Just Mexiccmists

When Left meets Right before a Mexican election, spectators duck and pistoleros shoot. Recently, in Los Mochis, Left shot at Left, and when pistols on both sides were empty, supporters of the Government party candidate for President, General Manuel Avila Camacho, lay dead in the street, plugged by pistoleros of the powerful Confederation de Trabajadores Mexicanos (Federation of Labor--CTM for short).

The break between conservative-minded Candidate Avila Camacho and the left-wing extremists of his own National Revolutionary Party was thus consummated in blood. Denouncing the shooting of his henchmen as the "savageness of Communist methods," he proclaimed, "I am not under obligation to the CTM, and am in favor of neither the Nazis nor Communists. I am just a Mexicanist. Under present world conditions, we must find very close cooperation with Washington."

A final split between the two rapidly separating groups was generally anticipated, but it threw Mexico's complicated politics into utter confusion by placing both Candidate Avila Camacho and his political opponent, General Juan Andreu Almazan, on the same platform. Both had slammed the door in the face of the powerful Stalinazi group under CTM Dictator Vicente Lombardo Toledano.

Eager to prevent Avila Camacho from pushing him off his own conservative, pro-U. S. platform, General Almazan rushed a statement to the press roundly excoriating both Nazis and Communists. "The people of Mexico know," he declared, "that the enemy they have to guard against is an outrageous band of foreign invaders who have come here lately to prepare to make Mexico the centre of agitation aimed against the U. S. and all of Latin America." With Mexico thus apparently turned right and the leftist Cardenas Government headed for a fall regardless of who wins the July 7 election, Mexicans awaited the next move, which might be: 1) an attempt by the extreme left and CTM to switch to a third candidate, possibly Lombardo himself or a dark horse such as General Joaquin Amaro, frequently mentioned as a Nazi Putsch possibility; 2) organized disturbances which would enable President Lazaro Cardenas to pronounce a "state of unrest" and postpone the election; 3) an indication from Cardenas that he has decided in favor of hemispheric solidarity in the face of international stress and is backing Avila Camacho in his progress to the right.

All of these moves are loaded with latent dynamite and any of them might touch off the revolution that every Mexican predicts during the coming months. Most feared reactions are: 1) a split in the Army (56,000 strong) between Avila Camacho and Almazan, in which case the CTM militia, numbering 200,000 uniformed but as yet unarmed storm troops, would become an immediate menace; 2) a revolt of the Almazanistas, who have already threatened to set up their own Government in Monterrey if the election returns are faked, i.e., against Almazan; 3) an attempted Putsch by the Stalinazi group should the Camachistas and Almazanistas become seriously embroiled.

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