Perils of Disrespect

With the practiced ease of old troupers, the Peronista majority in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies ran through the routine of ejecting another Radical member last week. For the fourth time in 18 months the pretext was the same: in a speech last month Deputy Atilio E. Cattaneo had been guilty of the "gross misconduct" of criticizing President Juan Domingo Peron.

Shorn of his parliamentary immunity, Cattaneo was immediately subject to arrest on the new criminal charge of "disrespect" to the President. Two former Radical deputies, Ernesto Sammartino and Agustin Rodriguez Araya, previously ejected from the Chamber, had set him an example by fleeing to Uruguay (TIME, Oct. 10). While police searched 64 public establishments and private homes (including those of two high-ranking army officers), Cattaneo gave them the slip in the middle of a downtown Buenos Aires traffic jam. At week's end he, too, apparently was safe in Montevideo. The grapevine reported that he was keeping under cover there to avoid embarrassing the Uruguayan government.

Soon after he disappeared, Cattaneo presented to the Congress, by mail, support of his charges that Peron had grown rich in office. Listing the names and addresses of business firms which he said could confirm his statements, he described the President's San Vicente country estate (which Peron calls a modest rural retreat) as a lavishly decorated multimillion-peso layout with a large swimming pool, elaborate lighting and watering systems, sumptuous furnishings and marble fireplaces. Cattaneo's charges and his offer of proof made scarcely a ripple in B.A.; no newspaper even dared print them.

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