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Direct U.S. private investments in Latin America--the dollars that build factories, dig mines, plant crops or drill for petroleum--rose by a record-smashing $500 million in 1956. Last week Washington's statisticians, tentatively casting up sums for the year, estimated the total investment to date at $7 billion--probably enough to keep Latin America the area most favored by U.S. investors.* Adding in U.S. Government loans of more than $1 billion and indirect private investments, e.g., bank loans, stocks and bonds, the experts put the grand total of all U.S. funds invested in Latin America up to now at $10 billion. Biggest contribution toward the year's fat increase: well over $300 million for oil concessions in Venezuela (TIME, Sept. 17).

* The 1955 figures: Latin America $6,556,000,000, Canada $6,464,000,000, Western Europe $2,986,000,000.

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