CHILE: Confirmation

Congress made it official. Leftist Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, who had won a plurality (but not the necessary majority) in last month’s elections, would be Chile’s new President. As the results were announced last week in the Chamber, Communist legislators, raising clenched fists, sang Chile’s national anthem. Soviet Ambassador Dmitri Alexandrovich Zhukov, impeccably stony-faced, looked on with other diplomats.

President-elect Gonzalez Videla, who is no Communist, but who had Communist support and will probably include red-banner men in his Cabinet, got the good news at home while 60,000 backers cheered beneath his windows. He took the bows, then dined with his family and went to a movie. To Chileans, racked by hunger and inflation, Gonzalez Videla said: “Have confidence, you will not be betrayed.”