Line-Up in Chile

To fill the post of President, left vacant when Pedro Aguirre Cerda died of bronchial and lung congestion last month, Chile must hold an election in February. Last week, after some political scuffling, the line-up of candidates emerged. Chile's next President will probably be chosen from the following:

Juan Antonio Rios, candidate of the Radical Party, who looked like the best bet. A banker and onetime Minister of the Interior, he represents the right wing of the Radical Party and is strongly antiCommunist. A Radical split had loomed when Rios and Gabriel Gonzalez Videla divided the vote of the nominating convention and a special tribunal had to be set up to decide the party's nominee. But last week, when the tribunal decided for Rios, Leftist Gonzalez, who had been the late President's personal choice, announced that he would manage Rios' campaign.

Oscar Schnake, one of the founders of the Chilean Socialist Party. From a red-hot Socialist campaigner against "Yanqui imperialism" he developed into a strong Pan American when he returned last winter from a visit to Washington as Minister of National Development.

Eduardo Cruz-Coke Lassabe, an able doctor and a onetime Minister of Health and Social Welfare, running as an independent Conservative. Though his drafting of Chile's streamlined preventive-medicine law has made him a popular figure, he seemed to have little chance for the Presidency.

General Carlos Ibanez, onetime Chilean "strong man" and later an exile, trying for another comeback. Though he might command the support of extreme Nationalists and some Conservatives, the General, as of last week, was a long shot.

But the Popular Front of Socialists, Radicals and Communists, which had elected President Aguirre, was a front no longer. The parties of the right (Liberals and Conservatives), who made common cause in the last election, had given no sign that they would do so again. Had the election been held last week, while the memory of President Aguirre was warm in the minds of Chileans, his party's candidate would have been almost a sure winner. If time further divides the Leftist elements and brings the Rightists together, General Ibanez may be a candidate to reckon with.

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