Evening star., 1962-04-29


GuotemoIo to the edge Of revolution
is explored in this article by Stoff
Reporter George Shermon, who
recently visited the GuotemoIon
'copitol.
Cuban Premier Fidel Castro re-
Gently predicted he would fall
within the year. Civilian lead
ers in the Guatemalan capital
who have little in common with
Mr.. Castro give the Guatema- :
Ian president less time than
that.
The country has been in a
state of military siege since
mid-January, when the chief Of
secret police was assassinated.
Last month 36 persons were
killed and 200 wounded in
street riots set off by student
protests against rugged con-
gressional elections.
Calm had scarcely settled
when four students were killed
by military police in a scuffle
outside the Congress on the
Thursday before Palm Sunday.
Rightly or wrongly, the shoot
ings were widely regarded as
senseless. Further violence was
prevented only because of the
traditional celebration Of Holy
Week.
Alliance Sealed
But the shootings sealed the
alliance between the 5000 uni
versity students in the capital
and the professional classes.
The university has closed down,
the powerful governing univer-
sity council has called upon the
president to resign, and 400 top
professional people have SIM
ilarly petitioned Mr.. Ydigoras.
THE only way they will get
me out Of this palace is with
a crane" the president said
during a private interview on
the day these petitions were
presented. He blamed his
troubles on a combination of
Castro-Co Communist agents and
British "imperialists" who re-
fuse to hand over neighboring
British Honduras to Guate-
mala.
Outside, the walls Of the low
ochre palace were manned with
strategically placed machine
guns. On the porch the new
head of secret police paused
long enough to tell a group of
highly placed petitioners about
Communist plots he had un-
covered. He wore a rumpled
seersucker suit, a soiled tie, two
days growth Of beard-and
riding boots. Meanwhile, cab
met officers and would-be cab
met officers filed through the
grand entrance for presidential
audiences.
That evening Mr.. Ydigoras
went on television to announce
the resignation Of his entire
cabinet and to offer negotia-
tions with anyone prepared to
stand behind him. None Of the
opposition has yet come
forward.
-. Visit Cancelled
In that address the presi-
dent also cancelled a visit to
the United States scheduled to
begin April 25. He could not
leave the country, he said,
when its immortal destinieS''
were being decided. Less ora
torical observers said that If he
had left the country he never
would have been allowed back,
and that in any case the Ken
nedy Administration was dis
tinctly cool to receiving him in
Washington.
During the earlier interview
the 66-year-old president COM
mented caustically on tagging
United States aid under the
Alliance for Progress. He pulled
out a photostatic copy of a
statistical report on Latin aid
released by the AID agency
here last month. Guatemala
had received SO million during
the first year of the Alliance
for Progress - only slightly
more than Haiti at the bottom
of the list.
Unfortunately it would ap-
pear that the more friendly a
country is to the United States,
the less help it receives" he
said.
His critics answer that Mr..
Ydigoras has offered little more
than his much-advertiSed anti
com m unism either to the
United States or his own coun-
try. They maintain his govern
ment is appallingly corrupt
even by lax Central American
standards. A land reform law
he sent to Congress could not
even be discussed because it was
so badly drawn up.
Confidence Ebbs
This corruption and misman-
agement, the critics charge,
simply accentuates the dismal