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GV & LV Troops and armoured vehicles outside Government Palace in La Paz (4 shots)
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LV & CU Soldiers disembark from truck as military officers enter Government Palace (3 shots)
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SV ZOOM INTO CU INTERIOR President General David Padilla Arancibia speaking in Spanish as newsmen and members of public held back by armed guards, listen (3 shots)
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LV PAN Members of new cabinet standing waiting to be sworn in
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SV President Padilla administering oath
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SV New Cabinet taking oath
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CU President Padilla being applauded
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Bolivia, the new President, General David Padilla Arancibia, announced that there would be a return to democracy within a year after swearing in the members of his new cabinet in the capital La Paz on Friday (24 November). General Padilla seized power in a bloodless coup early on Friday morning, toppling the four month old government of President Juan Pereda Asbun.

SYNOPSIS: It was the two hundredth coup in Bolivia's stormy history since independence in 1820. The group of young army officers responsible, known as "generalists", have been advocating the establishment of democracy since the early 1970s and staged an earlier coup in 1974 which was defeated by the then President Hugo Banzer.

News of the coup was welcomed by Bolivia's civilian opposition party the left-wing Popular Democratic Unity (UDP) coalition. Former President Pereda seized power last July after election results were annulled because of fraud used on his behalf. He had promised to hold fresh elections in 1980, but civilian politicians were demanding an earlier poll. General Pereda was placed under house arrest at his ???ome near La Paz.

The new President, General Padilla, announced that elections would be held in July, and power would be handed over to the winning candidate on the sixth of August, Bolivian Independence Day. He told the assembled politicians and newsmen in the Government Palace that the coup had been carried out to prevent bloodshed between the armed forces and the Bolivian people. Opposition parties had been contemplating going underground before the coup to escape repression.

The new cabinet includes one civilian, Foreign Minister Raul Botelho Gozalvez, with ten portfolios going to army and navy officers and one to the air force. The "Generalist" officers issued a communique in 1973 identifying themselves with the Third World and underdeveloped countries. They are believed to be linked to the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement which took power in 1952 and nationalised the tin mines. They are committed to greater public participation in government, the safeguarding of Bolivia's national resources and the prevention of growing dependence upon foreign capital.