Jetancourt: Who Will Succeed Him? Spring Meeting May Decide Nation's Fate By Ronald W. Kenyon NATIONAL ELECTIONS will be held in Venezuela late in November to choose a successor to President Romulo Betan- court, with nominating conventions slated for this spring. A void created by Betan- court's pending retirement could have fatal consequences for the young democ- racy. Betancourt's political ship has sailed many seas. As a student of Venezuela's Central University, he was one of the leaders of the famous "Generation of '28," a movement dedicated-to the over- throw of the ruling regime of Juan Vicente Gomez. Many of the members of the movement were communists at the time, including Betancourt himself. Today Betancourt has exchanged his youthful Marxism-for a vigorous anti- communism and has become one of Washington's favorites. He has played one of the world's toughest games and consistently won. Venezuela's second pop- ularly elected president, he has survived more than 170 army revolts, miniature invasions and assassination plots. In his own nation, Betancourt has moved into a mediating role between extreme foes: violently reactionary armed forces and Fidelista-Communist revolutionaries. When he won the presidency in 1959 cver Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, who had headed a care-taker junta, Betan- 3ourt faced the monumental task of cleaning up after dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, who had fled to safety in Miami, leaving the country's finances a shambles. Betancourt succeeded in paying off Ven- ezuela's million-dollar debt. He has also set out to reduce the number of the all- powerful reactionary armed forces. In a highly-guarded purge, he forcibly retired a number of senior officers. But Betan- court realized he could not risk destroy- ing the huge military organization at one fell stroke. Thus he has appeased the army: out of a total budget for 1963 of $1.8 billion, the military gets $270 million -a rather high figure for a small country such as Venezeula. Since 1961, Betancourt has faced an- other serious internal crisis: the guer- rillas. Two anti-government groups exist; the first, known as the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN), coordinates terrorism in and around Caracas. A sec- ond group of around 250 guerrillas have no formal organization but are simply called "las guerrillas del monte"-the mountain guerrillas. Betancourt has acted to destroy these elements with amazing speed. Convicted guerrillas are sentenced to the govern- ment prison "El Dorado" for 16 years; CONTENTS BETANCOURT: WHO WILL SUCCEED HIM? .. . ....Page Two By Ronald Kenyon A GROWING NUMBER OF STUDENT PARTIES .. Page Three By Richard Keller Simon and Samuel Bobrow EUROP'S MODERN ART IN ANN AROR Pages Four and Five PREVIFWS AND REVIEWS ............. .Page Six THE CAMPUSI PRESS . . Pages Seven and Eight By Michael Olinick ACTING EDITOR: Gloria Bowles COVER: Inexactitude Multiple by Francois Arnal. Martha Jackson Gal- letvy;New York City. PHOTO CREDITS: Cover: Daily; Page Tvo: Associated Press; -Pace Three: the MDmly Penncylvvncn; Paes Four and Five: Da;lv: Pane Six: Dn4lv; Pace Seven: Colujmh;a Journalism School: Pace Eight: Daily. Page Two Venezuelan President Waves to Caracas Crowds their leaders for 18. Two months ago, according to the Venezuelan embassy, 178 guerrillas were sentenced. Few of the leaders have been communists; but the majority seem to be disenchanted opposi- tion party members. DESPITE THESE serious internal prob- lems, Betancourt has managed to lay the foundation for a genuine liberal de- mocracy. He organized a literacy cam- paign; estimates predict that within a couple of years there will be no illiterates in the country. Thousands of elementary schools have gone up; most of Venezuela's school-age children now can attend classes. A widespread but generally un- noticed agrarian reform has distributed individual plots to 50,000 families. The AD party has made itself a vital part of the nation's activity by extending its organization into the smallest villages and explaining democracy to hundreds of thousands. But the important question today is whether Betancourt's successor can con- tinue to build on this strong foundation. To answer this, we first should see the prospective candidates for the presidency. Betancourt's AD party will hold its nominating convention t h is spring. Among the top contenders for the nom- ination is Raul Leoni, one of the founders of thetparty. He is a well-liked man of enormous political experience and popu- lar with the voters but suffers because he is disliked by the partner in the gov- erning coalition, the tiny clerical COPEI party. A second candidate is youthful (41) Carlos Andres Perez, who is now Minister of Interior, a title with far greater sig- nificance in Venezuela than in the - U.S. The central government in Venezeula exercises considerably more control over the respective states than here: state gov- ernors, for example, are appointed by the President. Thus the Minister of Interior is virtually the President's right-hand man for national politics. Perez has per- formed his task remarkably well and gained much experience doing so. Gonzalo Barrios is considered the out- standing congressman in Venezeula today. A highly cultured man, he is currently the vice-president of the AD party. How- ever, his candidacy is unlikely due to his "aristocratic ideas." ANOTHER POTENTIAL candidate is Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso, Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, an authority on the petroleum industry and the sworn enemy of the international oil combines operating in the country. Too smart to attempt a Cuban-type nationalization, he would try instead through legal means to increase the government's cut of the petroleum profits. Chief among Venezuela's 21 opposition parties is the Democratic-Republican Union (URD). Once a minor party with only 150,000 members, URD scored in- the 1958 elections by nominating as their candidate the popular Admiral Larraza- bal. Larrazabal is a military man who never cared much for politics, but his ponular smile won him 800.000 votes against Betancourt's 1.284.000. If nom- inated. he would nrobably not be able to- outdraw AD anywhere except the Federal District of Caracas, where AD strength is almost nil: in the 1958 elections, for example, Betancourt only polled 45,000 votes. against Larrazabal's 250,000. . Jovito Villalba is the founder of the URD party and its probable candidate. A member of the "Generation of '28," he was, for the sake of appearances, allowed by Dictator Perez Jimenez to run against him in the rigged elections of 1952. Villal- ba unexpectedly won the election. Perez Jimenez declared the election void, and sent Villalba out of the country. He worked with Betancourt in drafting the, country's new constitution in 1959. Assuming a continuation of present conditions in the country during the coming months, the outlook for the elec- tion looks something like this: AD has around a million members. Their candi- date will be able to count this million plus another 800,000 or so who do not belong to any party. A MORE DIFFICULT problem faces the URD. They lack a strong party or- ganization-unlike AD, for example, URD does not hold a nominating convention. Their chances thus depend completely on Larrazabal's luck in unifying support behind him. He will run, however, whether or not the URD gives -him its official blessing. Assuming that Jovito Villalba succeeds in obtaining party back- ing, the URD will be completely split and AD will win hands down. For that rea- son, AD is helping Villalba sub rosa as much as they can. "Divide and conquer" may still hold true. The word "election" in Venezuela, as in most of South America, still means some- thing far different than in the United States. Rigging, for example, -is the rule;- not the exception. Frequently the army takes power and puts off the elections un- til "sometime in the future" as was the case in Guatemala recently. Or sometimes the colonels and generals grab control of the government to nullify the results of a legal election as they did last year in Peru. The last few years had seen a welcome change in this traditional pattern with the end of a number of military regimes: Paul Magloire in Haiti (1956), Peron in Argentina (1955), Rojas Pinilla in Colom- bia (1957), Trujillo in the Dominican Re- public (1962), and Jimenez in Venezuela (1958). President-. Kennedy's sincerely-moti- vated Alliance for Progress, which prom- ised Latins dollars if they exchange their feudalism for liberal democracy, was an aid. But events within the past year all show a return to the sad old pattern of military intervention whenever the mil- itarists imagine their interests to be at stake. And much of the blame for this recent downturn falls on the U.S. Our first mis- take was supporting Latin dictatorships with arms ostensibly for "hemispheric defense" and then watching as the gen- erals used these weapons against their countrymen. Coupled with this was our persistent -refusal to recognize dictators as such: one of the blackest pages of the Eisenhower administration occurred in 1954 when John Foster -Dulles flew to Caracas and confered the Leeion of Merit: on Perez Jimenez. The Caraquenos prob- ably remembered this deed when they spat upon Vice-president Nixon a few -years later. WE ARE ALSO at fault for not censur- ing the military juntas when they seize power illegally as they have so re- cently done in Peru and Guatemala. President Kennedy's bold talk of "demo- Bracy" in his Alliance for Progress means little 'if he does not act to back up these words when the generals snuff democracy out. "Election," which to us means an order-, ly change of administration, often means in Latin America the change of constitu- tion. One of the significant differences between Latin America and the U.S. is the absence in Latin America of political "rules of the game," like those known to the Western democracies. Nowhere is there a functioning two-party system: instead there is usually one ruling party or clique and a whole multitude of hostile minor parties each with its own program for re-making the entire country. All of this goes to show that "a void created by Betancourt's retirement could have fatal consequences for Venezuela." The danger of a military take-over in Venezuela is imminent should a capable candidate fail in winning the November election. There is still the danger of ex- tremist sabotage which Cuba would both welcome and encourage if a weak candi- date wins. Finally, there is still the task of creating a climate for the continuance of democracy-those "rules of the game" mentioned above. There are, of course, no definite guar- antees that any of the likely candidates will be able to muster the courage to deal effectively with Venezuela's many prob- lems. But of the contenders. Leoni, Andres Perez and Villalba are certainly the most promising. Larrazabal's smile would not be a sufficient weapon against the left- wing extremists and the restive Army. With luck, however, any of the above trio could probably survive. But owing to the present level of Vene- zuela's political development. AD should keep control of the government. Although Villalba of the URD is competent himself his party needs more time to create an effective organization and a party ideology. .When that time comes, one would hope for a URD victory. But at present, the only real party in Venezuela is the Accion Democratica; thus Leoni or Andres Perez, if nominated, deserves the victory. In either case, we here in the U.S. should continue to support Venezuela's efforts ,0 create a genuine democracy in Latin America and encourage the new president in his efforts to continue the job Betan- court has so admirably begun. In This Issue ,., The current exposition of modern European art at the Alumni Museum has stirred up some controversy, with art enthusiasts variously disappointed by the paintings and others defending the selections made by two University professors. Sandra Zisman, a junior in_ the art school and a painting major. takes a walk through the exhibition and offers her own impressions, which should serve as a starting point for a visit to the Museum by her readers... Michael Olinick, Daily editor 1962-63, writes an authoritative article on the subject he knows best: the campus Dress. Olinick, in semi-retirement since the appointment of a new senior staff at The Daily, reflects on the state of the college newsnaer in the United States ... a resident of Philadelohia, Richard Keller Simon is a freshman in the literary college and a Daily rewrite who covers University beat. He has cooperated with another freshman .ournalist, Samuel A. Pobrow, who is a reporter for the Daily Pennsvl- vanian. This view of student govern- ment at another niverity causes us to take a second look at severe criticisms of the local'*effort ..Finally, predic- tions for the outcome of the Venezuel-£ an presidential nomination camoaign are undertaken by Ronald Kenvon. a senior in English and a prospective nolitical analyst, who has a keen in- terest in Latin American affairs. --G. IL By Michael Olinik Daily Editor IN THE BYLAWS adopted by most uni- versities and in the documents of prin- ciple and operation composed by sub- ordinate campus agencies, there exists vague phraseology limiting the freedoms of the faculty member and student. The tuition paying scholar may not "engage in conduct unbecoming a student." A professor may not take "such action as would compromise the university in the eyes of the public." Similarly, the campus press is obligated "to have at heart the best interests of the university" and is forbidden from publishing any news item or editorial that would 'violate' those interests. These phrases mark the boundaries of the sphere of thought and action on the campus, but they are rarely made any more clear. One can hardly ever tell how closely he is drifting toward the awful precipice of bureaucratic censure. The walls are there, but you cannot see them. The university administrator will refuse to tell you where they are, for in most cases, he does not know himself. Details in a particular case are filled in ex-post facto after a hurried and harried examin- -f the political climate and the university's tender image. A coed participates in a Freedom Ride; a member of the mathematics faculty vigorously defends his rights before a Congressional investigative committee; an editorial in the campus newspaper labels the university president 'unfit' for office. These are the times the barriers suddenly and cruelly appear. The campus press suffers most from this unfortunate situation. Professors, on the whole, are less actively radical than their students and student editors. They have a strong tradition of academic free- dom which guards against bureaucratic abuses, some sort of appeal process from arbitrary firings and even a 'union' - The American Association of University Professors - to censure and blacklist re- actionary universities. A university administration will hesi- tate in taking action against a professor because it doesn't want to lose its fac- ulty in protest resignations or have pro- fessorial 'loyalty' weakened so that many would leave if the institution later falls into an economic slump. Faculty favor has to be curried; if students don't like the place, let them find another. ALTHOUGH stalwart alumni still main- tain that attendance at the univer- sity is a privilege and not a right, indi- vidual students are beginning to gain protection from arbitrary acts by the administration. Many infractions of rules are being handled by student judiciaries which are slowly gaining autonomy from student affairs deans. Student govern- ments are approving bills of student rights and gaining pledges of adherence to them from the administration. Stu- dents are also turning to the courts and receiving encouragement in their quest for a guarantee of 'due process' in sus- pension and expulsion cases. Student newspapers have fewer allies and a greater tendency to get themselves into trouble, The power of the printed word is. much stronger than most acts that an individual student or professor can and will do. The first place dissident students turn for university and social reform is usually their newspaper. In turn, the campus press is under -tighter and more immediate control of its deeds. The First Amendment has rarely been embraced by university trustees and even where freedom of the campus press has been a strong tradition, publications boards and faculty advisers and college presidents have repeatedly violated it when students showed positive signs of exercising it. Given the vagueness of its limitation, it is not surprising that the editors of campus;newspapers which have a modi- cum of freedom find themselves frequent- ly involved in controversy. College editors are an introspective and analytical lot, ready to spend long hours in areument; the question of 'should we print it?' can arise'many times a week. The staff box changes each year and a new group of editors must ask itself, "What are the best interests of the university and how do we fit into SUNDAY, MAY 12, 1963 them?" or in other language, "what is the role of the newspaper in the academic community?" From an examination of the newspaper's ideal function, the staff can determine how much freedom it needs to fulfill its duties, sketch out cri- teria for publishing articles and editor- ials, decide where to concentrate its re- sources and determine what values it wants to try to inculcate in the lower staffs. PERE ARE basically only two theories of the press: an authoritarian and a libertarian one. Briefly, the authoritarian theory holds that a newspaper's chief purpose is to support and advance the policies of the reigning government and to service the state. The content of the newspaper, under such a theory, is tested and evaluated against its contribution to the achieve- ment of established goals. The press has administrator, nothing so inexpedient as the libertarian theory could be accepted. For many, the campus press is the uni- versity's house organ so tightly controlled that even neutral statements about the campus attract suspicion of a blue pencil before copy is approved for publication. On some of these campuses, the student editors willingly and gratefully accept the editorial position as a supplement to the college's annual catalog. For them, it is more or lass a continuation of their high school experience: the prestige of having the principal (later, the dean or vice- president) call you by first name and chat with you in his office is traded for publishing his words under your byline. What is perhaps most galling and dis- turbing is the attitude of hypocrisy evi- denced, by many college newspaper ad- visers..Verne E. Edwards, editorial writer for The Detroit Free Press, is working on a national survey of campus news- papers. His report on the survey is not Vague Limits on Freedom Leave Editors Uncertain: 'What Should We Print?' chances fo of the news: about fut These fear ber of wa courage, tbf lished. What is titude of p ing news b be 'co-oper cy or off discovered serve only departmen frequently, promise to to keep it Another when an is settled and posed solu proved; he because "t and might sity's emis tells an in: lege will vc enrollment from order an unguar journalist. maneuver f denly beco he affirms got an an denies it, t endangere Student to perform if not to I the typewi plays an e: that the j to determi told certai: are the on the people about thei news-man2 these edito of honest THE CA: headac press. It is lication ar will not p to be set u etical justi: of fraterni from estab tions board with a sini Those w) the campu monopoly n from exerc parts in t The editor because th paper is ot all groups shouldn't b These cr the least c cording to nalism der cent of a presses an daily news in their cit The view few extremi in Student suggest th limited to p utes of the many colle publish an MANY CA a very monopoly p giant urba vigorate th zation of a regular me: whatever v: he sign hi paper's sta issues. The will sign a understaff express co columns to Such a I tages. It Pei Cor RED Olinick with fellow journalists at Columbia no function in determining or questioning these goals. That is up to the individual or group exercising the political power. The press is controlled in a variety of methods, but the basis is permission from the government to publish in return for a pledge of support or employment of a government censor for the press. The libertarian theory of the press emerged from the .general philosophy of rationalism and natural rights of the Enlightenment and found its explication in the writings of Locke and Mill. As adopted in the United States, this theory held that the purposes of the press were to inform, to entertain, to sell - but chiefly to aid in the discovery of the truth and to act as a check on govern- ment. An examination of these theories gives support to the thesis that the press al- ways takes on the form and coloration of the social and political structures within which it operates, especially the system of social control. AN EXAMINATION of the collegiate scene shows that the university ad- ministration adopts the authoritarian creed while the student editors seek ap- plicatione of the libertarian doctrine. While the libertarian theory is ground- ed on the same assumptions as the theory of academic freedom generally accepted in the. classroon and laboratory, and while it is more consistent with achieve- ment of the university's educational aims, it has only been accepted fully by a handful of universities. In the notorious- ly expedient universe of the institutional finished yet, but one or two major con- clusions can be drawn from his data. In response after response to his question- naire, these faculty advisers would say that their newspapers were free news- papers run by the students and enjoying the full benefits of the Bill of Rights. Yet these same advisers would relate how they maintained a check on all items before they were published, how they had precensored editorials on controversial matters, how the newspaper had certain restrictions on what the editorial writers could editorialize about. How does a free and responsible college editor go about deciding what 'is in the best interests of the university'? This is a decision he really only needs to make once. The best interests of the univer- sity, as of any public body, are served by the publication and open discussion of any and all material which is im- portant to the state of the university. This is simply a demand for honesty in reporting, a demand that editors realize their job is to guard the welfare of the community and to do that the members of the community must be informed on all sianificant factors affecting it. Student editors usually have little trouble determining whether or not the information they have just garnered is important, though they often have diffi- culty getting the news. Once they have- the news, there are several causes that lead' to 'voluntary' suppression of it.. REPORTERS and editors are often scared. They are threatened with loss of scholarships, pledges to destroy their THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE