The arrival at Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic coast of of a shipload of arms estimated at 1,900 tons from , , in the middle of May, drew world attention anew to the threat of International Communism in . Even the staid and correct Department of State at let it be publicly known that it is "a development of gravity" as the amount purchased being far in excess of 's normal needs. Under the Resolution, the Organization of the
American States warned International Communism that if the Communists transgress beyond a certain point, that is, if they try to seize government control in any Latin-American country, they run the risk of intervention by the governments of that hemisphere. The Organization of American States is scheduled to meet in Washington D. C. on June 20 to review the situation in in the light of the Caracas Resolution.
On June 3, Cesar Montenegro Parriagua, who is chairman of the Labor Dispute Committee, Guatemalan National Peasants Confederation and Communist member of Congress, e1eclared that anti-Communists were in danger of being beheaded, should trouble start. "It is Dot necessary," Senor declared, "to have concentration camps because at the first shot to be hears at an emergency, we will order the beheading of all anti-Communists." A score of well-known anti-Communist leaders have sought asylum in diplomatic missions. A former director of civil aviation of anti-Communist views has flea the country. Constitutional guarantees of civil rights have been suspended.
In , Dr. Cheaddi Jagan, dentist Ion of an East Indian mule driver on a sugar plantation, led the British Guiana Communists under the style of the People's Progressive Party in a victory at the polls to occupy 18 out of 24 seats of the House of Assembly. Such a constitutional crisis was provokea by the Communists' demand for getting rid of three of the four appointed members of the State Council and curbing the power of the Governor-in-Council that the cruisers Superb and Sheffield, frigates Bigbury Bay and Burghead Bay and aircraft carrier Implacable had to be despatched to Georgetown, the Guianan capital.
According to A. S. Steele of the Herald Tribune, there is significant Communist activity in , , , , , , , , , and . Communism has achieves light penetration in , , , and . Only in three countries, , and , has the penetration of Communism been insignificant.
The influence of the Communist Party cannot be measured by mere numbers. The Congressional subcommittee headed by Senator Alexander Wiley issued a report in October, 1953 which estimated the total Communist strength in at 200,000, as compared with the peak figure of the 1944-47 period. Despite the apparent decline in party numbers, there has been a stepping-up of party activities. Among other things, liaison between Latin American Communists and the Iron Curtain countries has been closer. In 1953, 1,000 Latin Americans made junket of various kinds to Iron Curtain countries as compared with 1952.
The outlawry of the Communist party in thirteen out of the twenty Latin American republics did little to deter the activity and development of the various national Communist parties. While the Communist Party has no legal standing in , the Communists effectively control the coal, nitrate and electrical unions with a following of more than 50,000 workers. They have also achieved some infiltration in the copper mining and transport workers' unions. They publish a newspaper. El Siglo, which invariably blared the party line to an unsuspecting public. While the Communist Party is also outlawed in , its membership is the largest in the whole Latin American region. The Communist Party of Brazil has about 60,000 members. It not only influences important sections of organized labor, it has well-placed representatives in the Labor Ministry and a number of other government departments. It was the author of the slogan "The Petroleum Is Ours," which did its part in persuading the Brazilian Congress to vote against foreign participation in the development of Brazilian oil reserves.
In every Latin American country, the Communists are riding the band-wagon of nationalism. They fan the flame of anti-Janqui sentiment. They seek to infiltrate those branches of public life that offer opportunities to influence government decisions. They promote united front governments. They are active in organized labor, agrarian movements, newspapers and propaganda-in prose and in verse.
In , Captain Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was elected President in 1950. After President Arbenz's inauguration in 1951, the Communists, who had helped campaign for him, came into the open for the first time in a united front government. Today, the Communists dominate organized labor and are making a strenuous bid for the support of the rural population who are mostly Indians through active participation in the land reform program. They have in filtrated deeply into 's social service system, the educational system and the propaganda services. Guatemalans point to the fact that there are no Communists in the Cabinet and only four Communists in the Guatemalan Congress. They fail to observe the influence exerted by the Communists through their participation in the high councils of the National Democratic Front, the ruling political coalition. They have spawned a variety of other “Popular Front" organizations. They have a growing mass following among the workers and peasants. They are steering the official press and radio into increasingly anti-United States lines. As an editorial of the China Post of June 8 commented, "Their actual military strength is found in the 5,000 sympathizers whom they can summon at any moment's notice in . Even if these are armed only with sticks and machetes, they will be quite a handful for the Army and Police Force to handle."
Even before the advent of International Communism on the Latin American scene, one could not claim that the was much loved below . The cry of American intervention has been 'extensively and effectively used by Latin American nationalist politicians when no other rational argument could be advanced to kill any proposal for a measure of international cooperation. Today, International Communism has been adding fuel to that long smouldering fire. One of the toughest of problems in Latin America is to neutralize the anti-Janqui poison which the Communists have been so assiduously spreading in their ceaseless efforts to isolate the from Latin American republics.
In propaganda, Communists in not only struggle to control education, the publication of periodicals and newspapers and the radio, they even use poetry as a medium of propaganda. To substantiate their claim that the Latin American Communists are different from the species found elsewhere, they point to the high percentage of intellectuals and poets among Latin American Communists. 's leading Communist, Pablo Neruda, is a poet. His latest product is a 200-line tribute to . has a poet among the leaders of its Communist Party, Nicolas Guillen. In , Jose Manuel Fortuny, who recently resigned as Secretary General of .the Guatemalan Communist Party, once won a poetry competition.
The growth of International Communist activities in Latin America deserves close watching not only because it is the source of important strategic materials like copper, tin, bauxite, iron, petroleum and natural nitrate, nor yet because of the location of the Panama Canal in its midst, but because, with the first physical base of Soviet Imperialism in Latin America would go the geographical advantages of North America, the cultural advantages which the United States has enjoyed so far in Latin America, the common interests following the declaration by the United States and the acceptance by the Latin American republics of the Monroe Doctrine, the security of the Panama Canal, and the security of North America itself.
The situation deserves attention whether it be a united front government with open Communist participation as in Guatemala, the control of the government and achieving Communist Revolution through nothing but constitutional means as in British Guiana, the infiltration of the lower echelons of the ruling party as in Bolivia or a possible open field most favorable to the Communist Party if and when the ruling personality should be deprived of power as in Argentina. The Communist parties in are still at that stage of development where they would pose as being different from Communists elsewhere. They are the champions of labor and land reformers, they claim. It would be repeating recent history were such rigmarole to be taken at their face value.
The situation is in the limelight at the moment. If the takes too direct a form in showing its interest, the cry of Janqui intervention will turn the situation to the advantage of the Communists. When the Organization of American States meets, it may act on the basis of the Caracas Resolution. The effectiveness of the measures agreed upon to implement the resolution remains to be seen.