Latent Virus

In almost all of Latin America the army is the only organized social force . .. There exists among all [officers'] a latent virus: the temptation to intervene in politics.

--Andre Siegfried (1933)

Within a month military coups had toppled the elected governments of Peru and Venezuela (see below). In Chile, with a more muscular democratic tradition, the government had moved fast to crush an abortive army conspiracy. Bolivia and Colombia might be next in line.

For what had happened in his own country, Chile's President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla last fortnight blamed an unholy alliance of Communists and "neoFascists . . . who are trying to take control of the nations of America through the instruments of military governments." Yet in Chile as elsewhere, the linking of left and right extremists seemed a matter of local politics rather than a part of some master plan. If there was any overall characteristic, it was a pattern of old-fashioned power-grabbing by the men with the longest reach.

During World War II, Latin America had been forcibly fed on democratic ideals and procedures. The U.S., risen to vast military prestige and world leadership, had been the feeder. For war-needed supplies, it had poured dollars into Latin America. It had spared neither effort nor money to spread the heady doctrines of the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. All this helped to create a sunny political climate for democracy. Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba tossed out dictatorships; Peru worked toward representative government; Guatemala turned leftward.

Now the political climate has changed, the wartime flow of dollars has ended. Most of Latin America is plagued with inflation, shortage of goods, shortage of hard money. The U.S., preoccupied with Europe and Asia, no longer thinks much about being the Good Neighbor. Since the Bogota Conference last spring adopted the U.S.-sponsored principle of continuous diplomatic relations, a military junta does not have to worry about getting international recognition. Army officers, men like Manuel Odria in Peru, and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud in Venezuela, have been yielding to temptation.

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