What's Going On?

Buenos Aires buzzed last week with all sorts of political rumors. Among the more startling:

P: The Nov. 11 presidential election might be put off.

P: Armed with the six-month leave of absence voted him by Congress, President Peron and his ailing wife might soon go to Switzerland for their health.

P: Several cabinet ministers were about to resign.

Foreign Minister Jeronimo Remorino, a Peron favorite, did hand in his resignation, apparently because of a cabinet row over the country's rickety economic policy, but he withdrew it at the President's request. Argentines took that calmly enough, but were totally perplexed by President Peron's continuing strange behavior. With less than two weeks till election day, he had not yet launched his campaign, made a speech or even stirred from the capital. Twice he postponed scheduled electioneering tours into Santa Fe and Cordoba provinces. Not a single poster was to be seen anywhere advertising his ticket.

The only real campaign gesture of the week from the big Peronista machine was a speech by Evita herself. From her sickbed at the presidential residence, she made a tearful radio appeal to women to vote for her husband. Once again she broke down, as she regretted that she could not join in the fight. It was officially announced from the palace, after Dr. George Pack, a New York cancer surgeon, flew to Buenos Aires for a day's consultation, that Evita's doctors would wait a further ten days to decide whether an operation was indicated.

Except for a few of the top men in government and army circles, no one could even guess what was actually bubbling in Argentine politics. Conceivably, Peron's strange inactivity reflected a cynical confidence that his grip on the country was so strong that he did not have to campaign. But some observers wondered whether the desperate illness of his wife and co-ruler might not have left him at least temporarily bereft of the power of decision and the will to fight.

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