CHILE: Don Tinto’s Bulletin

For weeks the head of America’s only Popular Front Government, Chile’s President Pedro (“Don Tinto”) Aguirre Cerda, has been on an uneasy seat in Santiago’s grey, pillared Moneda Palace. Struggling for power have been members of the President’s own Radical Party, Communists, Rightists, Germanophile Army officers.

While the Popular Front swayed, bushy-mustached President Aguirre felt more & more like a man who does not govern but merely presides. He spent more & more time with the red wine he cultivates. Fort night ago he was reported ill.

This week his journalistic enemy, El Imparcial, called for a medical bulletin to allay “public anxiety.” Don Tinto issued a political bulletin. He announced his temporary retirement on account of bronchitis and grippe, by law turned over his powers to Minister of the Interior Méndez.