Word: chiles
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DESPITE the dire prophecies of violence, Chile remained calm last week in the wake of precedent-shattering elections. In a three-way race for the presidency, the Marxist candidate, Dr. Salvador Allende, had received the highest vote, polling 36% v. 35% for his rightist opponent, former President Jorge Alessandri, and 28% for the candidate of President Eduardo Frei's Christian Democratic Party, Radomiro Tomic. Since no candidate won a popular majority, the Chilean Congress must decide between Allende and Alessandri on Oct. 24. In the meantime, just about everyone in Chile was acting as if Allende had already become...
...Congratulations. Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, who had reportedly contributed several suitcases-full of hard currency to the Allende campaign, sent his congratulations. In a journalistic pre-emptive strike, the Soviet party paper Pravda accused the U.S. of having "an intention to interfere in the internal affairs of Chile." In point of fact, Washington was reluctant to take any position at all on Allende's emergence, although it knew full well that his nationalization program would eventually affect virtually all of the $700 million U.S. investment in Chile...
Unlikely Scene. The precedent might well prove shattering throughout the hemisphere. In Chile, Allende's triumph could trigger the military, which already is restive about the Communist threat, into its first coup in 38 years. His victory would also polarize the already socially stratified country of 9,000,000 in harshly antagonistic groups. In Latin America as a whole, a Marxist victory in Chile would enliven Fidel Castro's waning image and stand as the ultimate mockery to the U.S.'s loftily conceived but ineptly carried out Alliance for Progress. Chile's neighbors, notably Argentina, would...
...Chile is an unlikely place for such a scenario. Unlike its Latin neighbors, it has a record of democratic stability and honest elections dating back to 1932. Under President Eduardo Frei, who is prevented by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive six-year term, Chile has made some outstanding progress. In a farsighted reform program, Frei's government has expropriated 1,224 private estates and distributed the land to 30,000 families. It increased income tax revenues 80% by catching wealthy tax dodgers, and has built 400,000 housing units since 1964. In the past few months...
Endemic Inflation. But Chile, like its neighbors, suffers from a lack of industrialization and a heavy dependence on fluctuating world raw-materials prices, which gives many Chileans the impression that they are mere pawns in a world controlled by conniving capitalists. Worst of all is Chile's endemic inflation, which ran 28% last year and is presently climbing at the rate of more than 2% per month. More than half of Chile's families subsist on less than $30 a month. The cities are pockmarked with ugly slums, and life in the countryside remains burdensome and poverty-stricken...