Chile's Political Scramble

...The opposition was able to mount intensive campaigns casting doubts on Christian Democratic effectiveness and motives, and by late 1966 it was ready to move more directIn January 1967, a Senate coalition denied Frei permission to visit Washington...

...With a 50-year history in Chile, they are traditionalists and appear content to continue to seek power through the elective process...

...Results of the March 2 balloting show that the Christian Democrats have not yet been able to bring about a successful relationship between politics and development...

...One key Frei proposal involved the "Chileanization" of the vital, largely U.S.-controlled copper industry, the source of 75 per cent of all foreign exchange revenues...

...So I had the marriage annulled...

...Then I married again—an older man, very rich...

...It concerned a young lady who confessed to some of her intimate friends that although she had been married three times, none of the marriages were consummated...

...Announcements on housing emphasized low-cost homes...

...policy...

...Some overtures already have been made to the once powerful and centrist Radicals, who are strongly Leftist today and probably will demand a price too high for the Christian Democratic moderates to pay...

...Oh," she said, "he's a Christian Democrat...

...Under the plan, the government would associate itself with the copper companies and strive to roughly double production capacity...

...The Nixon Administration's Latin American policy has yet to be defined, and the much-buffeted and much-misunderstood Alliance for Progress is undergoing critical reconsideration...

...Prices on articles of prime necessity for the urban population were held down, even at cost to the public treasury, and subsidies to reduce the production of domestic wheat, meat, milk, and oils were introduced...

...A dependence on the authoritarian Right as the best way for Latin America to break out of its progress-inhibiting mold may be in the making...

...For Chile's present regime has been upheld—in one writer's words—as the "last best hope" for democratic change in South America, and the electorate's indecisiveness comes at a critical time...

...This leaves only the Communists and the Socialists, the chief components of frap, which won 39 per cent of the 1964 Presidential vote...

...Despite their political difficulties as they face 1970, the Christian Democrats have managed to record some significant economic gains...

...Some work went ahead under a less sweeping Alessandri reform plan, yet the delay has meant that only some 8,000 families have been given land, and the goal for 1970 has been scaled down to a total of 12,000...

...The party is split into three well-defined segments: the officialistas, or moderates, led by Frei...

...Their attitudes toward the other parties in the years 1965-67 produced a reaction that frustrated the full development of popular support and hamstrung their program...

...her friends asked...

...This unexpected setback in the face of a confidently predicted victory exacerbated long-existing divisions within the party...

...By any accounting, Chile is stronger economically than it has been at any period in this decade and enjoys a greater degree of social justice...

...The Christian Democratic consensus that was heralded and eagerly awaited in 1964 has not developed...

...Somewhere in the picture is Radomiro Tomic, the Left-leaning former Ambassador to Washington...

...That has not been the case, however, and Christian Democratic factionalism continues to make any new move difficult...

...I was single again for a while...

...All this could be significant for the future of the other Christian Democratic parties in Latin America...

...Naturally, she was pressed for an explanation...

...They had insisted throughout the 1950s that they would come to power "clean...

...and the "rebels," inclining toward Marxist ideology...

...Exports, up by some $40 million annually, should rise rapidly as iron and copper expansion programs mature...

...Should it materialize, the cause of democracy will suffer not only in Chile but in all of Latin America...

...In addition, in moving ahead with their planned program—partly underwritten by Alliance for Progress funds—the Christian Democrats early sought to establish new records for the completion of homes, schools, hospitals, roads, and other physical facilities, and made the mistake of taking full credit for projects actually begun under Alessandri but finished under Frei...

...The National party would be one possibility—if not for the threat of its resurgence and its strong commitment to the dour Alessandri (who still has not said he will run) —though this would unquestionably alienate the Christian Democratic left...

...Among those who did go to the polls, there was a surge of strength by the Right-wing National party, which captured 20 per cent of the ballots...

...Indeed, the example of Cuba could pale into insignificance, and the reaction—as well as coun-terreaction—could sweep the continent...

...They had 16.6 per cent of the ballots in the March 2 voting and rank as Chile's third party...

...at one point, Frei even lost control of the organizational machinery...

...lady is quoted as concluding, "I'm looking for a fourth husband...

...Only isolated references were made to the previous Administration's measures in tax and land reform, from which the new government also benefited...

...The older parties, accordingly, were excluded from the government and denied patronage...

...The Communists, under Luis Corvalan, have become the conservatives of the Left...

...Well," she said, "my first husband was an officer, very correct, very attentive...

...If they were to survive, their posture had to be one of opposition and dissent, whatever the similarity of their own programs to those of the Christian Democrats...

...In part, the seeming rightward shift in Chile reflects this hemispheric trend...

...Following this month's congressional elections in Chile, a further twist was added...

...But it is also due to certain internal conditions, such as a reaction to the turmoil on the Chilean Left and the appeal of former President Jorge Alessandri —who despite his 72 years, emerges as a strong potential contender for the Presidency in 1970...

...The Socialists' chief popular asset is Allende...

...Finally, this young politician started taking me out, then he asked me to marry him...

...The same cannot be said for the Socialists, who follow the Chinese "hard line" and are themselves divided into two disputing groups: the Socialistas de Chile, led by Ani-ceto Rodriguez, and the Socialistas Populares, headed by Raul Am-puero...

...The reasons for failure, in turn, lie principally with the Christian Democrats, though the Chilean political system itself must bear some responsibility...

...In the annual rounds of wage readjustments, industrial workers tended to receive more favored treatment than upper- or middle-class workers...

...The chances of his running a fourth time should not be dismissed, and he might succeed in bringing about the reunion of frap...

...The March 2 elections, it was hoped, would end the bitter rivalries of the last two years and offer some guidelines for a future course of action...

...While not unexpected, this nevertheless raised some hackles...

...To the parties of the Left, the economy seemed to be controlled by political, rather than developmental, motivations...

...On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Socialists and the Communists, who were uneasily united in the Frente de Accion Popular (frap), felt their political positions endangered by the Christian Democrats' great emphasis on the underprivileged sectors of society...

...AFTER THE MARCH ELECTIONS Chile's Political Scramble By James Stanford Bradshaw Some weeks after his 1964 inauguration, a pungent political story began making the rounds in Chile about the regime of Christian Democratic President Eduardo Frei...

...More than anything else, however, it springs from the failure of the Frei government to fulfill as rapidly as promised its rather sweeping campaign pledges of reform, progress and financial stability...

...This legislation, introduced in late 1965, was not finally approved until 1967...

...Another 1964 campaign promise called for settling 100,000 families on land of their own by 1970 through the expropriation of huge estates...

...The remaining 50 per cent was scattered among the Communists, Radicals, Socialists, and several minor parties, with little change compared to their past performances...

...In recent discussions, they have been exploring the possibility of establishing a new Popular Front, as in 1938, and attracting dissident Christian Democrats and Radicals...

...Educational reform stressed better and longer educational opportunities for children of working-class parents...

...And the possibility of a succession controlled by the Marxist Left, given its substantial strength among the various groups in Chile, is at least as real as the challenge from the Right following the March elections...

...U.S.-style democracy won't work here," he said...

...In the light of this situation, the orientation of Frei's successor becomes especially important...

...But aside from the Christian Democrats' strongly Catholic, anti-Marxist tradition, frap itself is at present hopelessly splintered...

...But the impact may be strongest on U.S...

...Clearly, the nation is still divided on the question of the path and leader it should follow for much-desired growth...

...A new "husband," either of the Right or Left, or possibly even another centrist Christian Democrat, is already being sought...

...All he does is sit by the bed and tell me how good it's going to be...

...And...

...Notable, too, is a remark President Nixon made at the end of his 1967 South American tour...

...The two factions combined received 12.8 per cent of the March 2 vote...

...It was surprising, therefore, that 30 per cent of those eligible to vote chose not to do so...

...The pay of farm laborers was dramatically boosted...

...At the same time, the policies of the Frei Administration only served to whet appetites of underprivileged groups for more and faster progress...

...Long regarded as the party's probable nominee in 1970, he is now expected to have competition, certainly from the party's center or right, and probably from its left as well...

...Many had voted Christian Democratic only because Frei was seen as a lesser evil than Salvador Al-lende, the Socialist who was his principal Presidential opposition in 1964...

...Ampuero, openly critical of the Communists' obvious dependence on Moscow, opposes any steps toward drawing bourgeois elements into the revolutionary movement...

...Venezuela, where last year Rafael Caldera was chosen President, is an obvious example...

...It was only after the wedding that I discovered he really wasn't interested in girls...

...Significantly, Hugo Miranda, the Radical leader, has not rejected these overtures...

...After three tries for the Presidency, he remains their best-known figure...

...Now the young James Stanford Bradshaw, a new contributor, was for 10 years a Latin American correspondent for ap...

...Thus, on neither of its two major proposals could the Frei government record dramatic progress...

...But the search seems likely to go on until the Presidential contest set for September 1970 when Frei, who remains personally popular, must step down anyway since he cannot succeed himself...

...Under demand for pay increases, promises to control the inflationary spiral evaporated...

...For he will have the opportunity to capitalize relatively quickly on the work already done, and any new dramatic advances by Chile will surely be upheld as a vindication of his particular ideology, whether of the authoritarian Right, or the totalitarian Left...

...This angered the parties that had supported Alessandri...

...imports this year are expected to pass the $1 billion level, also up sharply from 1964...

...Chile's Gross National Product increased by 5 per cent in 1965 and 7 per cent in 1966, although it dropped to 3 per cent in 1967, and four per cent in 1968, partly because of the drought...

...Where, then, can the Christian Democrats turn to seek an alliance...

...Three months later, in municipal elections, the Christian Democratic vote declined by 6 per cent, while all other major groups gained...

...The achievements of an eight-year outlay of $700 million in Chile are certain to be weighed, for example, with the danger that the short-term results will set the pattern before long-range accomplishments are evident...

...The Christian Democrats received only 30 per cent and lost their 1965 majority in the Chamber of Deputies, although gaining new strength in the Senate...

...On the way home from the wedding, he had a heart attack and died...

...the "third group," identified with Jacques Chonchol and pressing for more radical reform...

...Yet the nation is running a balance of payments surplus, and has reduced its short-term foreign indebtedness...

...I did...

...Prior to the military takeovers in Peru and Brazil, their Christian Democratic parties had shown some strength, and they might be further affected...

...If I were to pick a system, it would be a de Gaulle type democracy with strong leadership at the top and democracy at the bottom...

...Since the measure was not approved until late 1966, and implementation involved a long lead time, it is just now beginning to gather momentum, although a drought-induced shortage of electrical power is hampering progress...

...Unlike many political stories, this one has its elements of truth...

...The sizable electoral victories at the beginning of their regime encouraged them to refuse political compromises or understandings...

...Fortunately for the opposition, the intricacies of the Chilean legislative system (four readings can be required for major measures) provided the opportunity for foot dragging...

...Upper- and middle-class supporters, on the other hand, felt the pinch of the redistribution process and became increasingly disenchanted...

...The just completed congressional elections took on added importance because the new Chamber of Deputies and Senate will be in office until 1973, well into the term of the next President...