VENEZUELA: Sweet Chariot

A Venezuelan official dropped by a small automobile-body shop outside Manhattan one morning last week to inspect a package for home: a $9,000 midnight-blue 1957 Cadillac, equipped with $21,000 worth of special accessories for President Marcos Perez Jimenez. At the push of a button, the ‘two leather-upholstered chairs buzz back into a lounging position. In the rear of the front seat are a 17-inch television set, a high-fidelity tape recorder, and a small bar (four glasses, two bottles). A telephone system will permit the President to talk to his aide up front without the chauffeur’s listening in, or (by shortwave radio) to the presidential palace and army headquarters. A weapons compartment will hold two submachine guns.

Perez Jimenez bought a similar car last year, but apparently grew tired of it. When the new one arrives, he will give the old one to his wife.