The government of the caudillo strongman General Mariano Melgarejo (1864–71) was the first to expropriate indigenous community lands on a massive scale. It provoked violent resistance in response, and Melgarejo’s creole adversaries teamed with Aymara communities to besiege the city of La Paz and topple the dictator. The documents that follow, originally published in the anti-Melgarejo newspaper El Noticioso, chronicle the militarized campaign of indigenous peasants and their allies, led by Casimiro Corral. Corral had first gained political experience working as editor of the newspaper El Artesano, at the time when President Belzu was encouraging the political participation...