Surprise for Allende

"Suck on that, you reactionaries!" crowed Santiago's pro-government newspaper, Puro Chile. It certainly had something to crow about: Socialist President Salvador Allende Gossens' Popular Unity Coalition had just managed a surprisingly strong showing in the national parliamentary elections against a special coalition of Christian Democrat and National parties.

Billed as the first head-to-head confrontation between Allende's Marxist coalition and Chile's anti-Socialist forces, the election--for all 150 Chamber of Deputies seats and 25 of the 50 Senate seats--turned out to be a sort of stalemate. That benefited Allende. While his coalition picked up only 43.4% of the vote (v. 54.7% for the opposition Democratic Confederation), it gained six seats in the lower chamber and two in the Senate. This still leaves the opposition parties in control but gives them far less than the two-thirds majority needed to stop government programs.

Allende was properly flabbergasted. The vote surpassed the 36.2% that he himself had received when elected President in 1970, and it was three points above the 40% maximum predicted by the most optimistic Popular Unity pundits. What had happened? For one thing, the opposition had wrongly counted on defeating Allende by emphasizing Chile's economic problems--inflation and consumer-goods shortages--for Allende's regime has actually increased the purchasing power of many working-class families. In addition, the electorate grew 16.6% through the enfranchisement of several previously barred groups--18-year-olds, illiterates and the blind (who marked Braille ballots). Many of these new voters are poor and most voted for Allende.

Last week's "victory" hardly solves his problems, however. Although the soaring price of copper (up from 460 to 680 per pound) could bring Chile an extra $300 million in hard currency this year, the nation will have to import twice that much in food just to maintain current standards.

And current standards are none too good. Block-long lines form for a chance to buy even a pack of cigarettes or a liter of cooking oil. Beef is all but forgotten.

Meanwhile, foreign currency reserves have been exhausted, inflation soared at a rate of 163% last year and this year's trade deficit is expected to surpass $500 million. Says one foreign economist in Santiago: "By July or August there will be some very hungry people in Chile." Says Allende: "There are higher values than a piece of meat or a kilogram of potatoes."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.