Tachito Talks

Nicaragua's Dictator-President Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza dined with his family at Montelimar, his big Pacific Coast finca (plantation).

Said Son Tachito ("little Tacho"), captain in the National Guard: "Papa, you had better abandon the Presidency while the leaving is good. The people are in an ugly mood, and we have enough money."

Papa, furious, struck Tachito, shouted: "Remember, as an officer of the National Guard you're under military discipline. I'll put you under arrest."

Salvadorita, the President's wife, intervened. Cried she: "Don't strike him for speaking the truth. If your own family can't tell you what's going on, who will?"

Said Daughter Lilian: "He's right-- I've just come from the U.S. and the atmosphere is most hostile."

Tachito was not arrested.

This week, as Somoza's Cabinet resigned, Nicaraguans demonstrated against him, hoped to rid the country of him. Tough, cocky Dictator Somoza had been talking about withdrawing his candidacy for next November's presidential elections. His plan: elect a stooge, run the country as commandant of the National Guard, thus keep some 51 cattle ranches, 46 coffee haciendas and other trophies of his years in office.

Honduras. Democratic ferment also bubbled in Honduras last week, where Gargantuan, 69-year-old Tiburcio Carias Andino, Dictator-President since 1933, raised the state of siege prevailing almost from the day he took office. He liberated 300 political prisoners, sought a stooge to serve out his term (till Jan. 1, 1949).

These were all signs that the tough, democratic talk of forthright U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Spruille Braden could be heard across the Caribbean. Elsewhere in Central America there were disturbing proofs that headaches only begin when tyrants are tossed out.

Guatemala. Last fortnight Guatemala's President Juan Jose Arevalo rose from bed in plaster cast and dressing gown (TIME, Dec. 31) to denounce a fellow revolutionary whom he had dismissed from the Finance Ministry for acts jeopardizing the fruits of 1944's revolution.

El Salvador languished between democracy and dictatorship, with faked elections on the one side but freedom to criticize on the other. Only in Costa Rica, did freedom really ring.

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