Evening star., 1932-01-03
BY GASTON NERVAL.


n NINETEEN THIRTY ONE will
~ pass into history as year
N po;f9ica prominent in Latin American
Below the Rio Grande 13
new governments were inaugurated dur
! ing the year as the result either Of
revolution or popular elections, not in
| cluding several temporary regimes which
lasted scarcely a few days and only
served as transition steps in a move
ment of widespread political reorganl-
zation.
In seven of the Latin American re-
publicS open revolution broke out In
1881 and in five of them revolutions
were successful. In four more OF them
minor isolated attempts at rebellion
were quelled at the start.
Elections Maintain Balance.
On the other hand, seven presidential
| elections were held throughout Latin
/ America during the year, some OF them
| precisely in those countries In Whlch
revolution had set up military juntaS a
! few months before. These elections
were said to have been the freeSt that
Latin Americans had seen in many
years. They were held IN peaceful
! and democratic way, much in contrast
with the violent methods employed not
! long before in overthroWlng the OLD
| governments.
| A balance, therefore, is more or less
maintained The liberal and demo-
| cratic elections through which constl-
! tutional authorities were chosen IN Ger
tain of the Latin republics make up Tor
! the violent changes which were meVl-
| table in others And even these violent
| oypnntinn should be
held more to the credit of Latin Amer
| ica than against it, because they were
amply justified by political and eco,
nomic reasons which differentiated
them from the fashioned and pure
ly personal revoltS characteristic OF that
part of the world some decades ago
Five Revolutions Successful.
The five successful revolutions were
those in Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Chlle
ard El Salvador.
The sun Of 1881 had hardly risen
when a revolution broke out IN Panama,
early in January I termed tins, at the
time a logical revolution Tor VINO
ever knew the conditions existent IN
Panama would have understood that a
revolution was the only way out OF a
chaotic situation of administrative dis
order and dishonesty.
A CLIQUE of three men who had sue
cessively governed the country Tor the
last decade with very little respect Tor
the sovereign rights of the people and
even less concern-sO it was gnerally
charged-for the revenues resulting
from their taxes, were arbitrarily ruling
the destiries of Panama with the help
of a small and vicious circle of politl-
clans. The Chief Executive was only an
tl1SH hi D..
decessor being the real force behind
the presidential chair.
Peruvian Revolt Made Serious.
Paradoxically as it seems, the Pana-
man revolt provoked a legal change
of government. The man designated
by the constitution to take the
reins in absence of the President was
called to head the new administration
In response to this call. DR.. Alfaro, then
Minister to Washington. hurried back
to Panama and was sOlemnly inaugu-
rated by the Supreme Court. after two
weeks of provisional government pre-
sided over by DR.. AriaS, also in accord
with the provisions of the Panaman
constitution.
In Peru the trouble was more seri-
Gus. 1t was not single and rather
bloodless movement as in Panama, but
series of isolated outbreaks, which
finally resulted in a nation up
rising against the rule # Provisional
President Sanchez Cerro, Sanchez
Cerro had been in power only little
over six months, having arrived there
by the overthrow of the ll-year
Leguia dictatorship, which he had en-
gineered and conducted, but in this
short period of time the new ruler
man of "stronx hand" and great per-