victor Paz
Estenssoro and for the past two years with now-President Hern,.n Sites
Zuazo, Lechin has rather consistently pursued a policy of embarrassing
and confusing the latter's government.
As leader of the left-wing faction of the MNR and as one who has
complete control over the Bolivian labor movement, Lechfn is probably
the most controversial figure on the Bolivian political scene today and
as such has been the subject of numerous contradictory reports. He has
been labeled a fascist by the communists and a communist by "conservatives."
In reality, he appears to be a skillful, opportunistic, ambitious,
politician, and a demagogic labor agitator without fixed political
orientation. He has in the past, however, shown no reluctance to deal
with Communists and be amenable to their suggestions in order to achieve
certain limited trade union or political objectives. In cuinmary, it
may be said that while he has a record as a cynical rabble-rouser who
has used the discontent of the workers to advance his own interests,
Lechin is not believed to be completely devoid of all sincerity as a
social reformer. With respect to the U.S.-backed Stabilization
Program for Bolivia, Lechin specifically charges that it causes
economic stagnation and low worker compensation, and that it signifies
the renunciation of Bolivia's economic independence and the acceptance
of "colonial impositions" on the country. He further argues that U.S.
economic aid is "of no value" as currently conceived and practiced and
that it leaves "no permanent benefits in the countryil'r
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LECHIN 0guendo Juan (continued)
Juan Lechin was born in Corocoro, a mining center in La Paz
Province, not far from the City of La Paz, on May 19, 1912. His father
was of Lebanese origin and his mother was a Bolivian with a goodly
strain of Indian blood. Lechin's education extended but little beyond
the secondary school level. During the years 1929-32 he worked as a
laborer in the Bolivian tin mines and then enlisted in the army for
service in the Chaco War. He was given a medical discharge late in
1932. Lechin at this time apparently went through an experience
common to many veterans - restlessness of spirit and trouble finding
congenial or profitable work, or any work at all. He mined a small
vein of tin, studied accounting in la Paz, and tried to sell automobiles.
By 19140 Lechin had become a commission merchant dealing in textiles,
presumably with the help of Lebanese friends, and his business was
considered fairly extensive. It entailed travel to the country's
mining centers and provided occasion for him to develop the great range
of friendly contacts among laborers and lower-salaried white collar
people in the mines which became the foundation of his career, A
star player on one of the Patiflo company football teams, and subsequently
one of the most outstanding players of the country as a member of the
La Paz team called "The Strongest", he became widely and popularly known
to the miners. As a commercial agent he won friendships by taking
special orders and doing personal errands in La Paz for people in the
isolated mining towns.
Lechin's first political activity was in 1942 when he campaigned
for the MNR. in the mining centers. After the joint military-MNR
insurrection of December 1943, he was named Sub-prefect of Uncia, the
tcwri nearest the Patiflo mines, in Bustillo Province. He quickly made
friends in his new job and has said personally of that period that un-
like previous prefects he "declined financial assistance from Patino:
refused to be bribed', and surprised the workers by supporting their
contentions in disputes with the Patino management." June 1944 saw the
emergence of the FSTMB as a formal organization, with Juan Lechin in
the dominating position of permanent secretary. During the second
half of that year he took on increasing importance in the national,
scene when he gained public recognition as the head of 40,000
organized miners. By the end of 1945, at the age of 33, he was un-
questionably the most important figure in the country's labor movement.
In January 1947 Lechln was elected to serve in Bolivia's
National Senate. He did not complete this term of office however, for,
as the result of pressure which he exerted on the administration of
President Enrique Hertzog through his leadership of the FS TMB, he was
arrested in May 1949 and exiled to Chile. While in Chile he undoubtedly
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IECHIN Oguendo Juan (continued)
moved in the circle of international political exiles and intellectuals
where ideas and theories on social and economic problems had been
exchanged for many years. Lechin appears to have been interested only
in learning revolutionary and underground methods from these individuals,
irrespective of their underlying philosophy, whether anarchist,
communist, ex-communist, or anti-communist. While he was still in
Chile his followers placed his name on the ballet as MNR candidate for
the Bolivian National Senate and he was again elected to that body
in May 1951. The military junta then in power in Bolivia allowed him
to return, only to arrest him shortly thereafter and to exile him
again in July 1951.
During the MNR revolution of April 1952;, the tide of the fighting
was turned partly by the victory of armed workers controlled by Lechin.
He was then immediately appointed Minister of Mines and Petroleum. In
February 1953 he was elected First Vice President of the MNR. After
repeated attempts by Lechin to relinquish his cabinet post, his
resignation was accepted in October 1954. His resignation is said to
have been dictated partly by ill health, for which he received medical
treatment when he traveled to Europe in October 1955. Lechin was
again elected to the Bolivian National Senate in June 1956 and was
named president of that organization the following August. Consistent
and increasing reports of differences occuring between Lechin and
President Siles began-At this time. Sites declined to rename Lechin
to membership on the MNR's National Political Committee in July 1957
and the next month he was replaced as President of the Senate.
Lechin, who is alleged to have been married and divorced early
in his career, has been married to the former Nancy Weise since
October 1955. He is the father of several children by his second
marriage. Lechin is believed to speak some English.
IRC:BI State-FD, Wash., D.C.
November 1958
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