César Lora and Isaac Camacho Torrico. The Trotskyist leadership in the Siglo XX mine

Abstract

This article supposes an approach to the union and political trajectory of two Trotskyist leaders (Cesar Lora and Isaac Camacho) of the mine Siglo XX (Potosí, Bolivia), who introduced in that mining district the socialist thought, expressed in the formation of the 'workers tendency of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario', revolutionary workers party. Lora and Camacho formed political cadres, armed the militants of the 'workers tendency' and confronted the 'May System', a plan devised by the government with North American advice to destroy the mining movement through military intervention and massacre in the mining districts. The government of dictator René Barrientos Ortuño ordered the assassination of the two leaders, who fought in clandestinity, but were betrayed, fired, persecuted and assassinated.