Bloque Blocked

Bolivians had cut down from a La Paz lamppost the blood-smeared body of President Gualberto Villarroel (TIME, July 29). But in Buenos Aires the Bolivian coup had loosed anti-Peron wisecracks. One of them: "I'm waiting for L-day"--"What's that?"--"Lamppost day." And not only wisecracks. In the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, oppositionist Deputy Ernesto San Martino predicted: "The masses never forgive spurious politicians nor false leaders nor a clay idol."

Juan Domingo Peron was still sitting firmly in his presidential chair. But the Peronist hue & cry over the Bolivian upset supported U.S. State Department charges that Argentine colonels had sparked the tyranny of Bolivian majors. To the Peron crowd, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Spruille Braden and Capitalism (in that order) were to blame. Shrieked a Peron deputy: "Braden has a habit of arranging matters with his checkbook."

In Washington, where the Bolivian uprising came as a surprise, the State Department freely confessed that it was the most welcome revolution in years. If the new regime continues stable, the U.S. will doubtless recognize it shortly.

Because the new Government seemed to spike Peron's dream of an Argentine-dominated Bloque Austral (Southern Bloc), Argentina conceivably might sponsor a counterrevolution. Or she could cut off vital exports to Bolivia of wheat and beef. But the U.S., too, had ^n economic wedge. A new Bolivian tin contract was coming up; the U.S. was expected to go through with its plan to pay some 10% more for Bolivia's chief export.

The Bloque Austral dream was further punctured when Paraguay's President Hi-ginio Morinigo shuffled his Cabinet and moved toward democratic rule.

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