Question regarding los/les usage in article

Question

I was reading a segment in an El Tiempo Latino newspaper that used the same verb, "forzar", but did a switcheroo with "les" and "los". I didn't quite understand why and I was hoping someone could explain it to me. I'll post the piece below:

Ellos y otros trabajadores, casi todos inmigrantes, acusaron a la compañía de encerrar a los trabajadores; forzándolos a respirar gases peligrosos de limpiadores industriales; y dándoles equipo poco seguro o malgrado y forzándoles a trabajar de más sin paga de sobretiempo.

Is this a typo or just leísmo? (I thought there was some kind of consistency with leísmo...) Or is it something else that can clearly be explained?

Thanks so much.

Answer 1

In "theory" it should be "forzándolos", so academically speaking, "forzándoles" is not an accepted leísmo. The confusion could be due to the fact that similar verbs like "mandar" and "ordenar" are intransitive in these type of influence sentences (e.g. mandándoles (a) que..., ordenándoles que...)

Okay. Thanks! - Goldie_Miel, May 18, 2011

Answer 2

I am sure it should be los in both cases. Les is an indirect object pronoun.

Thanks, Eddy! - Goldie_Miel, May 18, 2011