A Time for Decision

In uneasy Asuncion, marines and green-uniformed cavalrymen patrolled empty streets. All 18 of the city's streetcars (which are frequently chartered for funeral hearses) headed for the car barns. Shops, whose food supplies were cut by roadblocks, sold out quickly and locked their doors. Paraguay was set for a fight.

It got set last fortnight, when members of the opposition Febrerista Party and some Communists raided the police station. There it might have ended. But at Concepcion, a once industrious, now seedy port on the red clay banks of the Paraguay River, Army officers balked at President Morinigo's orders to arrest pro-Febrerista fellow officers. Furthermore, they decided that they did not like Morinigo. Presto, one-third of the Paraguayan Army was in revolt. Another third was in barracks at Asuncion, and the Asuncion soldiers were loyal. That threw the balance of power to the garrisons that guard the wide plains of the Gran Chaco.

Persuasion. Both sides worked on their Chaco comrades. Morinigo radioed the Chaco garrisons, got a coolly equivocal reply. Concepcion troops struck north toward Puerto Pinasco, hoping to meet the Chaco forces across the river and persuade them to join the revolt.

But in Paraguay, where rivers are the chief highways, even a revolution moves slowly. Morinigo quickly drafted loyal civilians into conscript forces, set them out on the long march toward Concepcion. His well-trained regulars he kept in Asuncion to maintain order. Two of the Government's three gunboats, which might have provided help, were berthed in Buenos Aires. They were returning from the presidential inauguration in Uruguay, and the captains were reportedly stalling until they could pick a winner. Morinigo sent one of his few planes to Concepcion to observe the situation; the pilot landed there and joined the rebels.

As the two forces deployed for what threatened to be a major engagement--at least politically--the rebels claimed more & more adherents, up to 30,000 men. Rebels also controlled most of the country's food. Significantly, it was reported that Morinigo had sent both his wife and his bank roll to Buenos Aires. Of one thing the rebels were certain: after six years in the saddle, their President was going to have a hard time staying there.

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