senator of the Socialist party of Chile, who represented his party at the OLAS [Organization of Latin- American Solidarity] conference held in Havana last July, was arrested by a squad of thirty plainclothesmen.
He was charged with slandering the head of the government, insulting the army, and advocating force and violence.
The alleged offenses were said to have been committed verbally during a campus meeting in Concepci6én last July where Altamirano spoke and in writing in an article published in a Chilean weekly. In both instances, Altamirano supported
the need for armed struggle in Latin
America, argued that the armies through-
out the continent are under the direction
of the Pentagon, and accused President
Eduardo Frei of incompetency.
At the insistence of the Frei ad-
ministration, the Supreme Court canceled
Altamirano's parliamentary immunity. He
was arrested ten days later.
The U.S. State Department has pre-
sented the Frei regime in Chile as a
model of democracy -- a show window where
all of Latin America can see the alterna-
tive backed by the Johnson administration
to the example offered by the Cuban rev-
olution.
VIETNAM AN "EXCELLENT LABORATORY," WELL-KNOWN