Politics: The Rising Force

Echoes of Chile's presidential election will be sounding around Latin America for years—and not merely because the Communists were thrashed in their attempt to take power by democratic means. Marxism has never succeeded at the ballot box. The bigger news is the man and the party that won: Eduardo Frei and the Christian Democrats, who are rapidly emerging as a vital new force, not only in Chile but in all of Latin America.

Encyclical & Ethic. The Christian Democratic movement now has political parties in 16 of Latin America's 20 countries—all except Honduras,...