Latin America: Democracy's Bull

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Lest they be suspected of approving the Peróns of Latin America, the critical Senators joined in a unanimous vote to confirm Braden's appointment. But they had made known that freehanded, aggressive "intervention," even for Latin liberties, was not the policy of the U.S. Senate.

The Brass Knuckles. Spruille Braden himself was well aware that Latin sovereignty, Latin pride and—probably more often than he would like—Latin sloth were involved. Long before his critics awoke to the fact, he had realized that his No. 1 antagonist, Perón, commanded some popular support (perhaps 30% of organized Argentine labor, for instance). He understood, better than most, that the U.S. could do little more against the Argentine regime than continue to make U.S. displeasure known.

As Assistant Secretary, subject in the long run to a restraining Senate, Braden could not do everything that he might have hoped to do. But, as Spruille Braden, he could still speak to the Peróns. Last week, on Navy Day, he again denounced the Argentine "state of siege" which "permits a hoodlum with brass knuckles to strike the face of a young girl because she cries, 'Long live democracy! " In short, the Senate drubbing had not changed the bull. Braden had always been adept at stepping carefully, calculating just the china to be smashed. But the horns and the hooves were still there, and would be so long as he practiced what he had preached to Argentines: "The voice of freedom makes itself heard in this land, and I do not believe anyone will succeed in drowning it. I shall hear it in Washington with the same clarity with which I hear it from Buenos Aires."

The Voices. This week the various voices of a varied Latin family came to Secretary Braden:

¶Brazil, biggest in size (3,286,170 sq. mi.) and population (44,460,000), replaced swart little Getulio Vargas, its President and dictator since 1930 (see above).

¶Venezuela, the world's third largest oil exporter, had a new, revolutionary government. This week the new junta, headed by President Rómulo Betancourt, seemed to have the confidence of Spruille Braden.

But at home it was having reorganization troubles.

¶ In Central America, where a U.S. ambassadorial sneeze may start a revolt at any time, democracy and dictatorship contested across national borders. Costa Rica is a first-class democracy; El Salvador and Guatemala are struggling with the problem of embryo democracy. Nicaragua and Honduras are still outright dictatorships.

Sooner or later, Spruille Braden would be impelled to take a stand in that regional struggle.

Some would call it intervention ; Braden would call it the only practical form of nonintervention. As he had been saying for a decade, he said in Washington last week: