Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

also, for the first time, led many lO arm themselves for a possible confrontation, which seemed more likely now that the safety valve of an impending election was no longer present. A government proposal to limit full wage readjustments lo those making less Ihan three times Ihe minimum wage did nothing to reassure the hostile middle income groups. Before the elections, it had been rumored that Ihere might be another attempt in March al an accommodation belween Ihe regime and the opposition forces, possibly under the auspices of the military. Any possible accord of this type was quickly prevented by the publicalion, two days after the elections, of a government decree calling for the initiation in June of a single national unified school system, which would follow a common curriculum periods in factories. The ensuing uproarinvolved the Catholic Church for the first time in formal opposition tothe government and mobilized thousands of secondary-school stu– dents in violent demonstrations in downtown Sanliago. Stories of fierce arguments over Ihe school proposals among the top military officers (the mi Iitary had left the cabinel after the elections) filtered inlo Ihe nalional press, and a mililary delegalion held a formal meeling with the Education Ministry to express their opposilion. The conlroversy subsided only when the government announced that the proposal had been postponed, pending further discussion. Within the g0vernment, the debate continued on whether lO "consolidale il! order to advance" (the Communist position) or lo "advance without compromise" (the Socialist stance). One indication of how the debate was resolved was the decision by the govern– ment lO use a constitulionally-authorized "decree of insislence" allowing the cabinet lo override Ihe ru Iings ofthe Controller General of Chile, Heclor Humeres. who had disallowed the requisitioning of some of Ihe factories laken over during Ihe October 1972 slrike. Confl icts also continued with the judiciary over the exec\Jtive's refusal lo obey court orders lo return seized properties. On May 26, the Supreme Court sent a public lelter to (he President denouncing . .. .the illegal aftitude of the administration... its open and continual rebellion against judicial orders... which signifies a crisis ofthe rule oflaw and the ímminent breakdown of the juridical structure of the country.(J8) The stalemate between the executive and Ihe Congres~ over the constitutional amendment on the "Three Areas of Property" was compounded when the Constitutional Tribunal refused to lake jurisdiction over the dísputed queslion of whether, in the absence of a plebiscite. the Congress could override the President's item vetoes by a majority or by a two-Ihirds v'ote.(19) A second constitutional conflict along the same lines developed when the oppo¡;¡ition majority in Congress voted in favor of an amendment to give farms under 40 heclares (about 100 acres) in size an absolute guarantee against exproprialion and to compel the distribulion of land in the "reformed" sector to Ihe peasantry after a transitional period of two years. (The government had once again used a loophole in the 1967 law to postpone indefinitely the distribution of expropriated land by individuallitle.) In May the official price index jumped 20 percent, indicating that the inflalion was moving into a new hyperinflationary stage. The 9ne effort that the government had made to hold the line-its refusal lo granl a full cosl-of-living wage increase to the El Teniente copper miners on the grounds Ihat under their contrac! they had al~eady received partial cost-of– living increases- led to a bruising Iwo-and-a-half month strike, which included a miner's march on Santiago, mass ralhes, and simultaneous one-day general strikes for and against the government in mid-June. By Ihal time, Allende was once more ready lo resort to mililary involvement in the cabinet to restore social peace. (18)Libro Blanco, p. 215. (19)The lerm "ilem velo" retleets the tael tha! the Chilean presiden!, unlike his !,J.S. cciunterpart. can veto or even rewrite individual seetions 01 projilOsed laws. 32