For nearly four decades, there’s been an open ques­tion about the 1971 coup that brought dic­ta­tor Hugo Banzer Suárez to power in Bolivia: was the U.S. gov­ern­ment involved? Thanks to newly declas­si­fied doc­u­ments, we now have an answer.

Banzer was a dic­ta­tor of Bolivia from 1971-8 and a demo­c­ra­t­i­cally elected pres­i­dent from 1997-2001. His three-​day coup in August 1971 was sig­nif­i­cant not only for the fight­ing that accom­pa­nied it, which left 110 dead and 600 wounded, but for the seven-​year regime that fol­lowed, one of the most repres­sive in Bolivia’s his­tory. Under Banzer’s rule, more than 14,000 Boli­vians were arrested with­out a judi­cial order, more than 8,000 were tortured—with elec­tric­ity, water, beatings—and more than 200 were exe­cuted or dis­ap­peared. (I’m writ­ing a long arti­cle about the legacy of the regime for Nar­ra­tive Mag­a­zine. It will hope­fully be out by the end of the year.)

Note: With apolo­gies for any incon­ve­nience, I’ve taken down this essay because a revised ver­sion of it will appear shortly in another venue. (I’ll post a link when it’s up.) A slideshow of the photos that accom­pa­nied the piece is still avail­able here, or you can click on the thumb­nails below.

I vis­ited Sucre and Potosì over the week­end and brought back a few photos. I hope to post the more excit­ing Potosì set later this week, once I have a chance to type up a little com­men­tary, but for now here’s a short set from Sucre. Click on the thumb­nails after the jump for single images or click here for a full-​screen slideshow.

A last batch of photos, this time from Copaca­bana and the Isla del Sol, located respec­tively on and in the Boli­vian half of Lake Tit­i­caca. Indi­vid­ual images after the jump, slideshow here.