The Americas: The Democratic Left

A dedicated battler for democracy in Latin America all his life. Puerto Rico’s Governor Luis Munoz Marin traveled from San Juan to Chicago last week to call attention to a shortcoming of the Alliance for Progress at an A.F.L.-C.I.O. national conference. “What deeply troubles me,” said Munoz. “is the seeming lack of emotional commitment in Latin America toward this great and historical venture. The economic body is being gradually nourished, but the heart is not.”

In Muñoz Marin’s view, there is only one group in Latin America that can make the Alliance work. “That group,” he said, “is what I call the Democratic Left.” Left of what? “In Latin America, left usually means left of reaction, left of feudalism, left of exploitation. I would call the Democratic Left in Latin America the group which seeks social advances and higher living standards for all the people in a framework of freedom and consent.”

No Fiercer Attack. One of the most conspicuous members of Muñoz’ Democratic Left—and a man on whom the U.S. counts heavily—is Venezuela’s President Rómulo Betancourt. A onetime radical revolutionary who has moderated his views with time, Betancourt was elected three years ago to govern a country rich in oil but economically ravaged by dictatorship. He has struggled to restore financial stability and provide jobs for his people, who were largely illiterate (illiteracy has dropped from 57% to 27% in three years) and mostly poor. No leader is under fiercer attack by the Communists and Castroites, who have apparently chosen Venezuela as the most promising spot for the Marxist takeover in Latin America.

In Caracas last week, the Communists, who have been murdering policemen and setting off bombs, celebrated May Day by posting snipers on roofs of the city’s housing projects to fire into the streets. In the countryside, bands of Red guerrillas, trained and indoctrinated in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, have been roaming the jungle hills, trying to enlist the peasants and skirmishing with Betancourt’s pursuing National Guard.

Mush Without Bread. Traveling to the Guárico state capital of San Juan de los Morros, Betancourt angrily charged Fidel Castro with aggression, and confidently warned him not to expect any help from Venezuela’s peasants: “The pressure for the government to Cubanize itself has taken the path of violence, terrorism, dynamiting and armed action. Those guerrillas have failed because guerrillas without peasants are like bread mush without bread. The peasants of Venezuela defend this regime because they helped organize it with their votes. We cannot become simple pawns in a world conspiracy moved about by Nikita Khrushchev through the hands of Fidel Castro. It is a lost, thwarted, crushed war.”

Yet, at week’s end, Betancourt was under new attack as 400 marines and 50 national guardsmen revolted in the port town of Carupano, 250 miles east of Caracas. The pro-Betancourt forces attacked and held the airport, swept into town. Outnumbered and outgunned, the rebel leader and most of his troops surrendered.