AVILA CAMACHO

Evening Star, Issue 23836, 17 March 1941, Page 2

AVILA CAMACHO

GOHSciimoa of Mexico KEW FRESiBEKT'S CAREER Mexico's new President, General 31 all uel Avila Camacho, is quiet, amiable, reserved, and practical, writes Petty Kirk, in the * Christian Science Monitor.’ He prefers harmony and order, and dislikes extremes. He has a record of successful negotiation of dispute. When his own honesty and loyalty are involved he has the reputation of being unyielding to pressure from any source. During the first week of his regime he met with full response the many expressions of friendship and interAmerican co-operation made by Vice-President-elect Henry A. Wallace, of the United States. With such a happy beginning the United States may expect .to look to his Government for solidarity and understanding. General Avila Camacho’s first three official acts were regarded as characteristic of the man and are expected to be characteristic of his administration. He named a coalition Cabinet, indicating; his capacity for compromising in the interests of harmony; ho ordered all political prisoners released, indicating his humanitarian spirit; he publicly listed all his and his wife’s properties, thereby becoming the first Mexican official to comply with the new Law of Responsibilities for Federal officials and employees. The new President is 43. * He is a native of Tczuitlan, Puebla. A local poet has described his birthplace as “ my beautiful land of the clinging clouds.” It is this beauty, as well as the President’s affection for his parents, their home, and his native soil, that impels him to make frequent trips to revisit Teznitlan, just as President Cardenas went often to Jiquilpan, and as President Roosevelt returns to Hyde Park. It was in the Lyceum of Tezuiltan that he received his training as a public ' accountant which helped equip the new President for the many administrative posts which he has held since. \ Among the many young men of spirit who joined the revolution' during the 1910-20 decade was Manuel Avila Camacho. He joined _ the “ Aquiles Serdan ” brigade in his native State and has been in the national army ever since. His first post was as private secretary to the commanding general. In 1920 he met with General Lazaro Cardenas and started a friendship of enduring loyalty. He became chief of staff to General Cardenas. The' two men have co-operated to make Mexican history. It was during the Cardenas regime that Avila Camacho was appointed Minister of War and Defence, and it was as President Cardenas’s choice for his successor that General Avila Camacho began his campaign for the Presidency in January, 1939. He still refers to General Cardenas as “ my General,” in terms of affection and respect heard frequently in army circles in Mexico. UNSWERVING LOYALTY. Two stories told of General Avila Camacho’s years in the army do much to reveal his personality. The first of these occurred during the Etrada rebellion in the early ’twenties. He was commander of the military zone in Morelia, and taken prisoner by the rebels. General Estrada offered all of the captured officers their freedom if they would pledge themselves not to rejoin the Government forces. General Avila Camacho refused the terms. He had sworn to General Alvaro Obregon that he would remain loyal through the revolution. General Estrada was so impressed with this example of loyalty that he freed Camacho and a warm friendship between the two ■men began. General Avila Camacho promptly rejoined the _ Obregon Government forces and received promotion to the rank of brigadier-general for his action. The second story relates his action in 1932, when he was sent to become military commander of Tabasco. That State was then in the hands of a governor, Tomas Garrido Canabal, who had maintained a reign of force. The Governor sent 5,000 pesos as a “ gift ” to the new military commander. General Avila Camacho promptly sent it back with the comment that “ Who pays, commands.” Governor Garrido Canabal accepted the rebuff, and thereafter co-operated with the new military commander. In 1928 General Avila Camacho had married Dona Soledad Orozco m Guadalajara, an event which he says quite simply 11 was the happiest of my life.”

The second story relates his action in 1932, when he was sent to become military commander of Tabasco. That State was then in the hands of a governor, Tomas Garrido Canabal, who had maintained a reign of force. The Governor sent 5,000 pesos as a “ gift ” to the new military commander. General Avila Camacho promptly sent it hack with the comment that “ Who •pays, commands.” Governor Garrido Canabal accepted the rebuff, and thereafter co-operated with the new military commander. In 1928 General Avila Camacho had married Dona Soledad Orozco m Guadalajara, an event which he says quite simply 11 was the happiest of my life.” In 1933 General Avila Camacho became Chief of the General Staff of the Ministry of War and Navy, and later succeeded as Alinister when the name of the department was changed to

Ministry of National Defence. During those incumbenaes ; as well as during his earlier revolutionary years, he is credited with pursuing a policy of inercy ■ancl amnesty for prisoners caught, similar to that upheld by President Cardenas during his regime. One of the chief preoccupations of •General Avila Camacho while filling the administrative posts, was the continuation and strengthening of the educational programme for the army, begun under General Joaquin Amaro. During his regime, education in the army reached its highest development. The army has long since been transformed from a group of nondescript volunteers, collected during the revolution, into a well-disciplined and well-equipped national defence unit.

Conspicuous in the educational work carried out during his regime was tho foundation of schools for army children in the major military posts throughout the republic, providing the children of soldiers, who are constantly, being shifted from one zone to another, with a continuing education. This is generally made up of technical training, designed to equip them to earn their living. General Avila Camacho campaigned ■on a programme of consolidating tho Cardenas programme, but not extending, it. His consolidation, it how appears, will entail some, reforms, carrying it back into a middle path which •will eliminate many of the maladjustments resulting from its extreme Socialism. Labour will be disciplined, agrarian reform modified, the church given liberties, and capital encouraged to expand. The task which he faces, ns he attempts to put his programme into effect, will call for firmness, sound judgment, and temperate balancing of the Right and Left forces which will be brought into play.