Voting Showdown

As Guatemala's sizzling presidential election campaign neared the Jan. 19 voting showdown this week, the candidates and the issues were clearly outlined in a glare of publicity, but the outcome was still shrouded in shadowy doubt. Running neck and neck were three top candidates:

GENERAL MIGUEL YDIGORAS FUENTES, 62, representative of the far right who riotously upset a try by followers of assassinated President Carlos Castillo Armas to put over a feeble successor in a quick and easy election last October. Although Ydi-goras' protesting street mobs reflected every hue in the political spectrum, his support comes from big plantation owners, industrialists and conservative Roman Catholics.

COLONEL JOSE Luis CRUZ SALAZAR, 37, heir of Castillo Armas' middle-of-the-road Nationalist Democratic Movement (M.D.N.). A career army officer sent to Washington as Castillo Armas' ambassador, he is firmly in the U.S. camp. He has the support of the younger officers who carry most weight in the army, a strong point in his favor in case of opposition attempts to short-circuit a Cruz Salazar victory either before or after the fact. His slogan: "Neither left nor right."

MARIO MENDEZ MONTENEGRO, 47, leader of the liberal Partido Re-voludonario (P.R.) that was outlawed in last October's M.D.N.-sponsored quickie election as too Communist, despite the fact that he once went into exile after plotting against Arbenz. Reinstated by the regime of current Provisional President Guillermo Flores Avendano, Mendez Montenegro calls Communists "my worst enemies."

For votes, Ydigoras can count heavily on Guatemala City and several middle-sized towns. Cruz Salazar has a slight edge with the well-oiled M.D.N., which controls and can deliver the votes of whole plantations, towns and villages. Mendez Montenegro is strapped for campaign funds, but much of the country's working class is behind him. With three strong candidates splitting the electorate, chances were good that none of them could win more than 50% of the vote, as required by the constitution. In such case, the M.D.N.-dominated Congress must choose between the two front-runners--which could lead to big trouble should Cruz Salazar run third.

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