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CHILE: President Anonymous

2 minute read
TIME

Before he was fairly settled in Santiago’s grey Casa Moneda, Chile’s new Acting President Geronimo Mendez had ?n important visitor. Out of a borrowed Lufthansa plane at Santiago airport one day last week stepped Brazil’s smart, dapper Foreign Minister Oswaldo Aranha, all primed to talk commercial treaties. He had left Rio expecting to confer with President Pedro Aguirre Cerda, had learned of Don Tinto’s temporary retirement (TIME, Nov. 17) while en route.

Though the treaties themselves were not particularly important, it seemed likely that the first act of Acting President Mendez’ official life might be very important indeed. Minister Aranha (whose name means “spider” in Portuguese) was openly rumored to be spinning a web. On his way to Chile he had stopped in Buenos Aires, and one guess was that behind the screen of unimportant business he was trying to weave Argentina and Chile together with his own country into an A.B.C. bloc. Lending substance to this guess was the report that he was prepared to offer loans and credits from the Banco do Brasil to the Banco Central de Chile.

If Minister Aranha was planning to dicker, he has a good man to talk to. Chile’s new Acting President Mendez has earned himself a notable reputation as a peacemaker and conciliator. When he entered national politics last year the squat, sallow, middle-aged doctor from Coquim-bo was nicknamed Don Geronimo el Anonimo. Recently he emerged from anonymity to the leadership of the turbulent Radical Party. He had not been a member of the Cabinet until last week when Don Tinto boosted him to the Ministry of the Interior so that he would be next in Presidential succession.

As Acting President, Don Anonimo will have full opportunity to exercise his ability as a compromiser and political pacifier. Don Tinto’s Popular Front Government, of which he is now the head, has been the victim of a tug of war between the Radicals and Socialists. Radical leaders are jockeying for the pole position in the next (1944) Presidential campaign. The Communists are lying ominously low. Chile’s Rightists, Nazi sympathizers and the Army are waiting sharp-eyed for any crack in the Front.

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