Strangelovian Scenario

In the month since overthrowing Salvador Allende Gossens' Marxist government, the military junta has forcefully extended its tentacles of repression into every part of Chilean society. The left has been brutally sundered, many of its leaders tracked down and imprisoned or executed. All political parties have been suspended, and the country's eight universities, most of them traditional incubators of leftist sentiment, placed under the direct supervision of the military. By last week the junta's control was apparently complete, and all vestiges of organized opposition were smothered--at least temporarily.

Yet the killing continued. Jose ("Comandante Pepe") Gregorio Liendo Vera, a popular revolutionary who organized peasants in the south of Chile to seize farms, was executed by a military firing squad. Communist Party Leader Luis Corvalan Lepe is on trial on a charge of high treason, which carries the death penalty. All told, 476 people have died--some say as many as 5,000--including one American.

"Plan Zeta." The body of Frank Teruggi Jr., 24, an economics student from Des Plaines, Ill., was found in a Santiago morgue last week. Though the military denied any complicity in his death, Teruggi's roommate, David Hathaway, 24, a sociology student, claims that carabineros broke into their Santiago apartment on Sept. 20. The police, who probably suspected the students of being foreign "extremists," ransacked the apartment and hauled them off to Santiago's National Stadium, where 5,000 political prisoners are still being held. The last time Hathaway saw his friend alive was when Teruggi was being led from their cell at the stadium by guards. A coroner's report said that Teruggi died of a bullet wound.

Chile's strongmen attempted to counter the increasingly strident world criticism by releasing details of a Strangelovian plot that they say justifies their harsh treatment of leftists. The plot, which will be revealed in the U.N. this week by the Chilean Foreign Minister, is called "Plan Zeta." It reportedly called for the execution of 17,000 right-wing and moderate Chileans, including high-ranking military officers, former President Eduardo Frei, anti-Allende union bosses, justices of the supreme court, lawyers and businessmen. A government official who spoke to TIME's Benjamin Cate in Santiago last week said that not all of the arms that were to have been used by the leftists for the executions have been found. That apparently is the reason why the search for weapons and "extremists" continues.

To further dampen protest, the junta agreed to allow some 10,000 foreigners to take refuge in havens operated by churches and voluntary organizations. However, those who have "committed some offense" will not be protected and will be subject to arrest even inside the sanctuaries.

The junta has also moved vigorously in the economic sector, which Allende left a shambles. Draconian measures such as the summary execution of black marketeers, an across-the-board freeze on wages and the drastic devaluation of the escudo have stabilized prices. Under Allende, inflation had risen more than 300%. The lucrative copper mines, which were plagued with labor strife, are functioning smoothly again. The junta has also announced its interest in negotiating with foreigners to lure badly needed investments to the country. Striking truckers are back at work, and food and other staples are beginning to flow into the major cities. Despite the specter of night arrests and secret executions, daytime life in Chile is gradually returning to its familiar rhythms.

The men behind this startlingly swift transformation were at first total strangers to most Chileans. Their faces are now as well known as Chile's soccer players, and something of their personal!ties has begun to emerge from the sleek, 23-story office building in downtown Santiago that serves as junta headquarters. The four leaders:

> Army General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, 57, before the coup was known outside military circles, if at all, as a competent geographer (he has written three books on the subject). But he obviously had more in mind than maps and charts. He took a leading role in the extensive plotting that resulted in Allende's overthrow on Sept. 11. As commander of the most powerful of Chile's armed forces, Pinochet was the logical choice to head the junta. He immediately vowed to "exterminate Marxism," a promise that is being carried out with chilling efficiency.

> Air Force General Gustavo Leigh Guzman, 53, is the junta's ideologue and, after Pinochet, its most imposing member. He has demanded a permanent role for the armed forces in Chilean life despite the fact that the armed forces had remained aloof from politics for 41 years. He seems to envision Chile evolving into a quasifascist corporate state.

> Admiral Jose Torbio Merino Castro, 58, comes from a family with a long naval tradition (an uncle was chief of the Chilean navy in the 1950s). Merino's passions include philately and anti-Marxism. His violent opposition to the left is sometimes expressed with a certain wit. Says he: "To call Karl Marx a philosopher is to overvalue him. He tried to be an economist."

> General Cesar Mendoza Duran, 54, is head of the paramilitary carabineros. A top horseman who competed in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Mendoza has been noticeably milder in his condemnation of leftists than his fellow junta members. Explains a foreign diplomat: "Mendoza knows that when the army gets tired of guarding itself and goes back to its barracks, his people will have to keep order."

Perhaps. But the military is showing no sign of returning to the barracks any time soon. Nor does the junta display any intention to return the country to democratic rule.

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