Viva Per

ARGENTINA

The Peron-for-President campaign got under way with an inevitable about-face last week. First, Juan Domingo Peron admitted that he actually was a candidate (in April he had said: "I will energetically oppose every move ... to make me a candidate"). Then, in the best authoritarian tradition, he unveiled an official party (called the Radical Labor Movement), harangued a multitude with promises of social reform. Hitler-like, he even named his political heirs.

Both the size and the composition of the crowd that turned out in Buenos Aires' Plaza de Independencia to cheer Citizen Peron's first public campaign speech struck dismay into good Argentine democrats. The Peron followers (estimated at 200,000) were almost as impressive in numbers as the Democratic Unionists who had gathered the week before to shout Peron down. Milling about with the usual Peron nationalists and bullyboys were thousands of well-dressed, middle-class voters. Peron's attempt to split off a sector of Argentina's big Radical (center) Party seemed to be making some headway.

The Platform. Peron's promises might be nothing but demagoguery, but some of the bait he held out was long overdue in Argentina and might well sound enchanting to ill-paid, overlooked masses. Peron's chief planks:

P: The restoration of the land "to those who work it."

P: The reorganization of Argentine economy under a "fiveyear plan," with a show of concern for the welfare of employers.

P: Benefits for labor, including employe profit-sharing in industrial earnings.

P: Sixty years of stable government--just 940 years less than Hitler promised Germany.

The Instrument. Peron also bludgeoned his way into control of a mouthpiece for his dreams and promises: Buenos Aires' powerful afternoon newspaper Critica (circulation 250,000). The strategy had been violence. Peron's plug-uglies had made sporadic raids on democratic Critica, had been met with fierce resistance from determined employes. One sortie was spearheaded by 5,000 street-fighters and backed by four armored cars and 100 police.

Publisher Raul Damonte Taborda fled to Uruguay. Then his mother-in-law and the paper's chief owner, Senora Salvadora Medina Onrubia de Botana, gave up the battle, let pro-Peron federal officials take over. Last week Senora Botana and the federals celebrated the surrender--by toasting Peron.

BRAZIL

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