Rocky Road for C

Hardly anyone expected that Hector Campora, the mild-mannered ex-dentist hand-picked by Juan Peron as his movement's candidate for President, would easily unite the fractious Argentines. Few, though, expected that potentially explosive trouble would break out on the day of Campora's inauguration as the country's first elected chief of state since 1966.

All day long, Peronist crowds swarming in the streets of Buenos Aires had been in a swaggering, festive mood. General Alejandro Lanusse, the outgoing military president, prudently avoided difficulty by using a helicopter. It was just as well: violence began when one young Peronist descamisado (shirtless one) pounded on the limousine bearing two other members of Argentina's military junta to inaugural ceremonies at the presidential "Pink House" in the Plaza de Mayo. As a crowd gathered around the car, police opened fire; at least two were killed and 15 injured. Fearful that the street fighting might escalate into full-scale riots, Campora issued a statement that was broadcast pleading for "restraint and tranquillity."

Thus, inauspiciously, did seven years of military rule end in Argentina. In a sense, the troubled mood of inauguration day symbolized the difficult task of governing that faces Campora in the days ahead. Under the heavy-handed and economically inept military government of General Lanusse, inflation was a staggering 80% last year, third highest in the world (after Chile and Uruguay).

Argentina's economic morass was not the only reason why General Lanusse decided to restore civilian rule. He clearly sensed the national disenchantment with the military junta that had ruled Argentina since 1966, and the overwhelming persistence of the Peron mystique. Despite his extraordinary decision to step down from power and allow free elections, Lanusse (see box) is obviously unhappy that the Peronists will be running the country. Just how they plan to do it has many wondering, especially the U.S., which has investments in Argentina worth $1.3 billion.

Ironically enough, the Peronists, despite their neofascist legacy, may choose to govern with a blend of nationalism and mild Marxism, which means more government control over industry and the economy. In foreign policy, Peron clearly wants to restore Argentina to leadership of Spanish-speaking Latin America, thereby countering the influence of both Portuguese-speaking Brazil-- its traditional rival-- and the U.S.

This "third position" stance includes friendly relations with Communist and leftist nations. Significantly, several Communist heads of state, or their representatives, showed up for Campora's inaugural. Among them was Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticos.

While Peron will continue maneuvering Argentina's new foreign policy posture, he knows that he cannot move too quickly or too far; the military remains a strong check on any precipitous drift to the left. Thus Campora has been instructed to move cautiously.

During the election campaign for the presidency, Peronist spokesmen talked vaguely of expropriating U.S. interests in Argentina. American businessmen have now been told that the talk was just so much campaign rhetoric and that while "the new rules will be tougher, you'll be able to live with them."

Terrorist Demands. What the Peronists may find more difficult to live with is a rising wave of anarchical violence; tension created by the terror undoubtedly contributed to the inauguration day shootings. So far this year, at least five military officers, corporation executives and union leaders have been assassinated; 48 others have been kid naped and held for ransom. Although Lanusse denies it, the violence could be used as a pretext for the military to regain power. Last week members of the Trotskyite People's Revolutionary Army shot and critically wounded a Ford Motor Co. of Argentina executive and slightly wounded another Ford employee. Then the terrorists demanded ambulances for Argentina's 22 provinc es, plus medical, food and school sup plies for the poor. If these demands were not met, they announced, Ford executives would be kidnaped or killed. "We have no choice but to meet the demands," said a Ford spokesman. The cost: around $1,000,000.

Another alarming act of terrorism occurred on the eve of the inauguration.

Dirk Kloosterman, secretary-general of the powerful auto mechanics union and a "soft-lining" Peronist, was machine-gunned to death in front of his La Plata home. Apparently Kloosterman was killed by opponents within Peron's Justicialist Liberation Front, whose oddly mixed membership includes both fascists and Marxists. Campora cannot restrain the party's more volatile mem bers. Peron can, and is expected to return to Argentina in June, using Buenos Aires as a base to take the message of Peronism to far points of the globe.

His return cannot be too soon. As one Peronista put it last week: "Without Peron here, the movement would fall into three pieces by the end of the year."

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