A Bid by Marx

With a curt announcement last week, Chile became the first of the four Latin American holdouts to follow through on the OAS sanctions against Communist Cuba. Though the government had voted against breaking economic and diplomatic relations with Castro, President Jorge Alessandri decided that Chile had no choice but to honor the will of the majority--and do it promptly. Still to be heard from are Bolivia and Uruguay; Mexico has refused to break relations. "The resolution against Cuba," said Alessandri, "has to be complied with. If not, it would imply a serious precedent and mean sooner or later the withdrawal of Chile from the inter-American system."

The move came as a surprise because it caught Chile in the full heat of a tense presidential election campaign. By law, the conservative Alessandri cannot succeed himself. When 2,500,000 Chilean voters go to the polls on Sept. 4, they will choose between two main candidates, both left-of-center: Salvador Allende, 56, rasping, demagogic leader of the far-left Popular Action Front (FRAP), and Eduardo Frei, 53, the forceful, hawk-nosed head of the Christian Democratic Party. In the 1958 elections, Allende came within a hairbreadth 29,000 votes of becoming the Hemisphere's first avowed Marxist to be freely elected President. This time --even before the break with Cuba--Allende figured to make it close again.

Picture on the Wall. In his campaign, Allende plays on all Chile's discontents --its underdeveloped economy, unemployed city dwellers, illiterate back-country peasants. Among his strongest allies are Chile's 30,000 card-carrying Communists and their followers. He openly calls himself a Marxist, once termed Castro a "political genius," keeps Fidel's picture on his office wall and a blowup of the anti-Yanqui Declaration of Havana just outside the door.

If elected, Allende promises to organize all campesinos into unions, nationalize much of Chilean agriculture, plus all foreign commerce, private banks, public utilities, iron ore and nitrate mines and, of course, the U.S.-owned copper mines producing 11% of the world's copper. "We will bring the defeat forever of the oligarchy with a revolution within the law," he cries. Allende vaguely guarantees work and education for all, "massive" housing programs, and medical care for each and every worker. "Chile," he insists, "is a nation quite capable of sound development. But we are strangled by U.S. imperialism."

No Sugar Plums. The Christian Democrats' Eduardo Frei raises no such phantoms. The real danger, he believes, is the Communists, who will inevitably grab power if Allende is elected. His campaign is based on a well-reasoned program of land reform, more manufacturing industries, more technical schools, slum redevelopment, and stronger government regulation of Chile's mining industries. But he is not for nationalization, and he is not dispensing sugarplum visions to Chileans. "I'm not going to promise you miracles," he tells them. "What I do offer is constancy. I am with you."

Before Chile's break with Cuba, most experts gave Frei a narrow 50,000 to 200,000 vote lead over the demagogic Allende. While Allende gets votes in the dry, impoverished north, Frei is strong in the cities, particularly Santiago, where nearly 50% of Chile's voters live. Moreover, as head of the Roman Catholic Christian Democrats, he has Chile's strongly religious women behind him. "I know of many families," said one observer, "where the husband will vote for Allende and his wife will vote for Frei."

The Cuba issue may now win Allende more votes among the fiercely independent Chileans. At the news last week, leftist groups in Santiago threatened street violence and the Communist-dominated Central Union of Chilean Workers promised a nationwide strike. But it could cut both ways if Allende attempts to make too much of it. All during the campaign, Frei's supporters have been arguing that Marxism could bring a Cuban-style reign of terror to Chile. A street rampage before Sept. 4 by Allende's supporters would prove the point.

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