The Impact of the Catavi Mine Massacre of 1942 on Bolivian Politics and Public Opinion

On the windswept heights near the Bolivian mining camp of Catavi on December 21, 1942, in the center of a rocky lunar landscape which dwarfs man but enlarges his passions, a mass of Indian and mestizo tin miners and their families, some 8,000 strong, trudged stubbornly down a road toward an emplacement of 700 Bolivian Army troops and Carabineros watching them through the sights of machine guns, rifles and a trench mortar. Women and children marching in front, they came from the nearby mines of Llallagua and Siglo XX to support the striking Catavi workers. The newcomers were unarmed and carried a red banner in their front ranks.