Showdown for Extremists

Venezuela came alarmingly close to mob rule last week as ambitious leftist politicians dreamed up an army plot and then loudly put it down with windy proclamations, mass rallies and a general strike. Through three days of crisis, the booming Communist Party played a talented leading role. But conservative military leaders with no plot in mind, kept their tempers down and their tanks in camp and avoided civil war.

The military, though not ready to march, is plainly unhappy about the Communist-coddling tactics of one of the military's own: Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, chief of the country's ruling junta, who is apparently trying to line up enough popular support to become a "unity" candidate for President in the Nov. 30 election. In a series of quiet meetings, top officers drew up a paper complaining about the "shameful events" of the Nixon visit, demanding that Communists and far leftists be fired from government posts. The military had not decided where or when to air its complaints. But one conservative officer, Defense Minister Jesus Maria Castro Leon, lost his temper at a Cabinet meeting last week and slapped a copy of the army complaints on the table. He had acted on his own, but that forced the issue.

Admiral Larrazabal turned the army down cold. The Cabinet, minus Castro Leon, hurried down Mount Avila to confer under the protective shadow of navy ships commanded by Larrazabal's brother Carlos. In Caracas, a well-organized mob of 20,000 leftists marched into downtown Plaza Silencio with pistols, lead pipes and machetes to shout curses at the "dirty militarists" and, for good measure, "the Yankee imperialist dogs."

That afternoon the crowd swelled to a well-drilled 30,000 in front of the national palace, yelling: "Death to Castro Leon!" Castro Leon and 100 officers debated through the night at the Defense Ministry and made their decision: to answer the insults with a coup would cost thousands of lives. Castro Leon resigned. But the explosive issue is far from settled. The Communists are growing stronger by the day and will try desperately for some form of Popular Front victory in the elections. If they succeed, the military will probably start plotting in earnest. The government's failure to provide responsible, moderate leadership could lead to a bloody showdown between extremists of the left and right.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.