Man of Affairs

In Mexico, there is a legend that Miguel Aleman wins by the hand of death. He got into congress when the man for whom he was an alternate died. In 1936, he stepped into the governorship of his native Vera Cruz when the governor-elect was assassinated. His chance for the presidency opened last year when death came to Maximino, brother of President Manuel Avila Camacho, and Aleman's chief political enemy.

But more than luck went into the making of Miguel. Hard worker, shrewd opportunist, Aleman was always quick to see the lay of the land. As a student he specialized in worker-protection laws when such legislation was only a gleam in the revolutionary eye. When Cardenas expropriated foreign oil holdings, Aleman organized state governors behind that popular stroke. Astute choice of Avila Camacho as presidential winner in 1940 and successful management of the campaign brought him the key cabinet post of Minister of the Interior and his present, apparently in-the-bag chance at the presidency.

Charmer. Aleman knows how to win men and charm women. To President Avila Camacho's wholesome, good-hearted wife, Soledad, who shows him a motherly fondness, Aleman owes many a political debt. Senora de Avila Camacho once defined the official line toward Aleman by stating at dinner: "There will be no criticism of Miguelito in this house."

Outside of the presidential palace, Miguelito is less filial, more dashing. When Hollywood starlets like Jinx Falkenburg and Jacqueline Dalya trip into town, he entertains them with gay parties, sends them perfume and jeweled trinkets.

His studied attentiveness to Hilda Kruger, a blonde, onetime German spy-suspect, gained him the unjustified reputation of being pro-Nazi when, as Minister of the Interior, he directed anti-Axis activities in Mexico. FBI agents finally decided that Hilda was more anxious to be thought a spy than any government was to have her as one.

Latest beneficiary of Aleman's thoughtfulness : Leonora Amar, a full-lipped, companionable, young Brazilian actress, whom U.S. taxpatriate A. C. "Blumey" Blumenthal brought around. Aleman boosted Senhorita Amar to stardom in Mexican films.

As the good, ripe age of 43 and the presidency approach, Aleman has tempered, mellowed. When not campaigning, he spends his evenings quietly with political allies or at his spacious Mexico City home, listening to classical recordings with his pleasant wife and young daughter. Weekends, he is in summery Cuernavaca, golfing, visiting friends like Swedish Industrialist Axel Wenner-Gren (U.S. black-listed), gazing wryly at the neighboring home of Oppositionist Candidate and ex-Foreign Minister Ezequiel Padilla.

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