Threatened Epidemic

From the bleak altiplano of Bolivia, the revolt of the traffic cops (TIME, Jan. 3) strutted out on a world stage. It sent a chill of apprehension throughout all Latin America. It scared the U.S. State Department into unseemly confusion. It even touched, lightly, the relations between Soviet Russia and the Americas.

The regime of President Gaulberto Villarroel, a 35-year-old Army major, had been recognized only by Argentina. The Inter-American Committee for Political Defense, meeting in Montevideo, had agreed that its member nations should consult before taking action; they were still consulting last week. Argentina's totalitarian Government, ignored by the Committee and widely suspected of instigating the revolt (a Chilean Communist paper, El Siglo, said that Dictator-Colonel Juan Domingo Peron had boasted of doing so), had hesitated 14 days.

Fog in Washington. One knot of the tangle was in Washington. Tall, dark, earnest Dr. Enrique Lozada, "Head of the Bolivian Mission," was in the odd position of trying to secure recognition for a Government which he himself did not entirely recognize. An avowed and convincing liberal, he has lived 14 years in the U.S., and has no direct connection with any Bolivian party. Just after the La Paz revolt he quit his job as adviser to the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. Last week he paced disconsolately around the orphaned Bolivian Embassy, not knowing what would happen to him and his three "keeds," or to his stormy country.

Obviously disturbed by the pro-Fascist elements in the Villarroel regime, Dr. Lozada is well aware that nothing like U.S. democracy can now exist in Bolivia, where only 100,000 of some 3,500,000 people have the vote. But, within Bolivian limits, he was trying to make the new Government toe the democratic mark. One move was to cable five conditions which the regime would have to meet before he would serve as its official representative :

>It must nationalize Axis firms (the Government had already promised to do so).

>It must recognize Soviet Russia (the Villarroel Government said it was willing).

>It must sell all Bolivian quinine to the U.S. (some had been going to Argentina). The Government decided to do so.

> It must repudiate anti-Semitism (which was intense under ousted President Enrique Penaranda). The Government did.

>Finally, it must take members of the PIR (Partido de Izquierda Revolucionario) into the new government.

The PIR is the working-class party of Bolivia, hated, feared and persecuted by the country's three great tin companies. It is called Communistic (any workers' party would be called Communistic in Bolivia). It has Communist members; it also has a clear anti-Fascist and pro-United Nations record. Its head is short, dark Jose Antonio Arze, once teacher at Williams College in the U.S., who has been living in exile in Mexico City. First he cabled Secretary Cordell Hull and Vice President Henry Wallace suggesting they withhold recognition until certain conditions were met by the Villarroel Government, then he started by air for La Paz. If he is taken into the Government, its few more or less liberal members may be turning the Villarroel regime toward something resembling democracy; if not, the Fascist-tinged elements of the MNR (Moviemento Nacional Revolucionario) may be turning toward a form of nationalist militarism, Argentine style.

The PIR had no visible Army support for a counterrevolution, although an attempt at one was possible. Other attempts might be inspired by ex-President David Toro, reportedly in Washington, or by deposed President Penaranda, who issued a die-hard statement from Tacna, Peru.

Fish & Foul. Such were the churning waters from which the U.S. State Department was trying to pull an acceptable fish. But much of the Department's energy was spent in squabbling over what sort of fish it wanted and what to use for bait. Caught unawares and still in a stew, the Department showed clearly that it had no unified policy, that it was hardly more than a maze of corridors full of warring tribes. Washington newsmen heard that the Department looked to the PIR to set matters aright; that the PIR was nothing but a Soviet tool, and therefore suspect. (The sources of this report had apparently not heard about Teheran.) Secretary Cordell Hull conferred for an hour with British Ambassador Lord Halifax, discussing the Bolivian crisis. Obvious topic would be a possible united front against Argentina and her suspected machinations.

The Current. Reports were heard of plots in other Latin American countries--Venezuela, Chile, Peru. Some were mere rumors, but it was obvious that a continental current was flowing. The success of the "Colonels' Clique" in Argentina, if underlined by a similar "Majors' Clique" in Bolivia, might encourage further army officer revolts. These might be purely nationalist in origin, not necessarily instigated by outsiders, but they would probably take Fascist forms and look to Argentina for support. Then the U.S. would be confronted by a powerful anti-democratic bloc within the "Good Neighbor" circle.

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