Communists Gain Strength in Guatemala

...A leading contender is Major Alfonso Martinez, head of the National Agrarian Department, which is charged with carrying out the agrarian-reform program...

...He commented: "A strange and contradictory request...

...Though the Communists have only 4 out of 50-odd members of the Chamber of Deputies, are not represented in the Cabinet and have only weak support among the people, their influence is very great...

...As recently as March 1, in his annual report to Congress, he declared that the Communists were a legal party and that he not only would not take action against them but had no intention of separating them from the Government coalition...

...In the long run, the future of Guatemala will depend on our skill in handling a difficult situation, and on whether the Kremlin finds it convenient to allow the local Communists to provoke U.S...

...The latter need issues like the threat of "intervention" to keep the fires of anti-yanquismo burning and to back up their constant charges that the United Stales is about to deprive Guatemala of its sovereignty...

...They sent him to conferences behind the Iron Curtain and seemed to be grooming him for the role of a Communist stooge...

...Thus, there can be no doubt about the firmness of the alliance between President Arbenz and the Communists...

...Past American actions tended, if anything, to tip the scales in favor of the Guatemalan Communists...

...Two other candidates are Colonel Diaz, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and Colonel Sanchez, Minister of Defense...

...However, constitutions can be changed, and, for that matter, words can be "interpreted...

...As President, he might well alter the political situation in the country...

...I was there during the last days of the Conference and immediately thereafter, and I can state from personal observation that Caracas strengthened, rather than weakened, the Communists...

...One other possibility lurks in the background: re-election of President Arbenz...

...He regards them as his closest and most loyal associates and will not break his connections with them...

...intervention—thus putting an end to the Guatemalan Revolution and gravely imperiling relations between the United States and all its Latin American neighbors...

...The balance between the Communists and non-Communists is precarious at the present time...

...Neither has taken a very definite stand on the Communists...

...Communists Gain Strength in Guatemala U.S.-sponsored resolution at Caracas is really helping the hemisphere's strongest Red group, observes our correspondent after a personal tour By Robert J. Alexander The United States won a pyrrhic victory at the recent Caracas Conference...

...role he played at Caracas...

...But it is also reported that the Communists, despairing of finding another candidate as useful to them as Arbenz, have begun to organize the machinery for a "popular demand" that he run again...

...Now Caracas has added to the record of bungling on Guatemala...

...Arbenz has been allied with the Communists since several years before he took office...

...For some time, we had an extremely inept and maladroit Ambassador there who is reported to have gone to the length of trying to bribe the President and was at last virtually declared persona non grata...

...Arbenz noted that various people had suggested that "I quarantine the Communists and those charged with being Communists...

...were Alfonso Bauer Paiz, head of the National Agrarian Bank and interventor of the U.S.-owned International Railways of Central America, and Guillermo Torriello, Foreign Minister and leader of the Guatemalan delegation to Caracas...

...His re-election under these circumstances would probably mean the disappearance of virtually all non-Communists, to say nothing of anti-Communists, in Government circles...

...The Conference also gave the Communists an opportunity to rally large segments of democratic Latin American public opinion—which is badly informed about the real state of affairs in Guatemala—in defense of Guatemala...

...Another "presidenciable," as prospective candidates for chief executive are called in the Guatemalan press, is Minister of the Interior Chamaud McDonald, who is also considered an anti-Communist but also working with the Communists today...

...protested on grounds that were legally dubious and politically disastrous...

...More likely, it will give Latin dictators another excuse to suppress democratic anti-Communists: Even those dictators who, like Perez Jimenez of Venezuela and Odria of Peru, work hand-in-glove with the local Communists like to accuse everyone opposed to them of being "Communists.'" But the worst effects of Caracas have been in Guatemala...

...They are the only two active-duty Army officers who are in the running, but they may cancel each other out...

...Since the Caracas Conference, Foreign Minister Torriello, who headed the Conference delegation, has emerged as the possible Presidential choice of the Communists...

...It is based principally on their close relations with President Arbenz...

...Another military man, the Minister of Communications, Major Aldana Sandoval, is generally considered a candidate, though he has not been active politically lately...

...In Argentina, the democratic nationalist Arturo Frondizi, leader of the Radical party, the principal opposition to Peron, sent a message of support to Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz...

...The democratic and progressive forces of Guatemala are not something separate from the democratic and patriotic program endorsed by these same forces, which were grouped around my candidacy and now firmly support my government...

...Although it is too early to predict who will run on the Government ticket and what the outcome will be, there are already a number of candidates who are being mentioned to succeed Arbenz...

...Since the U.S.-sponsored anti-Communist resolution was passed only grudgingly by the Latin Americans, it is not likely to influence the attitude of any Latin American government toward its Communists...

...Two such figures who made violent post-Caracas attacks on the U.S...

...Then, when the lands of the United Fruit Company were seized under the Guatemalan Agrarian Reform Law, the U.S...

...To attempt to fight certain democratic and progressive forces without at the same time attacking our program is not only paradoxical but presumes a great degree of naivete on our part in being willing to lose the principal base on which the triumphs of our program have been won...

...Such a move would be equivalent to suicide for the democratic and revolutionary movement of Guatemala...

...However, Arbenz will not be President forever...

...His bid for the office is also weakened by the fact that he is not a military man...

...Torriello until recently was considered an anti-Communist, and many of his friends were surprised at the anti-U.S...

...All this is creating a strong current of anti-yanqui opinion in Latin America among those very elements who should be the best friends of the United States...

...hence, the Communists would probably oppose his candidacy unless Arbenz should insist upon it...

...It is still too early for any more precise speculation about the election, though, in the two years before it is scheduled to be held, the Communists can be expected to continue slowly expanding their power...

...Martinez, who is reported to be President Arbenz's closest friend, is generally credited with being an anti-Communist, though he works closely with them at the present time...

...The immediate result of the Caracas Conference has been to throw more than ever into the arms of the Communists those extreme Guatemalan nationalists who tend in any case to be suspicious of the United States...

...intervention in the early years of their revolution with the current situation in Guatemala, the Communists were successful in getting such a conservative figure as the devoutly Catholic Jose Vasconcelos to come out with a strong statement...

...In Mexico, for instance, where many people tend to compare U.S...

...But he is widely regarded as an opportunistic politician who would not be adverse to becoming President—even if it meant accepting Communist backing...

...They organized a tremendous reception for him when he returned from Caracas, including a three-mile parade and a demonstration in the Plaza Central at which the President and Torriello spoke...

...Elections are scheduled in a little more than two years, and they may prove to be the crucial struggle for control in Guatemala...

...The latter are reported to have said that they "will under no circumstances permit him" to become President...

...There are many even in the Opposition who believe that President Arbenz would strongly oppose reelection, regarding it as a fundamental betrayal of the Revolution...

...This is flatly and even violently prohibited in the Guatemalan Constitution, which is unique in that the commander-in-chief of the armed forces not only swears loyalty to the President during his constitutional term, but also swears to oust him if he stays in office one day longer than his term...

...But he is now reported to be in disfavor with Arbenz, which, if true, would disqualify him completely...

...For some time, the Communists were thought to be backing Major Paz Tejada, one-time commander of the armed forces and ex-Minister of Communications...