situation in key sec— ..s tors of Latin America has been translated from the December 29: issue of La‘Verdad, weekly newspaper of the. Partido Revolucion— ario de los Trabajadores. ) : -
“In Brazil, the ‘most “important. country of Eatin America, the "gorilla" government-of Castelo Branco has acnieved relative stabilization. It has succeeded not only in almost completely crushing the mass movement~ ‘and’-gaining relative economic stability, it has also takén considerable steps toward establishment | of a new political équilibrium among the ruling classes.
This stands out all the more Clearly. in light. of the = .success of the Castelo Branco povernment in absorbing a big electoral defeat in the most important states; establishing a "Second Institutional Act"; turning over the. governorship of the State of Guanabara to someone in the entourage of the proscribed ex-president Kubitschek; and, finally, repressing the intransigent "gorilla" wing of the army swayed by Lacerda. [It has” absorbed all this without immediately endangering. its stability. oe
This shrewd. policy of "permanent zigzag" maintained by the Castelo Branco government has a key aim: to forge an impos-— ing political united front of the big majority of Brazil's exploiting classes around an agreement between "Casteloism" and_ "Juscelism" (the followers of Juscelino Kubitschek), supported directly by the armed forces and U.S. diplomacy. Hence the whole policy of the government is to difterentiate itself on the one hand from the intransigent "gorillas" who stand in the way of an agreement with the Kubitschek wing of the. bourgeoisie; and on: the other hand to definitively separate "Juscelism" from "Brizzolaism," the nationalist wing of the Brazilian bourgeoisie.
The fact that the Brazilian government has “not yet estab-— lished this balance determines the unstable character of the political situation in the country. But until the mass movement is again on tne rise or until the chronic crisis of the economy becomes aggravated, the regime will continue to be the most stable element in maintaining the new Latin-American policy of. the State Department. ~And the big majority of the: Latin-American bourgeois governments will find themselves. obliged to. accept the Brazilian pattern of “democracy.”
_ This general situation has been of particular importance in Venezuela. In 1965 the FLN (Frente de Liberacion Nacional) underwent a rupture; i.e., the agreement between the Communist party, the MIR (Movimiento-de: Izquierda kevolucionaria) and minor. groups around maintaining armed struggle and guerrilla war as the axis of political opposition to "Betancourtism" came to an end.
The majority of the Communist par ty oriented toward an agreement witn the "broadly based" government of President Leoni, in fact sabotaging the guerrilla struggle. The right wing of the MIR..led by Rangel broke with the. organization, arguing for the necessity of ending the armed struggle. Bo 4
This situation occurs against the background of a continued recession of the mass movement anda the pinning down of the guerrilla fighters -- now practically autonomous with regard to the FLN. -- in isolated zones of the coastal mountains. oo
On the diplomatic front, imperialism has taken advantage of this situation to continue advancing. It succeeded in getting the OAS (Organization of American States) to legalize its inter-~
vention:in Santo Domingo and the. mayority of the national bour--_. geoisies to-accept;.the declaration of .tme,House of. Representatives: proclaiming the right.of:the United States to intervene unilateras re any country of the continent-whenever the president so ecides.
-Finally, toward the. end of the year, it succeeded in opening discussion .on an Inter-American - ‘Force, although. without driv-.. ing forsa vote which could-touch off new squabbles with. countries traditionally opposed to.this solution, particularly Mexico. ands. +: Chile. -<This advance of the U.S. within the OAS as made possible: _ by the Brazilian: situation indicated above and by the role played by Argentine diplomacy, - woich has supported the U.S. ‘in all the fundamental problems. Loe
Nevertheless, this general. pattern of ebb is highly unequal and.contradictory. .In Colombia and Guatemala, peasant guerrilla... forces have become consolidated, and the program and conceptions of the Guatemalan guerrilla movement, directly inspired by the... method: advocated by Hugo Blanco and the. Peruvian FIR (Frente de Izquierda:Revolucionario), -has developed as a new political pole — of attraction for the entire Latin-American guerrilla vanguard. The extreme weakness to which the guerrilla fighters of -Venezuela and Peru have been reduced, a result of their depenaence on non- Leninist petty-—bourgeois leaderships, can become converted into a strength, into the beginning: of a critical process that will rad these self-sacrificing fighters tio understand the-necessity of transcending the unilateral theory of.a wuerrilla. "focal center, and adopting the Leninist- -~Trotskyist: theory.of permanent cevelan.
tion and ‘the armed mobilization of. the masses... .
In Bolivia, despite the consolidation of the semifascist Barrientos regime, the deportation and murder of ieaders of the masses, and the intervention of the trade-union organizations, the . military dictatorship nas ‘not. succeeded in imposing an outright o. fascist régime. ~ “ . Due ; Se
In the mines the proletariat have continued to resist, boy-~ cotting the trade-union elections arranged by the Military Junta, organizing demonstrations and marches, organizing local strikes, defending themselves in innumerable cases arms in hand and succeeding in achieving such an important victory as regaining the previous wage level.
“The student movement has continued-to develop in a radical direction, orienting increasingly- toward a revolutionary perspec-— tive... Its role. tas been fundamental in the struggle against the Military, Junta in the cities. It has kept up continual. agitation,. organizing, the struggle to defend*the: prisoners:and win: their frees dom, and initiating many other forms of struggle. . .
“All this. indicates that at any moment .the Situation can turn, the. offensive being resumed by the mass movement , bringing |
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about a prerevolutionary situation. But this reyuires the reorgan= * ization of the workers movement from the bottom up. That is the © fundamental.role cast for the Partido Obrero Revolucionario in view. . of its tradition and the respect it enjoys among the Bolivian |. masses.
In the Dominican Republic the situation is comparable. Here, too, the counterrevolution won a. considerable political vic-— ..i tory with the establishment of the Garcia Godoy government. and. the :.. disarming of the- "Constitutionalist": army. But,-unlike Bolivia, « this situation up to now has not signified a major defeat for the.» masses. On the contrary, from the very beginning of the "Constitu-_: tionalist" uprising-, the masses have been going through immense experieuces and developing their political understanding.
' . It appears that the Dominican proletariat is playing a.more and more determining role, supérseding the piebeianpstty bourgeoisie: of the cities who up to now constituted the. fundamental yeast and "rebel" social base. Toward the end of thée-year, the Dominican... situation was-tending-to become more radicalized, strengthening © the mass:movement. Tne present: situation-in the*country. is such. that only the Yankee armed forces» can | guarantee continuation of the bourgeois state. - ao,
During the. second half: of. 1965,: the. chronic. structural crisis in- Uruguay, expressed in an uncontainable inflationary: .. process undermining the fiscal stability. of the national: state, exploded in a series of big. mobilizations of.state.employees...._. These mobilizations became extended. into the workers movement asa whole and, toward the. end. of the year, continued to spiral, .. leaving the "government at wit 's. end on how to meet it.
The chronic structural: crisis and the rise: of. the proletar-.. iat operate toward: @iving-a prerevolutionary character to the | situation in Uruguay. - Only the- political level of..the Uruguayan | ; wage workers, expressed in the lack of a revolutionary. party, makes a change | in the situation of slow duration.
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