Bolivian rebels oppose new junta

Rebel officers demanded the resignation of Bolivia's three-man military junta just hours after the triumvirate took over from ousted President Luis Garcia Meza.

Rebel-held Radio Grigota said the coup leaders, Gen. Alberto Natusch Busch (a former Bolivian President) and gen. Lucio Anez, felt the junta was a continuation of the Garcia Meza regime and that the revolutionary command would not accept its authority. When the coup began Monday, the rebel officers demanded that President Garcia Meza resign and that the junta name a replacement. But the junta of the Air Force commander, Gen. Waldo Bernalis; Army commander, Gen. Celso Torrelio; and Navy Rear Adm. Oscar Pammo took control. There were unconfirmed reports that the junta, which had appealed to the rebels to return to their barracks, was reconsidering its decision to assume power and would probably name General Bernalis as the new president.

General Garcia Meza, who held power for one year after toppling a civilian government, had been accused of deep involvement in his impoverished nation's $2 billion- a-year exports of cocaine.