MEXICO: Fizzled Fireworks

Novelists are sometimes good guessers, sometimes bad. Last month Novelist Arthur Calder-Marshall published a book about revolution in Mexico (The Way to Santiago), with a hero who bore a resemblance to President-reject Juan Andreu Almazan. In Novelist Calder-Marshall’s book everybody expected the General to start his revolution on Independence Day (Sept. 16), but nothing happened. The revolt was to begin two weeks later, with the assassination of the President, but no revolution came.

Last week, in real Mexico, Independence Day passed and nothing very much happened. President Lazaro Cardenas went to the village of Dolores Hidalgo in Guanajuato State, stood before a microphone and roared the historic Grito de Dolores (Shout of Independence)—Viva Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, viva la Independencia—which is Mexico’s equivalent of the Confederacy’s Rebel Yell. Then he made a speech. “Some people are trying to cause a rebellion in Mexico and entice the Mexican people away from the ways of peace,” said the President. “An examination of the international situation will cause them to reconsider their position.”

In Mexico City crowds celebrating Independence Day outside the National Palace began shouting for General Almazan. Soon somebody tossed a stone through one of the Palace windows. That was fun and others joined in. Police tried to break up the crowd with tear gas. Next they tried charging the mob on motorcycles. Finally 200 policemen carrying rifles with fixed bayonets marched in. The crowd dispersed, but before that night was over five men had been shot dead. 72 men & women wounded.

In Chihuahua, across the Rio Grande from El Paso and San Antonio, revolt did break out on Independence Day, but it was a fizzler, not a firecracker. Lieut. Colonel Cruz Villalba, defeated Almazanista candidate for Governor, led “between 100 and 700” men into the hills in what the Government described as “a hostile attitude.” The Government paid little attention at first, but two days later admitted that a large Federal force under General Antonio Guerrero had taken the field against the rebels. So rugged is the State of Chihuahua that a few well-armed men can carry on guerrilla warfare against much larger numbers, but taking the country is another matter. General Guerrero put up a good show of confidence by ordering the guerrillas to surrender within 48 hours or “be annihilated.”

General Almazan was reported to be somewhere near by, either in Texas or in northern Mexico. His “junta” in San Antonio still seemed to be without organization. So feeble were the Almazan efforts to toss the Government out that some haters of President Cardenas in Mexico City hinted they would transfer their allegiance to swart little General Joaquin Amaro, a tough, full-blooded Tarascan Indian who would love to seize power and run Mexico as a dictatorship.

But the widest breach on the heretofore solid front of Almazanismo was opened by none other than President-elect Manuel Avila Camacho. Though he was elected principally through the efforts of Cárdenas’ Party of the Mexican Revolution, General Camacho’s principles are far to the right of the Party’s. Having sensed a swing to the right in Mexican politics, having observed the temper of some of the Rightists, Avila Camacho last week thought the time ripe to enunciate his principles. He announced that he was a good Catholic (the Church has been disestablished since 1859), that Communists would not be permitted to collaborate with his Government (Communists were welcomed by Lázaro Cárdenas), that he would get along without the help of Radical Labor Leader Vicente Lombardo Toledano (on whose support Cardenas relied). “I am a democrat,” announced Avila Camacho. “It is my firm belief that the State should lend a hand to the poor and help improve the conditions of workers, but I am not a socialist. I believe in democracy, liberty and the economic welfare of Mexico.”

Finally, declared the President-elect, he would extend adequate guarantees to both Mexican and foreign investors. This just about completed the platform on which General Almazán campaigned. Within 24 hours General Emilio Madero (brother of onetime President Francisco Madero, who ousted Dictator Porfirio Díaz), president of the Almazanista PRUN, announced that if Avila Camacho carried out his promises, he himself would give support to the new President.

General Almazán’s angle seemed to be that he would keep everything strictly constitutional if he made no move against the Government until Camacho, whom he claims to have been illegally elected, tried to take his seat Dec. 1. But that might be too late for the General’s followers. Last week his revolution appeared destined to come no closer to reality in the end than Novelist Calder-Marshall’s. Wise, tough little President Cárdenas was not going to be caught napping. He remained at the head of 10,000 crack troops, 200 miles northwest of the Capital.