Arnulfo Again

In spite of heavy afternoon showers, 10,000 Panamanians jammed the Plaza Santa Ana one afternoon last week to hear 46-year-old Arnulfo Arias accept the nomination for President.

The Authentic Revolutionary Party's candidate was the same scheming Arnulfo who had baited yanquis, flirted with Nazis, and lost the presidency in a 1941 revolution staged while he was weekending in Havana. He was following a different line now: "There are two suns in the world today, both of them busy collecting satellites. Panama wants a warm place in the sun of the U.S." Said a veteran Canal Zone resident: "He hasn't changed a bit."

Changed or not, Arnulfo. was a real worry to his elder brother and bitter enemy, spidery old (61) ex-President Harmodio Arias, boss of Panama's tight little governing oligarchy. Brother Harmodio had hand-picked dapper, greying J. J. ("Call Me Joe") Vallarino, Panama's Ambassador to the U.S., for the presidential job. Last fortnight Harmodio broke an eleven-year silence to make a political speech on Vallarino's behalf. Candidate Joe, an X-ray specialist and sometime golfing partner of the Duke of Windsor, will need all the help he can get from wily old Harmodio before next June's election.

Brother Arnulfo is following his new line chiefly by blasting the Panamanian government's handling of the bases question. Why not let the U.S. have its $25,000,000 bomber base at Rio Hato, he asks, if the U.S. will build Panama some roads in return? He is also mugging in his most magnetic manner for dark-skinned Avenida Central audiences, who know they are watching a good fight, Arias v. Arias, and no holds barred.

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