Surprises All Over

In three Latin American nations last week, elections produced some eyebrow-raising results--two because they brought serious reverses for government parties, the other simply because it was honest.

sb CHILE: With general elections less than six months away, a congressional election in Curico, south of Santiago, turned the sleepy farming province into a sort of Latin New Hampshire. Campaigning as if it were the real thing were the three principal presidential candidates: Julio Duran of the right-wing Democratic Front, the coalition of President Jorge Alessandri (who cannot succeed himself); Salvador Allende of the Communist-dominated Popular Action Front; and Eduardo Frei of the left-of-center Christian Democrats. In 1958 Allende came breathtakingly close to becoming the first avowed far-leftist to be elected President in Latin America. In Curico, Allende's candidate for Congress won with 39% of the vote. Duran's man got only 31%, and the Christian Democrat came on strong with 27%. Indicative or not, the results sent shock waves through the Democratic Front, prompted Duran's resignation, and led to speculation that a new non-Communist coalition may be formed, with able, eloquent Christian Democrat Frei at its head.

sb COLOMBIA: In elections to fill half of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, an old, deposed dictator pulled off a disturbing ballot-box coup. Ex-General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, 64, tough right-wing dictator from 1953 until he was overthrown in 1957, is barred by law from politics, lives in semi-exile in his backlands home. Under no such restraint, his resurgent party lambasted President Guillermo Leon Valencia's bipartisan government for higher income taxes, deficit spending and spiraling living costs. Rojas-backed candidates piled up 21% of the vote, to win 27 seats v. six in the last Congress. Though the ruling Liberal-Conservative front was still well in control, Rojas' rise could pose a serious threat to Colombia's six-year-old ruling coalition.

sb EL SALVADOR: In 1961 opposition parties were thoroughly discouraged when President Julio Rivera's National Conciliation Party won all 54 seats in the legislature. They even boycotted the presidential election the next year. A reform-minded, military man, Rivera was embarrassed, promised an honest count on the basis of proportional representation for 1964. The opposition remained skeptical but campaigned vigorously through the tiny Central American republic. When the votes were tallied, Rivera's party retained 32 Assembly seats; the Christian Democrats took 14 seats plus the mayoralty of San Salvador, while another middle-of-the-road party got six. No one was more surprised than opposition leaders themselves, who praised Rivera for "a real democratic achievement."

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