PROPHETS OF THE REVOLUTION

Rutgers Professor Robert Alexander presents here a sort of meaty monograph for graduate students of Latin American affairs; though it's pretty lean on style or sensationalism, it's certainly full of all the right questions and all the best facts. In giving portraits of twelve south-of-the-border leaders, Alexander sharply separates the wolves (Peron, Castro) from the foxes (Vargas) and the foxes from the faithful old democratic hounds (Figures, Munoz Marin). But regardless of the breed, most of the politicos' platforms can be summed up in Uruguay's Battle y Ordonez: limit the profits of capitalism, whose dividends came from the people, and tie as closely as possible the social activity of the State to that of the masses; in a phrase, reform everything and everywhere. Now whether this comes about via Cuba's Maximum Leader and historical hysteric or through the liberal statism of Venezuelan Betancourt is, quite unquixotically, the 64 pesos consideration. Others involved: Peru's de la Torre, spokesman of Indo-American economic union; Alessandri, Chile's middle-class, middle-of-the-roader; Bolivia's successful duet, Paz Estenssoro and Siles; and Peron, Argentina's odd-ball military and working class fascist.