Next War?

Two months ago the Mayor of Valles, State of San Luis Potosi, was murdered. General Saturnine Cedillo, boss of San Luis Potosi, appointed another Mayor, but the townspeople resented the dictation, called for a regular election. Fortnight ago, they arranged a meeting to agitate for their rights, invited several hundred Labor sympathizers from Mexico City to attend. Boss Cedillo's men opened fire on the gathering from hotel windows, cafe doors. Throwing up street barricades, the two groups potshot at each other for eight hours, were stopped by the arrival of Federal troops. Four lay dead, several wounded.

This first sharp clash between Cedillo, former Minister of Agriculture who split with pudgy-cheeked President Lazaro Cardenas over the Government agrarian policy (TIME, Aug. 30), and Leftist Laborites, Mexican observers last week interpreted as the opening volley of a Mexican Right v. Left struggle. Unorganized, Mexican Rightists have been unable to present any formidable opposition to the 42-year-old "social revolution" of President Lazaro Cardenas. But last week, news-wise correspondents saw the Rightists rallying around swarthy-skinned General Cedillo, predicted that Mexico contained the makings of a little Spanish civil war.

Leftists, egged on by their most fiery orator, Vincente Lombardo Toledano, Secretary General of the Confederation of Mexican Workers have barked at Cedillo's heels for months. Their cries of "Fascist" influenced Cardenas in dropping the "Bull of Potosi," General Cedillo, from his Cabinet. Since then, President Cardenas has been trying gingerly to pull Cedillo's political teeth in his home bailiwick. To get the General safely out of Mexico, he offered him the choice of a foreign diplomatic post. "I have no interest in foreign affairs," retorted Cedillo. "I find conditions in Mexico much more interesting."

Next the Cardenas-dictated Congress sent a committee to San Luis Potosi to investigate "refraction against the Government and the Constitution." The committee returned with a report of Cedillo's sins, which included failure to establish socialist education, ownership of huge haciendas, failure to guarantee privileges to C. T. M. labor unions, permitting Catholic schools. The committee recommended that the Cedillo Government be ousted. Month ago Cardenas closed the Government aviation school in Potosi, ostensibly for economy, actually to remove a possible weapon from Cedillo. The old General countered with the purchase of six fast planes from the U. S., stored a few away on his ranch. Afraid to move against Cedillo because of his private army of over 10,000 men, the last in Mexico, Cardenas has placed encampments of Federal troops on the borders of the State, strung them along the new Pan American highway.

Last week, as a result of the Valles outbreak, Cardenas discarded his gingerly stand, made his first big move to crack down on Cedillo. Four thousand Federal reinforcements were ordered to move into the State. At the same time in Mexico City, Government officers swooped down on a clandestine radio station, allegedly operated by a Cedillo agent.

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