Lombardo Out

The cause of President-reject General Juan Andreu Almazan sputtered like a discouraged short circuit last week. Loyal Almazanistas insisted that their leader would arrive in the capital by month's end, that he was ready in Mexico for a mysterious "strategy junta." But the Almazan camp in San Antonio was dismally inactive. In Mexico City a band of 500 men & women waving the green flags of Almazanismo tried to rip down a poster proclaiming General Manuel Avila Camacho President-elect of Mexico, was quickly broken up by a squad of motor cycle police. Scattered rebellions in northern Mexico were so insignificant that President Lazaro Cardenas could tour through the troubled areas all week without danger.

On the ideological front General Avila Camacho, President Cardenas' chosen successor, scored a thumping victory at the expense of Almazanismo. By Government pressure, large-eared, hot-eyed, Communistic little Vicente Lombardo Toledano was squeezed out of the secretaryship of the Government-supporting CTM (Confederation of Mexican Labor), probably to be replaced by non-Communistic Fidel Velasquez. Organizer of the CTM in 1936, nimble-minded Lombardo returned from Russia beating the Stalinist drum, vigorously antiFascist. When Moscow shifted so did he, screaming denunciation of the U. S., President Roosevelt, Great Britain and the Monroe Doctrine without losing a beat. Four months ago, under pressure from President Cardenas, he changed horses again, unblushingly declared: "There was never truer friendship between North American and Latin-American peoples."

By removing Lombardo, President Cardenas implemented General Avila Camacho's promise to rid Mexican politics of Communist domination. Avila Camacho had already matched General Almazan's other claims to conservatism by guaranteeing security to both Mexican and foreign investors, announcing himself a good Catholic. He was now in a position to match Almazan's program point for point, could offer the further inducement of accomplishing it without revolution.

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