Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-15
BY CASTOR NERvAL.

TIME presidential elections recently
held in three Latin American
republics seem to corroborate the
i theory that political trends on
the other side of the Rio Grande
are not independent isolated phenom-
ena, bLt, on the contrary, are general
in scope, widespread, common to more
than one country.
In describing last week the elections
in Chile, Peru and Ecuador, 1 pointed
out that they all showed the same turn
of public opinion toward conservatism,
the same swing to the right which, in
a different part Of the world, resulted
in the overwhelming victory of Mac
Donald's British followers.
If one examines carefully, I said,
the conditions leading up to the latest
elections in these three southern re-
publics, the platforms offered, the per-
sonalities involved, it is easy to find in
the results of all of them the same
identical leaning Of public opinion to-
ward the right.
The election of Senior Montero in
Chile, that of Col. Sanchez Cerro in
Peru, and that of Senior Bonifaz in
Ecuador were all similar in character,
and this similarity made more impor-
| tant the conservative spirit they repre-
Sented, as I stressed last week But /
new occurrence in Latin America Nor
surprising one.
Trends Spread Rapidly.
Political trends have always spread
| rapidly in Latin America Being, as
| they are, countries which have a COM
mon historical background. common
| language, common racial origin and
common political and social character
isticS in general, the southern nations
are easily contaminated by political
movements appearing in one of their
| neighboring states
Conditions are usually similar in sew
eral countries, so when a political ten
dency makes itself felt in one OF them,
| its effects are generally bound to be
| reenacted in the others.
This has been true of Latin America
| for generations. 1t was true when the
! Latin Americans started their wars for
| independence, and the spirit of rebel
lion against Mother Spain passed from
one country to the other with an ex-
traordinary pace until all the new ma
ticns were born
And it is also true of contemporary
Latin American history. To go back
only 10 years-in the course of a dec
ade we can see this propagation of
political trends in Latin America three
times exemplified by present-day his
torical events.
The first time was when dictatorial
forms Of government made their ap-
| remuneration, their temperance
in the world. The dramatic success
| of Mussolini in Italy ard the appar-
emily successful limitations of Primo Gle
Rivera in Spain, Renal Pasha in Tur-
key, Bratianu in Rumania, etc., made
| the movement for strong governments
popular in Latin America not many
| years ago.
So popular, in fact, that ambitious
| leaders had little difficulty in adopting
the iron-hand rule and in proclaining
| themselves the chosen of Providence"
| for their respective peoples, Just like
Mussolini and the others had done
across the ocean.
Dictatorial regimes appeared then in
Latin America, not in one, but in sew
eral countries, with differing degrees of
power. Some of them were open per-
sonalistic relationships, others poorly
disguised strong governments, more or
/ less concealed by dubious constitutional
| provisions. In all cases they were only
variations of similar system of gov
eminent by force which at that time
| happened to be in favor And they
! were all more or less faithful repeti-
tons of the first one to appear on the
|
Leguia in Peru Exception made, of
course, to the Gomez dictatorship in
| Venezuela, which, with its more than
20 years of existence, stands in class
by itself)
Dictatorship Crop Abundant.
Thus, few years ago Latin Ameri-
can governments presented very uni
form picture While Peruvians were
| q q ant
Leguia, three times reelected to the
presidency, Ecuadoreans hailing Dicta-
| tor ISidro Ayora their man of the
hour" and Chileans enthusiastically
| supporting Gen. Carlos IbaneZ, their
strong man, Cubans were helping IRON
| handed Gen. Machado TO the presiden-
! tial chair, MeXicans were craving for
a Gales dictatorship and Bolivians en-
| during with resignation the hard rule
| of President Saavedra.
The dictatorial crop was abundant
throughout Latin America. And the
most remarkable fact about it is that
| great bulk of the populace in those
| countries was satisfied with their
energetic, autocratic rulers. They be-
/ lieved in progress by order and even
| imposition; they expected great deal
from Their self-made bosses. and they
were willing to sacrifice individual
! liberties for the benefits of material
progress and prosperity Books like
| Chocano's organizing Dictatorships'
and Valenilla Lans' Democratic
, Ceasarism" became popular.
All of this because dictatorial rule
was in fashion among the Latin Ameri-
cans. But when they had had time to
realize that Fascism was exclusively an
| italian phenomenon, and when they
| had seen the Primo dictatorship in
Spain and other European strong rulers