Evening star., 1934-08-12
BY GAsToN NERvAL.
NEW Chief Executive is at the
helm of the Colombian ship

NEW Chief Executive is at the
" helm of the Colombian ship
a of state Last Tuesday Al
4 \ fonso Lopez succeeded Enrique
Olaya Herrera as President of
one of the largest and most progress
sive Latin American republics.
Both the retiring President and the
new head of the Colombian govern
ment are well known in Washington
official circles. The former was the
diplomatic representative of his
country to the United States for a
number of years before his election,
and after being elected paid formal
visit to President Hoover at the White
House. And only a few weeks ago
Senior Lopez, also as President-elect
of Colombia, visited the United States
and was welcomed and entertained in
the Capital by President Roosevelt.
The significance Of Senor Lopez's
inauguration, however, goes beyond
personalities. This orderly, consti-
tutional change of government not
only completes 80 years of uninter-
rupted domestic peace in Colombia.
but it also gives that country record
of political stability in times Of
economic distress and general discon-
tent which no other republic of South
America has eQualed. While in the
past four years revolutions and coups
d'etat have been more the rule than
the exception south of the Panama
Canal, Colombia has twice changed
its Chief Executive in most demo-
cratic fashion.
Uruguay Not Immune.
Not even Uruguay, the small but
highly advanced state whose political
and institutional progress seemed to
make 1t immune, escaped the recent
wave of popular unrest. To forestall
a possible 'levantamiento" President
Terra carried out a coup d'etat from
above. put aside the constitution and
established a semidictatorial regime.
Argentina, where editorial writers
used TO refer diSdainfully TO the
Caribbean nations for their lack of
governmental stability, succumbed
also to the contagious influence of
revoltS>in neighboring states aided by
the difficulties of the economic de-
preston. A military coup unseated
| the Irigoyen government and al
| though. since then, Argentina has
| returned TO normal conditions, both
the provisional military regime and
the constitutional government which
| followed it we're, and the latter still
is, harassed constantly by recurring
| outbreaks OF violence in distant
/ points of the republic.
| Brazil, the huge southern nation
with an area larger than Continental
| United States, not only had change
of government by force in the period
| mentioned, but it endured the bit
| terest civil war in its whole history.
| When dissatisfied elements tried TO
unset the provisional Vargas regime
which had interrupted the consti-
tutional order, Gen. Vargas threw
| the whole federal army into the
| field and waged a furious compaign
against the rebels, in which all the
weapons of modern warfare were
employed. 1t was only few weeks
ago that Brazil returned to a legiti-
mist status, Gen. Vargas having
been inaugurated constitutional Presi-
dent.
Chile Had Series OF Changes
Chile had not one but a series ol
violent changes of government in
the same period. The overthrow oi
Dictator-PreSident Ibanez was fol-
lowed by a number Of armed out
breaks resulting in Just as many
regimes. ranging all the way from
ths conservative Montero admins