Clean Sheets & Four Poster

Clean Sheets & Four Poster

In the Presidential Palace at Tegucigalpa, the pretty, mountain-rimmed capital of Honduras, chambermaids were busy last week dusting wicker chairs and a gold telephone, shaking out blankets, putting clean sheets on beds. On Feb. 1, barring further violence, Honduras will have a new President -- General Tiburcio Carias Andino, burly, mustachioed farmer and reformed hotblood. President Vicente Mejia Colindres will retire to the bawdy seaport of Puerto Cortes, where he expects to practice medicine and raise cattle from a stock of three blooded cows impregnated by three blooded bulls presented to him by United Fruit Co. after the election last October.

Until recently General Carias' career had been studded with bad luck. Since 1892 he had been best known as a revolutionary. Last year General Carias wisely included in his platform a guarantee of adequate protection for foreign investments (United Fruit furnishes 65% of Honduras' wealth, employs 250,000 of its 860,000 citizens), and stipulated that every voter should dip his forefinger in indelible ink as he cast his vote. He defeated Dr. Angel Zuniga Huete, the Liberal candidate, handily.

President Mejia Colindres broke an ancient Honduran precedent. A Liberal (Red), he announced the victory of General Carias' Conservative (Blue) party. Previously it was customary to announce the election results only if the Administration party won. The President's unorthodox action so shocked his Red supporters that they revolted anyway and for three months Honduras enjoyed a Red v. Red-&-Blue revolution. Last week Rebel General Jose Antonio Sanchez had fled to Nicaragua and the revolution was over.

President-elect Carias meanwhile had won the hand of his longtime sweetheart. who because his social position was inferior to hers refused to marry him until the Presidency was within his grasp. On Feb. 1 she will move their family into the Presidential Palace, the reception room of which is furnished with a score of wicker chairs and a four-poster bed.

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