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replace it witn a , leadersnip UPPUSHVI LU dIE VUVIgOUL. which represents their indepen- Stalinist and Islamic Juan Pereda was military dictator of Bolivia for three months-a not exceptionally short time by the standards of Bolivia's long line of In the 200th coup since Bolivia's independence in the early 19th century, he was overthrown last Friday by the army chiefs of staff headed by Within the Patriotic Front, militants must watch out for any further signs of capitulation by the leadership.

They should not be taken in General David Padilla.

Pereda had seized power from Hugo Banzer in July after the anullment of the fraudulent presidential elections in which he had emerged as "victor"

The immediate occasion for the present coup was a threatened armed clash in the capital La Paz on Friday.

This was expected to result from a mass "march for democracy* , organised largely by former nationalist president Siles Zuazo's Democratic and Popular Unity (UDP).

The march was to protest against Pereda's announcement ten days ago that the postponed elections would not take place until May 1980.

Pereda himself had tried to line up a mass counter-demonstration and had ordered the army to stop the march.

It was largely fears that this would provoke a new revolutionary upsurge that led the army chiefs of staff to dethrone Pereda and announce that the presidential elections would take place "immediately" so that the new president could take office by August 1979.

But the new coup, giving the impression of making concession to the mass struggle, and reflecting the political disunity of the armed. forces will almost certainly unleash a new upsurge of mass struggle.

The urgent task before the Bolivian workers and peasants is to expose in this coming struggie the pretensions of the "left" nationalist leadership and ..ml 1 L 1-. .h.dent interests.

Sandinista guerrillas