Word: dictatorship
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Democratic Left-and a man on whom the U.S. counts heavily-is Venezuela's President Rómulo Betancourt. A onetime radical revolutionary who has moderated his views with time, Betancourt was elected three years ago to govern a country rich in oil but economically ravaged by dictatorship. He has struggled to restore financial stability and provide jobs for his people, who were largely illiterate (illiteracy has dropped from 57% to 27% in three years) and mostly poor. No leader is under fiercer attack by the Communists and Castroites, who have apparently chosen Venezuela as the most promising spot...
Khrushchev's resignation and re-election were part of the elaborate ritual by which Russia's rulers practice dictatorship while preaching democracy. On paper, the Soviet Union has a model constitution, guaranteeing all citizens freedom of speech and assembly, a free press, and equality under the law. In fact, as intended by Joseph Stalin, who introduced the constitution at the height of his reign of terror in 1936, it is a meaningless document because the Kremlin can and does ignore it at will...
Last week, in his State of the Soviet Union address at the Great Kremlin Palace, Khrushchev proclaimed that Russia has progressed from the "proletarian dictatorship" of Stalin's era to "a socialist state of the whole people," called for a new constitution that will "create even firmer guarantees of the democratic rights and freedoms of the working people." In addition, said Khrushchev, who heads the committee in charge of drafting the new document, it will "clearly formulate" the principle of peaceful coexistence, which is still regarded as heresy by diehard Stalinists in Moscow and Peking...
From the palace came a burst of "executive decrees" effectively reaffirming the military dictatorship. The recent Peronista-victory elections were annulled as if they had never taken place. Congress was dissolved, and the civilian governors of all Argentine provinces not already removed were ousted in favor of military commanders. Argentina would now be governed by presidential decree and ruled by military men not elected to office. As a sop, the military promised new elections for Oct. 27, 1963. But those elected would not take office until May 1, 1964, thus assuring two full years of unquestioned rule by the military...
...desperate turns a disheartened Cuba may take are many. The Bay of Pigs invasion did Castro the invaluable favor-so essential in fastening a dictatorship on a people-of convincing the discontented that resistance is futile. Most of the diplomats and foreign journalists in Havana (who can no longer count on the frankness of those they talk to) see little chance of a popular revolt, and sense that, though greatly diminished, the reservoir of idealism and expectancy that Castro began with still exists among many campesinos...