Visit to Molotov

So urgent had been the summons that Jacob Surits, suave, goateed Soviet Ambassador to Brazil, remembered only after boarding the plane that he had to be in Rio for the big Embassy reception on Nov. 7. At Belem he turned back for Rio, set off again for the U.S. after the party. His mission, like that of other Soviet diplomats in Latin America*: to get orders from Foreign Minister Molotov. For Molotov it was a chance to take stock of the first year and a half of the new Stalinist line in Latin America.

During the war Soviet diplomats and Latin American Communists carefully avoided anything that might set Washington's teeth on edge. In Mexico, then clearinghouse for Soviet diplomacy in Latin America, gifted, affable Ambassador Constantine Oumansky charmed Mexicans with his hothouse Spanish, his vodka and caviar. Local Commies, who were not encouraged to frequent the Embassy, decried labor unrest, concentrated their fire upon the Nazis. Most Latin regimes that were smiled upon by Washington enjoyed Commie backing for the duration.

Changed Times. By the time the San Francisco Conference met in 1945, the line was changing. Nelson Rockefeller's immoderate success at cajoling Latin American delegates into a voting bloc gave rise to Soviet-American asperities. Just then three Soviet diplomats from Latin America paid Molotov a flying visit. It was soon clear what they had been told: Latin America's Commies soon rediscovered "American imperialism," began to line up an anti-American front--which could be useful when the Soviets bargained with the U.S. at the peace table. It led to strange friendships. Example: Argentina's Peron; after he was chosen President in an essentially anti-U.S. campaign, Argentine Communists called the Peron vote ''essentially democratic, progressive and anti-Fascist."

Because Latin America is bedeviled with penury and privilege, Communists can make first-class capital from the contrast, a job in which they are expert. Thus, when closing a deal with a dictator, they are careful to extract at least some paper concessions to labor. And with social demagoguery becoming fashionable among Latin strong men, such transactions are readily concluded. Result: waxing Communist strength.

Roll Call. In Brazil, after ten years of repression, the Communists, with an estimated 150,000 members, were able in last December's election to poll 600,000 of a total 5,000,000 votes. In Argentina, their 120,000-strong party recently sent its overalled trade-union leaders back to the factories to outdo Peron at his own game. In Cuba 151,000 Communists control the mighty trade unions, and liberal President Ramon Grau San Martin, whose election they fought, is reduced to sitting on their lap. In Chile, with 40,000 militants, they have three ministers in the new Cabinet. But in corrupt, revolution-weary Mexico the Commies, with a core of 9,000, have lost considerably in influence and Government patronage. These were the forces that Molotov's visiting envoys had at their beck.

The Disinherited. The one significant trend in Latin America today is the crumbling of social oligarchies as the disinherited elbow into the political arena. Hidebound regimes can resort only to repression to conjure the Communist menace (in Brazil this week the Army proclaimed an anti-Communist week). But social-minded democratic regimes, that could offer the masses an outlet for their aspirations, had less cause for alarm.

Venezuela was a fair example. There Accion Democratica, now in power, had outorganized the Communists politically and in the trade unions. Soviet representatives, keenly interested in Venezuela's million-barrel daily oil production, had used their influence over the Embassy luncheon table to induce the leaders of the three feeble Communist groups to unite. But even when merged, these drew only 51,000 votes in last month's election.

Recently Soviet Ambassador Foma Trebin complained to Venezuela's Provisional President Romulo Betancourt that he had not seen him since presenting his credentials. Replied Betancourt: "It is certainly not that long, Mr. Ambassador. Why, we met on July 4th at the U.S. Embassy reception."

* From Venezuela, Chile, Mexico.

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