The Army Digs In

The rise to power of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla differs from that of the stereotyped Latin American strongman: he toppled not a fairly elected government but a dictatorial regime that most Colombians were sick of. The country cheered, believing that the army, which had traditionally let civilians run the country, would shepherd Colombia back to elections and normality. But the soldiers have inevitably come to like the feel of power. Last week, on the second anniversary of President Rojas Pinilla's revolution, there were plentiful signs that the army is digging in for a long stay.

Beclouding his promise of an election in 1958, Rojas Pinilla told the newspaper Diario de Colombia that his government would continue until Colombians--who ran a pretty good working democracy from 1910 to 1946--become "politically civilized." Then he announced that the Constituent Assembly, Colombia's make-do Congress, would not sit this year. "A Parliament," he explained, "is the greatest achievement of democracy, but when it becomes a tribune for libel, it must be closed." The last and plainest word came from the government's radio bulletin, which all Colombian stations are forced to carry. After an exhaustive defense of military government, the program concluded that there are "three incontrovertible arguments" for the army state: "Patriotism, intelligence, and machine guns."

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