Chilean Cabinet resigns

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 15

Chilean Cabinet resigns

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

SANTIAGO, November 1.

President Salvador Allende, fighting off a heavy cold, today tried to reconstruct his 15-member Cabinet in a way that would lead to a settlement of a crippling “bosses’ strike” against his two-year-old Left-wing coalition Government.

Political sources said that he hoped to persuade at least two military officers to join his new team, but this idea was resisted by members of his own Socialist Party which, with the Communists, provided the bulk of the outgoing Cabinet. Thirteen Ministers resigned en masse yesterday, shortly after the President accepted the independently-offered resignations of the Interior Minister (Mr Jaime Suarez) and the Education Minister (Mr Anibal Palma). The Presidential information office said the resignations were intended to give 64-year-old Dr Allende a free hand in negotiations with possible new Cabinet members.

But observers pointed out that they also had the effect of side-stepping Opposition censure moves pending against four Ministers, including Messrs Suarez and Palma. These two have said their resignations are final, because they intend to run for the Senate in elections scheduled for next March and are compelled by the Constitution to leave their Government posts four months in advance. Dr Allende was meeting top advisers today in his private rooms in the Presidential palace, where he is confined because z of his cold. But his office has already said he will not name his new Cabinet until tomorrow at the earliest.

Today, All Saints is a na-

tional holiday in Chile as elsewhere in Latin America. Meanwhile, the “bosses’ strike” by lorry owners, shopkeepers and thousands of other business and professional men moved into its fourth week, most of the country’s 10 million inhabitants being short of all but essential food and other supplies. Dr Allende has firmly refused to accept a series of demands from strikers’ leaders —supported by all five Opposition parties—which he considers “purely political." But observers said that he now obviously hoped that a new-look Cabinet, excluding individuals who have aroused Opposition anger by allegedly unconstitutional action to combat the strike, will provide a cue for return to work without too much loss of face on either side.