THE AMERICAS: Neighborhood Nuisance

Congressional junketeers to Central and South America in the past have been dizzied by champagne, charmed by Latin hospitality, impressed by the fact that U.S. citizens know so little about their neighbors to the south. But last week a special House committee investigating air transportation revealed that it had learned more than was in the tourist guide books. Chairman Jack Nichols of Oklahoma told the House his committee was prepared to prove:

> The German Minister in Mexico City, Baron Rudt von Collenberg-Bödigheim (due to be ousted momentarily), is chief of the Gestapo in Latin America which operates its "own secret court system" for trial and punishment of offending German nationals.

> Nazi agents have perfected plans to sabotage all utilities in Buenos Aires in event of "a crisis." Nazi agents in Buenos Aires hatched the recent revolt in the Argentine Air Force (TIME, Oct. 6).

> A German Air Force Reserve officer has established an airport, possibly complete with a radio station, on the northern plains of the Amazon Basin (roughly six flying hours from Panama). There are about 30 recognized landing strips in the same area.

> Axis forces control strategic landing fields in Brazil, just across from Africa.

They also have built up stocks of aviation gasoline and oil at hideouts up the Amazon River and at points on Brazil's eastern coast line.

> The yellow, high-hedged German Legation in Guatemala City, where Gestapo-man Christian Zinsser operated until he left for the Orient, has "no less than 14 short-wave receiving sets," houses two crack German flyers in charge of five airports—all within easy bombing distance of the Panama Canal.