Exile at Large

Latin America's most celebrated political refugee went free last week. Looking plumper and paler after five years of jail-like sanctuary in Colombia's embassy in Lima, Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, 59, arrived safely in Mexico City. The famed leader of Peru's Indian masses, who had been accused of masterminding a bloody revolt in 1948, doffed his floppy hat and bowed to a cheering crowd that met him.

Colombian and Peruvian diplomats had worked out a face-saving compromise to end their long, bitter deadlock over Haya. As part of the deal, Peru's Minister of Justice took Haya into technical custody for one hour, then drove him to the airport--where a watchful motorcycle cop followed the departing plane right to the end of the runway.

From Panama, Haya cabled his Colombian hosts in Lima: "All's well that ends well." In Mexico he told the friends who flocked around that he had passed the silent years by writing three books and reading thousands of them. Once the organizer of Latin America's only Indian mass movement, the left-wing APRA Party, Haya now bubbled with plans to write, speak and travel. Said he: "I consider myself lucky to be alive . . . Now I must start all over again." Today, Haya's party is shattered and outlawed. Peru's President Manuel Odria, who dealt the Apristas their knockout blow, has stabilized his country with public works and measures against inflation. Like most Latin politicos who invoke the right of asylum, Haya is now free once more to scheme and dream of a comeback. But the obstacles in his path appear greater than at any time in his stormy career.

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