THE HEMISPHERE: Hope

When Nicaraguan Dictator Anastasio Somoza forcibly knocked over the Government of his too-independent successor, President Leonardo Argüello (TIME, June 9), the U.S., along with the other nations of the hemisphere, was presented with a neat dilemma. To recognize Somoza’s puppet regime would be to condone an irresponsible and undemocratic coup. To refuse to recognize him would mean a departure from the general diplomatic practice of recognizing any government that is clearly in power and that promises to live up to its international obligations.

By last week the U.S. and a majority of the Latin American republics had decided to withhold recognition of Nicaragua. Among the non-recognitionists were such distant countries as Chile and Peru, which might well have taken the position that it was not their bull that was being gored.

What optimists now hoped was that international disapproval might goad Somoza into new elections, and that the elections would be honest.