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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1963)
(Democracy UmidleirgoDinig Acid Testt imi Veimeziuielo Uiofts By JAMES R. WHELAN United Press International Caracas, Venezuela - (UPD -Late on the night of Dec. 7, 1958, screaming and rioting mobs teemed into Caracas. They smashed windows, burn, ed nouses, looted stores and, for three days, clashed with police. The reason? Romulo Betan court had just been elected president of Venezuela. From that time to this, Communist "riot specialists" and disgruntled troublemak ers from losing parties - far right or far left - have given Romulo Bettancourt little rest. Today, all eyes are on Ven ezuela, the buffer nation be tween South America and the explosive Caribbean. If democracy succeeds here - and continues to achieve peaceful reform - it will serve as an example for the rest of the hemisphere. Venezuela is now undergo ing its ternest test - the bat tle against phantom bombers and clandestine rebels. Former President Alberto Llears Camargo of neighbor ing Colombia summed up the situation this way: "The pity of Venezuela is that President Betancourt must spend 18 hours a day just fending off those who would overthrow him, and that leaves him only six hours a day to govern the country." That was two years ago and President Betancourt has, in fact, done a lot of govern ing in between. But the ex tremists - now almost exclu sively of the far left - have sharpened their claws. Enemies Strike At 9:20 a.m. on June 24, 1960, Betancourt s enemies struck their most daring blow: A bomb activated by micro wave shattered a parked car just as the presidential car passed. The chief of the mili tary household in the presi dential place died in the blast, as did a bystander. Betan court lived, but his hands and face will remain scarred PP&L Economists Attend Seminar Pacific Power and Liihi company's staff of Polly Pa cific home economists have completed a three-day sem inar at Portland, reviewing the company's home service ad visory activities and hearing details of the company's new "Total Electric" promotional program. Home after concluding the training session is Mrs. Geane Kinsner, Medford, the Polly Pacific representative for PP&L's Copco division. Conducting the sessions were Frank Reis, PP&L s gen eral sales manager, and J. W. Mowrey, residential sales manager. The Portland seminar em phasized the company's new program for Medallion Home indoor and outdoor lighting the increased terms of the wiring finance plan and the company's greater emphasis for electric space heating pro motions. for the rest of his life and his hearing was permanently impaired. Investigation traced the plot to Betancourt's then arch enemy, Dominican Dictator Rafael Leonidfis Trujillo. Foreign ministers ot me American republics met in emergency session two months later, and the economic and diplomatic boycott they voted was the beginning of the end for Trujillo, victim of an as sassination one year later. By the end of 1961, it was clear that the far left as a political force capable of con trolling the "masses" was fin ished. Nowhere was that more evident than during the De cember, 1961, visit to Vene-, zuela of President Kennedy, i Welcome Kennedy Instead of the rocks and ' riots that met Vice President , Richard Nixon 30 months be fore, Kennedy was greeted by j huge welcoming throngs. ! Early in 1962, the far left resorted to terrorism and sub version, though continuing to operate freely on the polit ical front. Their decline co incided almost exactly with the decline of Cuba's Fidel Castro. Sohortly before 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon of Jan. 23, 1962 - the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of Dictator Marcos Perez Jiminez - a plas tic bomb exploded in the sev enth - floor bathroom of the $2 million U.S. Embassy building, only 50 feet from the ambassador's office. No one was hurt, but this was the violent debut of an organization known as "The Armed Forces of National Lib eration" (FALN), a Castro patterned combination guer rilla and terrorist force which has since come to be known as the "armed wing of the Communists and MIR (a Marx ist-line extreme left party). In the next three days, am bushes and hit - and - run at tacks claimed 40 lives. They went on to specialize in ar son raids, chiefly on U.S. fac tories. I Youths Terrorize The pattern: Youths armed with machine guns and usu ally including one or two women surprise a nightwatch man or small security force, tie them up while they paint slogans on the walls, then spread gelatinous gasoline and flee. In October of last year, co incidental with the Cuban cri sis, the far left stepped up its terrorist campaign. The government retaliated by rounding up an estimated 800 prisoners and airlifting them to a prison colony in the jun gles of eastern Venezuela. In 1963, the FALN - who claim to number 1,500 in all of Venezuela, though the gov ernment claims their number is closer to 400 - concentrated their fire on American prop erty and spectacular stunts. These included the hijacking of a 6,00(r - ton tanker on the eve of President Betan court's trip to the U.S. in Feb ruary and the theft a month before of five French paint ings worth $660,000. Both the paintings and the ship were recovered. Danage Grows Attacks on U.S. property alone have caused damage since the first of this year es timated at almost $4 million. None of the members of the 50.000 strong U.S. communi ty in Venezuela - one of the largest in the world - has THE DANMOORE HOTEL 1217 SW Mormon St. PORTLAND, OREGON All transient gueiti. All those who come, return. Rates not high, not low. Free garage, new location Vs block from hotel. Open until 10 P.m. TV's and radios. Reputation tor cleanliness. CHILDREN UNDER SEVEN NO CHARGE WOULD YOU PAY $50 FOR A HAIRCUT? LS', 3 i i Hollywood actors and Texas millionaires do making Jay Sebnng one the best-paid cutups in his profession. Don't miss the amusing pictureand-1ext story of Hollywood's most famous barber and his even more famous clients in the AUGUST 4TH Issue of Family W&Glcljr with your copy ofe Medford Mail Tribune been physically hurt. But late ly the attacks have had a personal tack. June 5, 10 youths armed with machine guns and some of them dressed in stolen Ven ezuelan army officers' uni forms tricked the guards at the Spanish Colonial house used by the U.S. Army mili tary mission here. Inside, they forced the four Venezuelan guards, four U.S. enlisted men and two U.S. of ficers to strip to their under wear and submit to a 40-min-ute lecture on "Yankee Im perialism." Before leaving, the assail ants bayoneted a portrait ot George Washington, trampled a U.S. flag and hoisted a FALN flag in its place. They set fire to the building, leav ing with the warning "The next time we won't be kid ding." Ten days later, four well dressed youths armed with machine guns invaded the home of U.S. Embassy politi cal counselor Edward T. Long. Long was out, but the invaders tied up Mrs. Long and a maid before they ran sacked the house. As the Fourth of July ap proached, authorities in Va lencia - a booming industrial area 70 miles southwest of Ca racas - disclosed a bomb at tempt against a U.S. indus trialist. They also revealed that families of American ex ecutives of "blue chip" U.S. firms had received threaten ing telephone calls. Shake Confidence The objectives of the Communists are apparent: Shake investor confidence in economic hardships, and sab otage the presidential elec tions of this fall. The December elections will mark the first time in Vene zuelan history that one free ly elected government turned over power to a freely-elected successor. Venezuela is vital to the West for political, strategic the country, thereby creating and economic reasons. Presi dent Kennedy recognized this in the warm welcome he gave Betancourt last February in Washington. "You are," Kennedy told Betancourt, "a symbol of what we want for our own country and our sister Re publics (of Latin America). 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