Stuck on Dead Center

Rarely had a Chilean President taken office amid such great expectations. "The whole atmosphere reflected the same spirit as F.D.R.'s first hundred days," said a Western ambassador, recalling the Nov. 3 inauguration of Eduardo Frei as Chile's 36th President.

By this week, 90 of those 100 days will have slipped away, and the excitement has died aborning. For all the high hopes, Frei has not even been able to make a start on his program to save Chile from inflation and all the other ills that plague a developing Latin American nation.

Zero for Three. While he received the greatest endorsement ever given a Chilean President (55% of the vote), Frei faced a lame-duck Congress in which his Christian Democrats held only 33 of 192 seats. With new elections coming up March 7, the Congressmen have been arguing and doodling away their time, have refused even to hear government ministers in defense of some key bills.

Frei knew he could not expect to pass his entire program, so he pushed "urgently" for three measures to get things started. He wanted higher taxes on personal property, legislation to support the cleanup of slums in municipalities around the country, additional presidential powers that would help him govern. Congress has answered no to all three items.

What happened to Frei's request for new presidential powers illustrates his problem. Frei asked for the right to create four new ministries, set up a national economic planning office, and modify tariffs as necessary, all of which required congressional approval. Every Chilean President has made similar requests upon assuming office, and Congress has normally granted permission with a minimum of todo. This time, right-wing conservatives joined left-wing Communists and Socialists to talk the proposal to death, arguing that "Frei is trying to concentrate too much power in one man's hands." Seeing the futility of it all, Frei finally withdrew all three of his key bills.

Appeal to the People. The major piece of legislation remaining before Congress is Frei's landmark "Chileani-zation of copper" agreement. Needing only a congressional O.K. before it goes into effect, the deal will give the government a 51% interest in the U.S.'s Braden Copper Co. and a 25% interest in two new U.S. mining ventures, the most promising of which will extend operations at Chuquicamata, already the world's largest open-pit copper mine (TIME, Jan. 1). Nationalists and leftists in Congress are not likely to act on that presidential idea either. They accuse Frei of selling out to the Yanquis, and clamor for outright nationalization of the nearly $1 billion worth of U.S. copper interests in Chile.

With his government stuck on dead center, Frei went on nationwide radio and eloquently drew the battle lines for the March 7 elections. "This country cannot wait indefinitely," said the President. "It is faced with problems of dramatic urgency. We cannot play politics, because the game costs lives and misery. I have not come merely to occupy a position. I have come to carry out a task, and I will appeal to the people as a supreme arbiter."

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