Firm in the Saddle

Honduras' easygoing President Juan Manuel Galvez has his own way of keeping close tabs on events in his sunny capital. A good-natured man who strolls the streets of Tegucigalpa unescorted, he takes time out for checker games with newsboys, swaps gossip with all comers. It was not surprising that he knew all about the latest plot against him long before the details were published last week. Said Galvez without rancor: "It was an adventure of boys and novices."

The "adventure" was a clumsy conspiracy by which an obscure young infantry captain named Jesus Velasco had hoped to hand out a few hundred rifles and a couple of machine guns to opposition-party civilians, start them shooting, then take over the presidency for the civilian plotters. But somebody talked, and Galvez quietly squelched the plan without a bullet being fired or a viva sounded. Velasco and four confederates were sent to jail, while two others fled for asylum to the Guatemalan embassy.

Galvez has run his government in a relaxed way since he succeeded ex-Dictator Tiburcio Carias 21 month ago. "We might not go very far," Galvez once said, "but we won't go very far wrong, either." He has been getting along well with his neighbors in Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, but Tegucigalpa buzzed this week with outspoken if undocumented suspicions that Guatemala might have financed the recent mischiefmaking. Last week, when the Guatemalan embassy requested safe conduct out of the country for the two Hondurans implicated in the plot, Galvez smiled sweetly and answered: "Just be patient; meantime, give them soft beds and good food."

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