Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 76
Cochabamba fell without firing a shot, as did other departments (states) around the
country.
In La Paz however, the garrisons didn’t fall that easy. Some leftist officers distributed
weapons and ammunition to the acronyms, miners and others with a stake in the
complete control of an openly communist government. Live-fire battles ensued around
the city for a couple of days but ultimately Banzer’s faction got the upper hand, mostly
through some accurate strafing by friendly Air Force pilots. At this point however,
although Banzer had won control of the government, weapons and ammunition
remained in the hands of the leftist acronyms that, fortunately, were not an organized
fighting force. In fact, when under fire some of them opted to give up, the others shot
them in the back as they were leaving. In their eyes this was a good way to cleanse
their splinter groups from the weaker members. This is how a school friend of mine by
the name of Vasquez Machicado Viana, whose brother had been a foot soldier for Che
Guevara, was killed by his own comrades.
The Braniff Airlines airplane bringing my family and me to La Paz on August 16, 1971,
was the first flight to land after the Banzer coup. Minutes later, while I was still on the
tarmac, a second plane arrived. It was a familiar DC-4 aircraft owned by a pilot friend of
mine that had been dispatched from Santa Cruz to Brazil a couple of days earlier. It
taxied to a nearby apron and I went to see what he was up to. My surprise was
immense to see Bepi getting out. He looked haggard and tired but he had a plane full of
weapons and ammunition that he had gotten in Brazil. Our Brazilian friends fulfilled their
promise! The cargo was quickly delivered to the most trusted units and word went out
that a lot more had arrived than what actually did. Bullet fighting ended quickly after
that. Bolivia entered almost a decade of stability and predictability but the going was by
no means easy. We had done much to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves, but,
as many of my ancestors before me, I still had lessons to learn about the fickleness of
their permanence and the unwillingness of dictators to give up power.
My two brothers and my sister Toqui have spent a lot of time researching our South
American family tree, and they, as well as the extended family, agree that the main roottrunk
is a freedom fighter of the early 1800s named Leon Galindo. Born June 28, 1795
in the town of Velez (of what is now Colombia) by age 14 he could not remain just an
observer of the exhilarating campaign Simon Bolivar, the South American Liberator, had
begun to wage in northern South America against Spanish oppression. He joined the
ranks of the rebels in 1809 and never returned home.
The last great battle for independence fought in a war that started before he joined the
freedom fighters took place on the plains of Ayacucho, now in the Peruvian Andes, on
December 9, 1824. By this time, the young man had become one of the most decorated
members of the Army of Liberation and, as a result of his heroism during this battle,
Bolivar promoted him to a level that we would now compare with the Chief of Staff. On
August 6, 1825, the Republic of Bolivia was officially established with Simon Bolivar at
Autobiography.doc 76 of 239