Chile's ailing President Juan Antonio Rios had stepped down. Though he had asked for a sick leave of "not less than six months," Chileans felt sure last week that their President would never take office again. Already—in a tense atmosphere of inflation-fed unrest—there was jockeying for position in the elections that must follow should the President die or resign.
On the right was the Army, sensitive to events in neighboring Argentina, well aware of a conservative trend against the crumbling Popular Front.
On the left was the seasoned Chilean Federation of Labor, 300,000 strong, bulwark alike of Communists and Socialists who had helped elect Rios in 1942.
In the middle were the political brokers, mostly Radical Party men like dynamic duelist-boxer Acting President Alfredo Duhalde.
Last month the Duhalde Government, seeking to appease rightist sentiment, cracked down on a strike of Communist-led nitrate workers. Duhalde brought in tough, smooth Vice Admiral Vicente Merino Bielich, boss of the Navy, to serve as Minister of Interior and strong man. Trade unionists, dismayed at such developments, staged a general strike, demonstrated in the streets of Santiago, demanded a government of the left. But labor's solidarity now collapsed. Socialists, offered four portfolios, joined the new Government, denounced the Communists for brewing another general strike. That left the Popular Front in ruins, the Cabinet uneasily balanced with Socialists and militarists, the dominant question of electing a new President still unresolved.
The real problem: Chile's inflated (142% since 1939), low-wage, high-cost economy. Until Chileans met it, there would be more crises, more cabinets.