Enough Was Enough

The drab, two-story building on Montevideo's bustling Boulevard Espana looks as quiet as a convent. It is hardly that. Inside is the Soviet Union's biggest embassy in Latin America and the clearinghouse for Soviet propaganda and subversion in the Southern Hemisphere. Up to now, the Uruguayan government has never bothered to interfere. But suddenly last week Uruguay's ruling nine-man National Council cracked down, ordering four Soviet embassy officers out of the country and serving notice on the others to watch their step.

All four, the government claimed, were members of the Soviet intelligence organization, and had helped the country's Communist Party gain control of Uruguay's major student and labor groups. Once in control, the Reds had triggered a series of costly and bloody strikes. Last week, after gas, construction and packinghouse workers threatened a whole new round of strikes, the National Council decided that enough was enough and ordered the expulsion.

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