COLOMBIA: Surprises

Once his country’s Minister at Washington (1922-30), purposeful, air-minded President Dr. Enrique Olaya Herrera surprised his countrymen by issuing without warning last week two decrees: the first prohibits from July 1 “the sale of alcoholic beverages, except beer, between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. and on Sundays and holidays;” the second strikes directly at the old Colombian custom of gun-toting, drastically restricts imports of firearms, stiffens the requirements for licenses to carry them.

“Beer in Colombia,” explained a Government spokesman, “is considered a perfectly natural drink which it would be unwise to prohibit.”