Chile's able President Eduardo Frei has one of the most ambitious and soundly reasoned development programs in LatinAmerica−if he can ever get started. Nature seems to be conspiring against him. Last March, after only five months in office, Frei faced a major rebuilding program when an earthquake ravaged central Chile, killing 210 people, leaving some 18,000 homeless, and causing damage amounting to $80 million. Last week a saddened Frei again toured disaster-strewn streets, taking the measure of the worst winter in modern memory.
Howling in from the South Pacific, a succession of violent storms with 65-m.p.h. winds...