EL SALVADOR: Mail for the Embassy

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El Salvador inaugurated last week its new, non-popular President, mummy-faced General Salvador Castaneda Castro, chosen in a one-candidate election. The crowds in the streets were small and cheerless. Beside the new President stood the savage little Dictator, outgoing President Osmin Aguirre.

When El Salvador last year overthrew her Theosophist-Dictator Maximiliano Martinez, she breathed a brief moment of freedom. It ended when Osmin Aguirre battered his way to power with the help of Lend-Lease arms. Hope rose again when all the nations of the Hemisphere (except dictator-ruled Nicaragua and Honduras) refused to recognize him. Chilled, he moderated his severity, staged Castaneda's election. Seemingly, he was forced to retreat toward democracy.

Then the blow—recognition from Washington—fell. The U.S. State Department not only recognized Osmin Aguirre but urged other nations to do likewise. It probably wanted to complete its united Hemisphere front against Argentina in time for the Mexico City Conference. But Salvadorans feared that the little Dictator, thus encouraged, might snatch the Government from the less dreaded Castaneda and resume his tyranny.

Immediate results in El Salvador was a fierce outburst of anti-U.S. feeling. President Franklin Roosevelt was booed in movie theaters. Salvadoran democratic leaders tried to hush the hullabaloo, were inclined to blame not the U.S., but the powerful United Fruit Co. They suspected that United Fruit opposed the spread of democracy for fear of increased taxes and stricter labor laws.

But rank-&-file Salvadorans could not grasp the distinction. By mail to the U.S. Embassy came pictures of Roosevelt which had been used as toilet paper. Also by mail came neatly wrapped parcels of dung.