Fizzled Blitz

In Venezuela's capital, the report spread quickly : Caracas was going to be bombed. Squads of firemen took up emergency stations. The National Guard was called out. Hundreds of families left the city for the country. Caraquenos, who have never known an air raid, need not have been panicky. President Romulo Betancourt was on top of the situation, and besides, the bombing was not due until Feb. 15, the inauguration day of his successor, Novelist Romulo Gallegos.

As soon as he learned that a plot was afoot, Betancourt sent Nicaraguan President Victor Roman y Reyes an urgent telegram: Venezuelan exiles at Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, were loading two former U.S. Navy bombers, manned by U.S. crews, for a bombing run over Caracas. He named names, listed airplane numbers.

Bolivar's Homeland. Betancourt got a quick answer. Roman y Reyes (whose nephew, Dictator Anastasio Somoza, really runs Nicaragua) soon cabled back that the planes had been confiscated, the Venezuelans arrested. Said he: "These planes will not leave Nicaraguan territory to attack the noble homeland of Bolivar."

By week's end, there were plenty of facts to fill in the story. The planes, surplus Consolidated PB4Ys (the Navy's version of the B-24), had been bought from the War Assets Administration without armament. They had been flown from Bush Field, Ga., by five U.S. airmen, all of whom were turned over to the U.S. Embassy in Managua. Four were deported to New Orleans, arrested, and charged with violating the U.S. Neutrality Act. A fifth, an AWOL air force captain, was handed over to military authorities in Panama.

In Miami, the FBI also picked up Edward Browder Jr.,* a former R.A.F. pilot who was already under sentence for stealing 21 machine guns from a U.S. Government arsenal last April for use against Betancourt. Browder, the FBI said, organized last week's bombing mission, recruited the U.S. flyers and promised the pilots $30,000 apiece for the job. The question the FBI did not answer: Who financed Browder and paid for the planes?

Somoza's Gain. The only one who seemed to have gained anything out of the fizzled blitz was Nicaragua's wily "Tacho" Somoza. Last week, he had let out a howl that Nicaraguan revolutionaries in Guatemala were planning to bomb his capital. Now he himself had two four-engined bombers--a tidy air force for Central America. Somoza solemnly thundered, through his mouthpiece and stooge, uncle Roman y Reyes, that the planes would "be used only to defend the soil of Nicaragua and its legitimate government" against attacks from Guatemala.

* No kin to ex-Commie Leader Earl Browder.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.