Word: frei
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...near the speaker's platform had just struck 3 a.m. when the haggard, dark-eyed figure shuffled into the meeting hall outside Santiago. "Mr. Chairman," he said softly, "I demand the right to answer some personal attacks waged against me." With that, Chile's embattled President Eduardo Frei turned to the 530 members of his Christian Democratic Party's national committee and launched into a plea for his very political life...
...Frei's problems had reached almost Andean proportions. During his three years in office, a congressional coalition of Communists, leftists and Socialists had tied up nearly all of his major reform legislation. Then a noisy leftist faction within his own party began joining the opposition in criticizing Frei, and six months ago finally won control of the executive council. At last week's meeting, Frei made a bid to regain control of his party by proposing a bylaw that would give the President the final decision on any policy disagreement between him and the party...
...leftists rolled out their heaviest guns. Party President Rafael Gumucio attacked Frei for making important decisions without consulting the party. "The party has no owner," Gumucio thundered. "The party belongs to all of us, to all members." Deputy Bosco Parra claimed that Frei had not followed through on his reforms...
Forced Savings. The damage was done. As the Christian Democrats went into a special Senate by-election two weeks ago, more and more of the country's businessmen and landowners turned on Frei. As an added burden, party leftists once again deserted the President and began attacking a new governmental proposal for a forced-savings program. Designed to stem Chile's growing inflation, the program would grant workers their usual yearly wage increase, but 25% of the raise would go into a savings account. Frei's leftist opposition in and out of the party stridently demanded that...
...final by-election vote, a right-wing candidate drained off support from the Christian Democrats and the coalition candidate coasted to victory, leaving Frei with only twelve of the Senate's 45 seats. This week Frei hopes to reassert his authority at a two-day party meeting, but beforehand he suggested the possibility of forming a coalition government with leftist parties. Unless he can somehow regain control of his party, Chile's far-left coalition could well sweep into the presidency in the 1970 elections without any need of Frei's Christian Democrats-if the army does...