Presidential Meeting

Argentina's Juan Peron summoned his Congress into special session last week to vote him permission* to visit Chile later this month as the guest of his old friend and fellow general, President Carlos Ibanez. During the seven-day trip, Peron expects to visit Santiago and Valparaiso, and to sign a treaty trading Argentine steers for Chilean copper.

But Juan Peron is not planning his first presidential trip outside the country merely to barter with a neighbor. Like Peron himself, Chile's new President is in favor of forming a Latin American economic bloc to give Latinos a better bargaining position in exchanging their raw materials for U.S. manufactured goods. Peron hopes to reach a firm understanding with Ibanez, then sign up other republics.

Will Peron also try to put over his old plan for uniting Argentina and Chile in a customs union? Chilean Publisher Luis Rodriguez, returning last week from Buenos Aires, said Peron told him: "I believe it is time for Argentina and Chile to form a political and economic federation." When Rodriguez gingerly mentioned that many Chileans fear that the Argentines would try to dominate such a partnership, Peron guffawed: "In order that this ideal should become reality, I would be willing to let Chile annex Argentina."

* As required by the Constitution.

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