A grass-roots political movement, so fervently supported that it survived ten years under a dictator's jack boot, last week smoothly propelled its leader into Venezuela's presidency. The party is the left-leaning Acción Democrática (A.D.). Its leader: scholarly, owlish Rómulo Betancourt, 50. In his dust, Betancourt left Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal, head of the revolutionary junta that ousted Dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez last January, and Rafael Caldera, candidate of the Social Christian COPEI party.
Betancourt's victory was a stunning setback for Venezuela's Communists, who backed non-Communist Admiral Larrazábal. With a wild barrage of slogans and Red banners, they whipped the party faithful and fellow travelers into line in Caracas, helped him win a 5-to-1 victory in the capital. But the loud Red noise apparently scared many rightist supporters of Caldera, a certain also-ran, into voting for anti-Communist Rómulo Betancourt as the best conservative choice.
A Bequest of Trouble. Moreover, while Larrazábal and his Communist cohorts were sewing up the Federal District, Betancourt's A.D. had been at work in Venezuela's hinterlands. The near-final returns: Betancourt 1,264,000, Larrazábal (who ran under the colors of another leftist party as well as on the Communist ticket) 898,000, Caldera 422,000. On their own ballot, for congressional seats, the Communists polled 160,000 votes.
Despite the oil wells that pump some $800 million a year into Venezuela, the nation that elected Betancourt is in economic trouble. Dictator Pérez Jiménez splurged on grandiose public works schemes that ran the country $1.4 billion into short-term debt. Venezuela has paid one-third of the bills, must find a way to pay the rest. It must also make jobs for 100,000 now unemployed as well as new Venezuelans, now swelling the population of 6,000,000 at a fat 3% a year.
A Balky Army. Even after his solid win, there were nagging doubts whether Betancourt would be allowed to get on with the job. Mobs of Caracas' solidly pro-Larrazábal citizens followed shouting young slum toughs and Communist agitators into the streets. For two days they ran wild, ignoring Larrazábal's sportsmanlike concession of defeat—big news itself in a continent accustomed to ending vote counts with cries of fraud. Only a cloud of army tear gas stopped them. And although Ground Forces Commander Marco Aurelio Moros declared himself "sure that the armed forces will respect the will of the people," Pérez Jiménez-coddled officers have long been unshakably opposed to Betancourt.