Memorandum of Conversation with Vice President of Bolivia Hernan Siles Zuazo, Ambassador of Bolivia Victor Andrade, and W. Tapley Bennett

RESTRIOTE SECURITY INFORMATI s/s 1262 DEPARTMENT OF STATE Please neturn Memorandum of Conversation to MA 1015 DATE: October 7, 1952 308 Call of the Vice President of Bolivia SUBJECT: PARTICIPANTS: Sr. Hernân Siles Zuazo, Vice President of Bolivia Sr. Victor Andrade, Ambassador of Bolivia THINKING The Secretary Mr. Bennett, OSA the to COPIES TO: s/s OMP - Mr. Evans OSA - Mr. Hudson Amembassy La Paz u. s. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 The Vice President of Bolivia, accompanied by the Bolivian Ambassador, came in for a courtesy call during the Vice President' private visit to Washington en route to the United Nations, where he will serve as head of the Bolivian delegation to the forthcoming General Assembly. After an exchange of amenities Sr. Siles said that he wanted to assure me that his Government was desirous of extending the fullest cooperation to the United States at the General Assembly. I thanked him for his statement and emphasized the importance of our collaboration on the issues to come before the Assembly. I then told the Vice President that I was interested in the reported plans of his Government for the nationalization of mining activities in Bolivia but that I was not cognizant of the most recent details of the matter; I said that I would appreciate his informing me of the current status of the matter. Sr. Siles began by stating that the decision in favor of nationalization was one that had been made by the Government and the people of Bolivia and that it could be described as irrevocable. He said that the Government had appointed a study commission to make recommendations regarding the most practicable ways of implementing this nationalization decision. He indicated that what the Bolivian Government has in mind is a number of mixed companies to operate the several installations; the Government would hold 51 percent of the stock of these companies and the remainder of the stock would be open, as he put it, for acquisition by private investors. The Vice President remarked that his Government intended to use this method of operation both for existing mining DECLASSIFIZE E.0. 10501 SECURISY INPORMATION