Crisis at Election Time

Terrorist bombs rocked Argentina last week, producing a crisis somewhat more serious than the many others President Arturo Frondizi has faced in his two-year regime. After TNT blasted an army intelligence major's home and killed his three-year-old daughter, Frondizi declared a state of "internal war"; police dragnets swept through the capital at night to knock on 1,400 doors and haul off 250 followers of ousted Dictator Juan Peron. Coming on the eve of a mid-term congressional election that no one can really win, the trouble pointed up the odd state of a democratic nation that is moving ahead, but almost totally without popular support.

The economic facts say that Frondizi is doing fine. His austerity program to cure the ills of the old Peron economy has kept down domestic consumption, boosted exports and brought foreign trade into balance. Yet Argentine psychology tells the public that things are not better, particularly in the area of cheap steak, which along with many other luxuries was subsidized under the Peron labor government at the expense of the future. The demagogic Peronistas are enraged at the fact that wages are down while steak has doubled to 50-c- per lb., campaign with the slogan, "Under Peron every worker ate his fill." Though the party is outlawed, its leaders brag that they will cast 3,000,000 blank protest ballots in the elections next week. Frondizi has such big majorities in the holdover section of Congress that he will retain control no matter what happens. But the force that really keeps him in power is the same one that keeps the Peronistas from outright rebellion: the Argentine military, which hates Peron and understands Frondizi's development program even though much of the rest of Argentina does not want to.

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