The Price of Caviar

To the Kremlin's Latin-American desk, Victor Manuel Gutierrez, 28, must look like a veritable committee of Red partisans. Gutierrez is: 1) a devout Marxist who believes that "Communism is one of the highest revolutionary ideals of humanity"; 2) a member of Guatemala's Congress; 3) a professor who teaches history to future teachers; 4) boss of a 50,000-member labor-federation; and 5) chief of the Communist-line Revolutionary Workers Party. Gutierrez had but one deviation: he sometimes indulged in the luxury of squabbling with Jose Manuel Fortuny, leader of a group of Guatemalan intellectuals and students calling themselves, forthrightly, the Communist Party (TIME, July 16). Last December Gutierrez was rewarded for his faith & works by a trip to Moscow and a chance to test the sleazy comfort of the Hotel Metropole.

Back in Guatemala last week, Gutierrez burbled about his junket, and painted a picture of the Soviet Union as a place where "everyone eats well. I gained 15 pounds in 16 days . . . but lost three on my way home in underfed France." Last week, Gutierrez disclosed the price of his caviar and cutlets. His Revolutionary Workers Party, he announced, must disband and join Fortuny's Communist Party.

Closing Communist ranks apparently was a tactical reaction to growing anti-Red sentiment in Guatemala. In December, Guatemala City elected a mayor on an anti-Communist platform. Since then, 176 anti-Red committees throughout the country have collected 100,000 signatures on a petition sent to the government demanding the dissolution of the Communist Party, because it clearly violates Article 32 of the Constitution prohibiting "political organizations of an international or foreign character." With Gutierrez' followers in the fold on orders from Moscow, Guatemala's Communist Party was doubled in size and more foreign-dominated than ever. But at week's end President Jacobo Arbenz had not even replied to the petition.

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