Abroad

Buenos Aires Hinge of Democracy Argentine voters will choose their own government this October for the first time since the 1976 coup, thus beginning a revival of traditional political life that could have immense repercussions throughout Latin America. Whoever wins, it will mean the end of military rule, which culminated in the disaster of the Falklands war. The return of Isabel Perón, widow of Juan Perón and last civilian president, from exile in Spain will play a decisive role in the choice of the nominee of the Peronista party, still the most powerful force in Argentina. The centrist Radical Party and other democratic groups are also vigorously preparing for the election. There has been no general assessment of the cause of the Falklands, or Malvinas, disaster. Although public opinion blames the now deposed General Galtieri for the conduct of the campaign, there is no disposition to abandon Argentina’s traditional claim of sovereignty over the islands. It is, however, starting to be recognized that future attempts to assert such sovereignty will have to be carried out by peaceful negotiation with Britain. More pressing problems are the handling of the country’s huge external debt, uncontrolled inflation, and the restoration of the potentially rich but unstable economy.

Peking Pandas in Peril The world’s surviving giant pandas, almost all of which inhabit Mainland China, are facing a new threat this year in the form of a shortage of the bamboo shoots on which they exclusively feed. The bamboo forests of Szechwan and other mountainous regions in western China have flowered and are withering, something that happens only every fifty or sixty years. Wildlife authorities here plan either to import food into the 12 reserves in which the pandas live, or else, as a last resort, move them to zoos. There are estimated to be some 1,200 pandas left living in a wild state. Meanwhile a disturbing report of the sale of panda skins has cropped up in Japan, where a collector is supposed to have bought one for $50,000 and was offered two more at a lower price. The Mainland Chinese, who have been particularly vigilant on this score, believe, however, that the skins are either fake or else very old specimens, taken before anyone worried about the survival of the animal.

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Buenos Aires Hinge of Democracy Argentine voters will choose their own government this October for the first time since the 1976 coup, thus beginning a revival of traditional political life that could have immense repercussions throughout Latin America. Whoever wins, it will mean the end of military rule, which culminated in the disaster of the Falklands war. The return of Isabel Perón, widow of Juan Perón and last civilian president, from exile in Spain will play a decisive role in the choice of the nominee of the Peronista party, still the most powerful force in Argentina. The centrist Radical Party and other democratic groups are also vigorously preparing for the election. There has been no general assessment of the cause of the Falklands, or Malvinas, disaster. Although public opinion blames the now deposed General Galtieri for the conduct of the campaign, there is no disposition to abandon Argentina’s traditional claim of sovereignty over the islands. It is, however, starting to be recognized that future attempts to assert such sovereignty will have to be carried out by peaceful negotiation with Britain. More pressing problems are the handling of the country’s huge external debt, uncontrolled inflation, and the restoration of the potentially rich but unstable economy.

Peking Pandas in Peril The world’s surviving giant pandas, almost all of which inhabit Mainland China, are facing a new threat this year in the form of a shortage of the bamboo shoots on which they exclusively feed. The bamboo forests of Szechwan and other mountainous regions in western China have flowered and are withering, something that happens only every fifty or sixty years. Wildlife authorities here plan either to import food into the 12 reserves in which the pandas live, or else, as a last resort, move them to zoos. There are estimated to be some 1,200 pandas left living in a wild state. Meanwhile a disturbing report of the sale of panda skins has cropped up in Japan, where a collector is supposed to have bought one for $50,000 and was offered two more at a lower price. The Mainland Chinese, who have been particularly vigilant on this score, believe, however, that the skins are either fake or else very old specimens, taken before anyone worried about the survival of the animal.