A Commune Called Paradise

The cities of Latin America are littered with cardboard and packing-crate shantytowns that house hordes of landless peasants in search of jobs. Usually such squatters' settlements are either deliberately overlooked by officialdom or broken up by police within a few days. In the Chilean capital of Santiago, however, a luxuriantly mustached leftist named Victor Toro, 28, has founded a poblacion callampa ("mushroom town") that the government cannot ignore and the police cannot destroy.

Last Jan. 26, Toro led 3,000 of his followers onto a two-acre patch of land a few miles from Santiago's center. Then he delegated a squad of men and women armed with pistols and machine guns to guard the compound's perimeter and keep the police out. "The police come only to rob, beat or 'bribe," declared Toro. Impressed by his tough tone, the police kept a respectful distance.

Outside Income. "Our enemies are the national bourgeoisie and Yanqui imperialism," Toro announced to his "January 26th Compound," which is also known as the "Paradise Commune." Members adopted an eleven-point code of conduct. Among other things, it forbade fighting, wife-beating, card games and the "capitalist sin" of alcohol. Along with communal chores, members read from the writings of Mao Tse-tung, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. At least half of Paradise's adults are unemployed, but leaders boasted that funds were coming in from bank robberies. As Toro said: "We do not promise. We do"

At times Toro seemed determined to provoke a police attack. Chilean authorities seemed equally determined to avoid a confrontation, insisting only that the commune move to a new twelve-acre site half a mile away. Officials even promised to build a park and soccer field near by. Nonetheless, violence finally broke out two weeks ago.

A few days after the move to the new site, 200 of Toro's followers attacked and occupied an adjacent bungalow that the police had built as their local headquarters. The crowd wanted it used as a clinic instead, and shouted: "Policlinica si, carabinero no" (Hospital yes, police no). Four hours later, the police returned with reinforcements, and after a barrage of tear gas and a volley of shots recaptured their headquarters. But they refused to pursue their challengers into the commune, even though at least six of its members had been accused of holding up banks. Toro him self, charged with harboring bank robbers, had already gone into hiding.

Stoned to Death. The government's reticence in dealing with Toro's brazen band of revolutionaries may be related to the approach of national elections in September. Toro and his followers belong to the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario, a radical organization that enjoys the support of no more than 3% of Chile's electorate. But the radicals are symptomatic of a mood of unease that could turn Chile into the hemisphere's first country with a freely elected Communist government.

That would be ironic, for during his six years in office, Christian Democratic President Eduardo Frei has worked harder than any of his predecessors to bring about a social revolution without resorting to violence or relying on Communist techniques. Frei, who cannot succeed himself, has taken over 51% of Anaconda's copper-mining properties in Chile and a similar percentage of the huge El Teniente mine. He has expropriated 20% of the country's irrigated land for the resettlement of 30,000 landless families. And he has tripled the number of schools to include 600,000 more children and 20,000 more teachers. But he has been under constant attack by leftists for doing too little and by rightists for doing too much. Only last month, a government agent arranging the takeover of a huge plantation was stoned and clubbed to death in a battle between police and the hired henchmen of a rich landowner.

In the forthcoming elections, the candidate of Frei's Christian Democratic Party, Radomiro Tomic, 56, appears to be facing a severe challenge from rightist ex-President Jorge Alessandri, 73, and leftist Senator Salvador Allende, 61, who enjoys the Communist Party's support. With the outcome in doubt, the government is fearful that a showdown in Paradise might damage the Christian Democrats' chances of carrying out another six years of moderate reform.

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