The Passionate Military
HUGH O'SHAUGHNESSY writes : If we are to believe the worst, Latin America is returning to the Dark Ages. Last Thursday fighters roared over Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, a sad-faced colonel of forty-two called Lopez took over the running of the coun- try and put its constitutional president, Dr.
Villeda Morales, on a plane for Costa Rica. The colonel did not like the man who was likely to win the presidential elections that had been scheduled for next week so he made it clear there would be no elections.
This was the sixth military takeover in the region in eighteen months. Barely a week before, a similar sequence of events had taken place in the Dominican Republic. Two generals, Antonio Imbert and Luis Amiama, decided that the left wing had been given too much freedom of ex- pression during the seven months Juan Bosch had been president, so they put him on board an outward bound frigate and installed a new civilian triumvirate more to the liking of them and their friends.
In July the Ecuadorian army kicked out President Arosemena because he was often liberal and nearly always drunk and in March the Guatemalans disposed of Miguel Ydigoras because they, like Colonel Lopez, feared his suc- cessor. President Prado fell to the military in Peru again for the same reason in July of last year a few months after Argentine army officers deposed President Frondizi and sent him to an island in the River Plate because they thought he was being too soft with the unions.
At first sight this would appear to be a sad record indeed.
The Latin Americans seem to be retching up the carefully prepared diet of liberal democracy and high ideals that the United States is feed- ing them and reverting to the old ways of rule by tough and unscrupulous generals. By all accounts the 'scenes of anguish that have been taking place in the State Department in Washing- ton this week have been almost too pitiful to be- hold. Everything points to the collapse of US policy for the area and the failure of President Kennedy's brave Alliance for Progress.
The reality is perhaps not quite so simple or so discouraging for democrats. For one thing the officers who have taken power are, as far as one can see, cast in a different mould from that of General Marcos Perez Jimenez, the former Venezuelan tyrant, or Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo, the late dictator of the Dominican Re- public. They were nothing but brigands whose main preoccupations were building up their for- tunes and staying in the saddle. The days of such men are numbered. The current of public opinion in an awakening continent is now run- ning so strongly in favour of more honest and progressive popular government that we are un- likely to see many more,of their type.
The new men are motivated less by direct 1 servative political opinions, fear of Communism, and the feeling that their countries are going teo'' the dogs under unworthy governments. Their action in taking up arms is, paradoxically, a measure of the growing strength of the forces seeking to transform Latin American society into something better rather than a symbol of the decline of true democratic feeling. Latin America is moving out of the era of the robber barons and into a period of rapid political evolution. Though they raise their protests the military cannot hope to maintain their in- transigently conservative attitudes for ever. A few months ago, in fact, the -Peruvian military handed the government back to an elected presi- dent, Fernando Beladnde, and this very week.-• end the Argentine armed forces are to make 'room for Arturo Ilifa, who received a majority in elections earlier this year.
The case, of Argentina illustrates the other point that even when the military do take con- trol they are nowadays self-conscious about their position. When Frondizi was overthrown in March of last year the armed forces decided, because of a mixture of US pressure and popular feeling, that- they would rule through a civilian puppet president Jose Marfa Guido. When Colonel Peralta headed the coup in Guatemala he was careful to announce his intention of holding elections before long, and a fortnight ago Imbert and Amiama had their civilian triumvirs sworn in very rapidly indeed. despite the fact that Imbert would like to be president himself.
While the cause of liberal democracy has taken a beating in the past year or so and while the policy of the US has suffered ridicule, the pic- ture is not quite as bad as it has been made out. There is progress towards democracy and social justice, though this is of necessity slow in face of the incredible poverty of the region. For in- stance, in spite of the well-intentioned regime of Villeda Morales in Honduras who had had almost six years in office, it was recently esti!. mated that no more than one house in five in the towns in the Republic was really fit to live in and in the country areas the conditions were re- ported to be even worse. Only one house in ten in Honduras has running water and fewer have sewerage; though nearly two-thirds of the population over ten is illiterate, only one school child in ten who gets to a classroom actually completes his elementary education. In Peru a man can work for his master all day, and be paid less than a penny for it.
Recent events should meanwhile indicate more clearly than ever the need for a more flexible policy in Latin America. At present the Alliance. for Progress is being run from Washington by yanquis without much consultation with the recipients. Therefore the State Department alone is faced with the excruciating decision of whether to withhold aid from usurping military regimes and thus be accused of intervention in Latin America's politics or to go on giving mime)/ and forget its democratic ideals. The latest round of coups should make it plain that the Latin Americans must be taken into full partnershiP and consultation and thus be made to share the difficult decision-making. This is the only ‘N:0 ho preserve everybody's self-respect.
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