Even before he was inaugurated Vice President five months ago, Uruguayans stuck the nickname "Trumancito" on Luis Batlle (pronounced Bat-zhay) Berres. It would not be long, they agreed, before he stepped into the shoes of the President-elect, old (71), frail Tomás Berreta. When Berreta flew to the U.S. to visit President Truman in February, Uruguayans wondered if it would be too much for him. When he took office in March, they wondered how long he could live. Soon he had strength enough only to conduct affairs of. state at his bedside. Last week in a Montevideo hospital long-ailing Tomás Berreta called his Cabinet for a last meeting. Two hours later he died. Through streets jam-packed with mourners, his supporters bore his coffin on their shoulders to Government House.
To stocky, solemn Luis Batlle, 50, presidential responsibilities came easily. He was the favorite nephew of his late great uncle, President José Batlle y Ordoñes, whose social laws gave Uruguay its name for progressive democracy. He has been in politics since he was 25. But politics has not been his only activity. He has had a radio station, Radio Ariel, over which many an Argentine and Paraguayan exile has broadcast. Every afternoon Luisito goes to the Café Montevideo on Avenida 18 Julio to gossip over coffee. He drives his car at high speed, likes to box. After hours, he takes his ease with his wife and three children at a small farm outside the capital.
Luisito is expected to carry on Berreta's moderate line, but not everybody is sure that he can handle the right-wing Herrerista opposition as skillfully as the old man could. Like most Uruguayans he is friendly to the U.S., though last week he expressed reservations about the U.S. hemisphere arms plan. On a trip to Argentina last fortnight he paid his first visit to Perón. He thought he should meet the man, he explained, whose wife was soon going to pay an important visit to Uruguay.