This is the season of Latin America's discontents, and those discontents are taking ever more tangible and visible forms. Most of the Latin countries are unhappy with the U.S., as Nelson Rockefeller's three fact-finding missions for President Nixon have graphically demonstrated. Either the U.S. plays too large a role in their economies —or it does not do enough in terms of aid and favorable trade. Rockefeller's trips have provided a focus for protest. Many Latin American nations are also unhappy with themselves and in search of new paths to progress. That combination of frustration, militancy and venturesomeness last week made news in five South American countries: — In Peru, the military government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado decreed a sweeping land-reform program that included the expropriating of some U.S. interests. It was one of the most drastic —and potentially effective—such reforms ever proclaimed in Latin America. >In Argentina, terrorists firebombed 13 supermarkets owned by the International Basic Economy Corporation, a company controlled by the Rockefeller family. The fires, which destroyed seven stores and damaged six, were presumably ignited to protest the New York Governor's visit to Argentina this week on his fourth round of "listen and learn" trips. To head off demonstrations when Rocky arrives, the government arrested more than 100 students. > In Uruguay, President Jorge Pacheco Areco found himself in a showdown fight with striking unions, which blocked his efforts to bring the country back from the edge of bankruptcy. President Pacheco's response was to declare a limited state of siege under which strikes are outlawed.
>In Paraguay, student unrest boiled up in the wake of Rockefeller's visit, when police used tear gas and truncheons to break up a demonstration at an engineering school. Rallying against police brutality, students at one point last week took over a church in Asuncion, and most of the country's high school and college students trooped out on strike.
— In Chile, the government of President Eduardo Frei Montalva came to terms, after weeks of negotiations, with the U.S.-owned Anaconda Company. Chile will buy 51% control of the giant copper interests of the company (see BUSINESS). It was a victory for the moderate Frei; Chile's more militant nationalists had agitated for outright expropriation of Anaconda.