Bid for Control

A clock near the speaker's platform had just struck 3 a.m. when the haggard, dark-eyed figure shuffled into the meeting hall outside Santiago. "Mr. Chairman," he said softly, "I demand the right to answer some personal attacks waged against me." With that, Chile's embattled President Eduardo Frei turned to the 530 members of his Christian Democratic Party's national committee and launched into a plea for his very political life.

Frei's problems had reached almost Andean proportions. During his three years in office, a congressional coalition of Communists, leftists and Socialists had tied up nearly all of his major reform legislation. Then a noisy leftist faction within his own party began joining the opposition in criticizing Frei, and six months ago finally won control of the executive council. At last week's meeting, Frei made a bid to regain control of his party by proposing a bylaw that would give the President the final decision on any policy disagreement between him and the party.

The leftists rolled out their heaviest guns. Party President Rafael Gumucio attacked Frei for making important decisions without consulting the party. "The party has no owner," Gumucio thundered. "The party belongs to all of us, to all members." Deputy Bosco Parra claimed that Frei had not followed through on his reforms.

Dates & Limits. In his own climactic speech, Frei cut loose all of the pent-up frustration of three years. "I do not pretend to be the owner or the boss of the party," he said. "This could never be the attitude of a man who owes everything to the party." He had always, Frei said, discussed the main issues with members, and had invited them to his home for talks. "You must remember," he stressed, "that I have the responsibility of administering the country. You must not forget, dear companions, that the constitution has some regulations about dates and time limits."

Frei warned that the party's very future was at stake, and that unless its members went along with him, they would all be out of power after the next elections in 1970. The delegates could only agree. When the vote came, Frei won by a 70-vote margin, and Party President Gumucio immediately resigned in favor of a pro-Frei member. But the leftists still had the last word. By a margin of five votes, they won passage of a proposal guaranteeing workers the right to strike, a law on which Frei had asked for a year's waiver. Frei had once more won control of his rebellious party, but he clearly did not yet control all its policies.

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