June of 1967 was a chaotic month in Bolivian history that marked the beginning of over a decade of political disaster as a strike broke out at a mining complex during the festival of San Juan. The Bolivian army surrounded and captured the mining camps, killing eighty-seven citizens including men, women, and children. The San Juan Massacre represents the constant struggle Bolivian peasants faced throughout the 1970s to survive during a time when the political and economic environment acted against them. (Hylton and Thomson, 84)
General Barrientos decided to send military forces to repress the protest out of fear as revolutionary insurgency had already been taking place in the form of Che Guevara’s ELN guerilla armies fighting for the rural
General Barrientos decided to send military forces to repress the protest out of fear as revolutionary insurgency had already been taking place in the form of Che Guevara’s ELN guerilla armies fighting for the rural