Over the Roof & in the Basement

World War II made most Americans conscious that the arsenal of democracy has a strategic roof (Canada) and ground floor (Latin America). Postwar developments have made them acutely conscious that the roof is a convenient avenue of entry for burglars and that ideological con men have already moved in among the respectable residents on the first floor.

How far they have moved in was highlighted by last week's nationwide election in Brazil. Some five million Brazilians voted for governors, local legislators, and a third senator for each of Brazil's 20 states and the Federal District. Cariocas voted (for the first time in a dozen years) for 50 Rio de Janeiro municipal councilmen. The chief parties were: the Social Democratic Party (of President Eurico Caspar Dutra); the Labor Party (bossed by ex-President Getulio Vargas); the Communist Party; and the National Democratic Union (which is against the Government, the Communists and Vargas). The most sensational aspect of the election was the gains made by Brazil's Communists, who, with an official membership of 120,000, are Latin America's biggest Communist Party.

Landslide in Rio. In some places the Communists put up their own candidates; in others they threw their support to congenial candidates of other parties. Their most impressive successes were in Sao Paulo, Brazil's richest industrial state, where they piled up a winning majority for Communist-Progressive fusion candidate Ademar Barros; in Recife (capital of Pernambuco State), where they gained a huge majority; in Rio de Janeiro, where, in a landslide, they elected a still unreported number of councilmen. The Communists had polled about 16% of the total national vote (at least 800,000 ballots).

The Communist gains, important for Brazil, were even more important in the context of emerging Communist strength in Latin America. In Chile, the Communists, thanks to their balance of power in Congress, had helped to elect President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla. President Videla rewarded them with three Cabinet posts, two of which clinched their control of Chile's vital nitrate, copper and coal unions, and of agriculture.

In Uruguay's recent elections, the Communist Party doubled its vote and elected (for the first time) a senator.

In Mexico, the Communists kept a tight grip on the trade union movement through Vincente Lombardo Toledano, who, as head of the C.T.A.L. (see below), is a powerful figure throughout Latin

America. Toledano claims that he is not a Communist, but he seldom deviates from the Party line. In Cuba, 75 miles from the U.S., a Communist was First Vice President, Communists provided the votes by which President Ramon Grau San Martin controls Congress, Communists also held all key posts in the Cuban Confederation of Labor. There were few Latin American countries in which Communists could not point to gains.

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