Allende's struggle

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33315, 28 August 1973, Page 17

Allende's struggle

(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copy right) SANTIAGO, August 27. The Chilean police have arrested Roberto Thieme, the leader of the neo-Fascist Fatherland and Freedom movement, which is held responsible for many of the acts of violence that have accompanied the road-haulers’ continuing strike against the Government.

Thieme and six other members of the movement were seized early today in a fashionable restaurant in a residential suburb of Santiago. All seven men were armed, but offered no resistance.

Officials have reported nearly 600 incidents of sabotage and terrorism, including : dynamite attacks on roads, power lines, and other public services, since the strike began 32 days ago. The stoppage is costing the country an estimated SNZ4.2m a day. I As a direct result of the (strike against his Left-wing

Government. President Allende is today struggling to ■ form a Cabinet strong enough ! tv hold the country together ( when he leaves for Algeria .(next week. Dr Allende, who is due to ■ attend a summit conference • of non-aligned nations, is fac- . ing the gravest crisis of his •33 months in office. He appears to have lost the sup- : port of all the military > commanders-in-chief who ■ joined him in a “Cabinet of ’ national security" less than ' three weeks ago, and it is likely that his new Cabinet will be an all-civilian one. [ However, political sources ; do not discount the possibility ’ that General Carlos Prats, ’ Minister of Defence and Com- • mander-in-Chief of the Army ’ until he relinquished both posts last week, may be in'vited to join the new Cabinet ■ — Dr Allende’s tenth — in a > civil capacity. - Now that’the military has : virtually abandoned the ■ President, the strikers are ■ likely to push the Govern- ' ment even harder, while ■ their political allies maintain i pressure in the Opposition- ! controlled Congress.