Chilean strike not settled

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 9

Chilean strike not settled

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright)

SANTIAGO, November 2. Tension rose in Chile today after a last-minute hitch prevented settlement of a “bosses strike” against the Marxist-

led Chilean Government, which has disrupted the country’s food and fuel supplies for more than three weeks.

Mr Leon Vilarin, leader of (the lorry owners’ syndicate I which began the stoppage on (October 11 by pulling its ve-

' hides from the roads, emerged from talks with President Salvador Allende and key Ministers last night to announce that peace talks had broken down “just as we were on the point of signing an agreement.” He declined to elaborate. The break-down was an extra headache for Dr Allende who, observers said, had been counting on a settlement to coincide with announcement of a Cabinet reshuffle he has been planning for the last two days. The lorry owners’ action, now supported by thousands of shopkeepers and other business and professional men, has started the most widespread challenge so fat to Dr Allende’s two-year-old Popular Unity coalition. Ninety per cent of the "country’s 10 million inhabitants have been under mili- : tary rule for more than two weeks and major cities, in- : eluding Santiago, are under . strict midnight to 6 a.m. curfew.

, Observers said that there was now a fresh clanger of ' clashes between pro and antiAllende factions, inspired partly by widespread frustra;tion over the effects of the [ stoppage on consumers and partly by deliberate Rightwing efforts to create tension. Dr Allende’s 15-member Cabinet resigned earlier this week and political sources said that he was trying to persuade Army officers to join his new team, presumably in an effort to convince the Opposition that Left-wing militants in Popular Unity would be kept on tight rein. But this idea was resisted I by members of his own socialist party and there was no indication the problem had been resolved last night.