Washington Welcome to a Friend

A misery of slanting rain and snow buffeted the helicopter ride from Andrews Air Force Base to the White House lawn. But beneath the north portico, President Kennedy warmed his visitor with a welcome that went far beyond diplomatic platitudes. "You represent all that we admire in a political leader," said Kennedy to Venezuela's President Romulo Betancourt. "Your liberal leadership of your country, your persistent determination to make a better life for your people, your long fight for democratic leadership . . . all these have made you, for us, a symbol of what we wish for our own country and for our sister republics. And the same reasons have made you the great enemy of the Communists in this hemisphere."

It was powerful praise for a onetime revolutionary who wandered the hemisphere in exile for nearly 20 years, who was himself a Communist in his youth, and was ordered out of Puerto Rico in 1955 by U.S. State Department officials trying to get along with a Venezuelan dictator. But the fires of violence have cooled in Betancourt. When he arrived in the U.S. for a five-day state visit, he was acknowledged as a firm friend and ally of the U.S., and as the Kennedy Administration's favorite Latin American.

No other chief of state south of the border has been under sharper attack from the extremes of left and right or fought them all off more courageously. From the moment Betancourt was elected to office in 1958 after the overthrow of Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, the Communists and a gaggle of the discontented have done their best to topple his government. In the economic fallout that came after the corrupt dictatorship's fall, there were many grievances to exploit; Communist-fired mobs roamed the capital; Communist gunmen murdered policemen, started backland guerrilla uprisings, even infiltrated the armed forces, touching off two bloody marine corps uprisings last year. If the Reds themselves were not strong enough to overthrow Betancourt, they hoped to make Venezuela's old-line military officers nervous enough about Betancourt's inability to keep order to do the job for them. But Betancourt made peace with his soldiers, and out in the countryside, peasants who elected him President loyally helped the government hunt down the guerrillas. Fidel Castro's Havana radio still cries daily for violent revolution. But the campaign has dwindled to desperate terrorist raids and publicity stunts like the hijacking of the freighter Anzoategui (see next story).

Through it all, Betancourt has gone a long way toward building a new foundation for an oil-rich nation that has long been victimized by a succession of dictators. Betancourt spoke a proud boast in Washington last week: "For the first time in Venezuela's history as a republic, a freely elected President has completed four years of his term in office." He seems a good bet to complete his full five years, and politically strong enough to influence the choice of a successor next year to carry on one of Latin America's most successful programs of reform.

Schools & Land. Before the National Press Club in Washington, Betancourt ticked off some accomplishments. In four years, the number of primary schools has grown by 88.7%. Some 1,500,000 children now go to school, compared with only half as many four years ago; 1,300,000 adult Venezuelans have been taught to read and write, reducing the adult illiteracy rate to 16% of the 8,000,000 population. Through peaceful and legal land reform, Betancourt's government has distributed 3,500,000 acres of land to more than 57,000 farm families and invested more than $100 million in agrarian redevelopment. Industrial development projects are luring in such foreign giants as Ford Motor Co., Container Corp. of America, Owens-Illinois, and Britain's Rootes Motors.

What makes all economic growth possible is the 3,500,000 bbl. of oil pumped each day from the country's vast reserves. Sold mostly to the U.S., the oil produces more than 90% of Venezuela's annual $2.5 billion export income and--through a 67% tax on oil company profits--accounts for about 60% of the government's annual budget. But Venezuelans worry about their declining market in the U.S. And one of Betancourt's major missions in seven hours of talk with Kennedy was to seek a better deal for Venezuelan oil.

Betancourt made it clear that he did "not come asking for contributions from U.S. taxpayers." He wanted reconsideration of the policy that imposes quotas on U.S. oil imports from overseas but exempts oil shipped in overland from Canada and Mexico. Last December, when the Kennedy Administration tightened quotas, Betancourt foresaw a loss of close to $40 million worth of exports a year. He personally telephoned Kennedy in Palm Beach to protest--and got a promise that the problem would be reviewed.

A Fair Share. At the White House, Betancourt argued that Venezuela should be on an equal footing with Canada and Mexico. At the very least, he insisted, it should be consulted before U.S. oil policies are drastically revised. Kennedy agreed "in principle" that the quota system discriminates against Venezuela, promised to see to it "in practice" that Venezuela gets its fair share of the market. On Cuba, the two men had no argument. Said Betancourt: "The government that I head and I personally have taken a position toward the Communist regime in Havana and toward international Communism that is free of equivocation, half-tones, or balancing on a tightrope." During the Cuba missile crisis, Venezuela contributed two destroyers to the U.S. blockade and approved the use of anti-Castro armed action, if necessary.

His business done, Betancourt's U.S. trip became ruffles and flourishes. He pushed on to New York for a two-day stay, had lunch at the U.N. with Secretary-General U Thant, journeyed up the Hudson to see New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whose wide interests in Venezuela run from the Creole Petroleum Corp. to cattle ranching and supermarkets. At week's end Betancourt flew to Miami, paused for breakfast with A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany, then boarded a Venezuelan jetliner bound for more state visiting in Mexico. Then he will go on to the Dominican Republic, where Juan Bosch, an old friend and fellow member of Latin America's non-Communist left, takes over this week as the freely elected President of another land recently freed from dictatorship.

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