Word: nez
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Whose Ally? In the official U.S. books the Dictator rates as a sturdy Central American Good Neighbor; he was just ahead of Salvador's fallen Dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez in declaring war on Germany after Pearl Harbor. More than 200 Germans, who grew much of Guatemala's coffee, had a big stake in its export trade, have been shipped to the U.S. for internment. German properties have been impounded for the duration. A special tax on enemy business eats up the profits. But most Guatemalans do not take Ubico's anti-German gestures...
...Blood. President Martínez is a mystic who came to power in 1931. He first won election as Vice President, then arranged an army revolt, kicked out the President and took over the country. A dark and slender Indian who calls himself a theosophist, he used to proclaim: "The invisible legions follow me." After twelve years of his rule, his countrymen are ready to believe...
Since then, Dictator Martínez has suppressed plots, kept order with the help of his high-paid army, his spies, and the richer landlords. He made headlines by being the first to recognize the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, and the Spanish regime of Francisco Franco. Otherwise he kept El Salvador out of the news...
...roof of the presidential Palace (with a lot of machine guns) are innumerable bottles of water being turned into "medicine" by the sun. The color of the glass determines the specific purpose. When one of the President's associates falls sick, Martínez prescribes a suitable bottle, and the patient invariably reports a miraculous cure. Such reports persuaded the President to treat his 13-year-old son for acute appendicitis. Operated upon too late, he died...
Last week Dictator Martínez surmounted the worst crisis of his career. His people are cowed again. His official relations with the U.S. are cordial (he judiciously declared war on the Axis the day after Pearl Harbor). Still secure in his fortress-palace, he paces his bedroom through the night while gun crews keep watch on the roof and new-made ghosts glare in through the windows...