Three in Trouble

At a press conference not long ago,U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk was asked to comment on the crisis afflicting "our southern neighbors." "To which crisis," asked Rusk with a weary smile, "are you referring?" It was a good question. Right now three of Latin America's biggest nations, comprising 58% of its land mass and containing more than half of its people, are without effective governments.

Brazil, a country almost as big as the U.S. (3,287,842 sq. mi.) and with a population expected to reach 200 million by 2000, has been spinning adrift for eleven months, ever since President Janio Quadros quit. Now, in place of a strong presidency, it has a two-headed parliamentary system that isn't working. Bloody riots in the streets, and the possibility of worse ones, last week brought bickering politicians into a semblance of truce.

Peru, the seat of the ancient Inca Empire, a predominantly Indian nation of 10 1/2 million ruled by descendants of the Spanish conquistadors, was split by a bitterly fought presidential election in which none of the three candidates got more than a third of the vote. Amid cries of electoral fraud and threats of a military takeover, the three proud candidates have been jockeying for five weeks, and no one has given way.

Argentina, a land of spreading pampas, beef and grain, whose 20 million people are more than 90% European-descended, has been ruled by a puppet President and a military dictatorship for 3 1/2 months. The treasury is about bankrupt, the peso has fallen from 83 to a dollar to as low as 137, the cost of living has risen 42.7% since April, and one of the most powerful of the Peronista unions last week threatened to take over the factories themselves unless they were paid long-overdue wages. Economics Minister Alvaro Alsogaray is flying to the U.S. to ask for an immediate cash loan of $250 million.

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