Election Weariness

Three elections in two months were one too many for the Guatemalans. Only 56,000 (one-fifth of those who voted in the presidential elections) turned out to choose members for a constituyente (constitutional convention) which will draft a new constitution for the country. Some Guatemalans had no idea what a constituyente was. Besides, even under the tyrannical rule of Dictator Jorge Ubico, they had had a constitution--one "so beautiful that it would make you weep." They felt that what they needed was a president who would treat them right. Most Guatemalans (even the distrustful Indians who form a large part of the population) felt that they had such a man in big, handsome President-elect Juan Jose Arevalo.

Meanwhile, President-elect Arevalo, a realist, had sent a mission to Washington in search of the Lend-Lease arms reported to have been promised to his predecessor. Dictator Federico Ponce. The mission, which traveled by plane, was surrounded by as many cloud banks of secrecy as a Big Three meeting. Some members swooped out of the clouds long enough to be recognized in Chicago. Others, supposed to be in Washington, had gone officially underground.

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