Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency release is a compilation of foreign broadcast and press items from May 1978. It was approved for release in March 1980. Its main item is a 16 May 1978 Radio La Plata report from Sucre on conflicting accounts of an unidentified object that fell on a hill in Bolivia near the Argentine border. The accounts say Bolivian authorities asked NASA for help, the border was closed and the area was cordoned off. The report asks whether the object was a satellite, a meteorite or a false alarm.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## 17 May 19 PLEASE WAIT THE COLD DAY TO SUBMITTION OF ELECTIONS PY161828Y Santiago Chile Domestic Service in Spanish 1750 GMT 16 May 78 FY [Text] Bolivian President Hugo Banzer has said that the forthcoming elections of 2 July may be suspended if political and electoral violence increases. He said that the government is doing everything to guarantee the tranquillity of the country. These remarks were made by the Bolivian president during a program over the state-owned television network. Banzer has been in power 7 years and hopes to hand over the government to the candidate who wins the elections on 2 July. The Bolivian president also publicly stated his support for the official candidate, Gen Juan Pereda Asun. REPORTS CONFLICT ON DETAILS OF FALLEN OBJECT PY161931Y Sucre Radio La Plata in Spanish 1650 GMT 16 May 78 PY [Summary] We have received another phone call from our audience requesting confirmation of reports that an unidentified object fell in Bolivian territory near the Argentine border. We can only say that Argentine and Uruguayan radio stations are reporting on this even more frequently, saying that Bolivian authorities have urgently requested assistance from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration in order to determine the nature of that which crashed on a hill in Bolivian territory. Just a few minutes ago Radio El Espectador of Montevideo announced that there was uncertainty as to the truth of these reports. Argentine sources indicated that the border with Bolivia had been closed but that it might soon be reopened. They also reported that an unidentified object had fallen on Bolivian soil near the Argentine border and that local Bolivian authorities had requested aid from the central government which, in turn, had sought assistance from the U.S. National Acronyxics and Space Administration to investigate the case. A La Faz newspaper said today that there is great interest in learning about the nature of the fallen object, adding that local authorities for security reasons had cordoned off 200 km around the spot where the object fell. The object is said to be a mechanical device with a diameter of almost (74 meters) which has already been brought to Tarija. There is interest in determining the accuracy of these reports which have spread quickly throughout the continent, particularly in Felivia and its neighboring countries. Is it a satellite, a meteorite or a false alarm? ELECTORAL COUNT WILL NOT SUBMIT TO ISB PRESSURES PY151711Y La Paz PRESENCIA in Spanish 10 May 78 p 11 FY [Text] Responding to a declaration issued by the national assembly of the Relivian Socialist Folange [FSB] recently held in Cochabamba, members of the National Electoral Court have stated that "they have always been willing to resign their posts." They warned, however, that they will definitely not submit as "pressures from political parties" and they added that "they know the path of diversity and will assume their duties as the proper aim and that they are above human selfishness." Approved for notice Date 25 MAR 1980
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 1 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.