Spreading the Carter Gospel

From Jimmy, with abrazos

Not since John F. Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress in 1961 had Latin Americans seen anything quite like the attention they were getting from Washington last week. Even as representatives of the U.S. and Panama were striking an agreement for a new Canal treaty (see THE NATION), the Carter Administration was busy trying to patch up frayed relations and win new friends elsewhere south of the border.

Five high-level emissaries were out spreading the gospel of good will. United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young toured seven island countries in the Caribbean, as well as Mexico, Costa Rica and Venezuela, on a twelve-day mission designed to signal increased U.S. concern for the long-neglected area. At the same time, Assistant Secretary of State Terence Todman and Patricia Derian, State's Coordinator for Human Rights, set out on separate South American missions, while State Department Counselor Matthew Nimetz went to Mexico City. Meanwhile, Senator Frank Church, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accepted a longstanding invitation from Premier Fidel Castro to visit Cuba.

The diplomatic blitz reflected President Carter's determination to revamp the American posture in a region that has long been a backwater of U.S. foreign policy. The three main target areas:

The Caribbean basin Mostly poor, politically volatile, dominated by a number of left-leaning politicians, the island nations comprise a modest bloc of about a dozen U.N. votes. Carter aims to increase economic assistance to the Caribbean area (current aid total: $65 million a year).

Mexico and the problem of illegal aliens

Carter has recommended a full amnesty for aliens who have been in the U.S. for at least seven years. Mexico welcomes that proposal but also wants better trade terms with the U.S. in order to help its economy and its severe unemployment problem.

South America's right-wing military regimes

Carter's early forcefulness on the human rights issue drove six Latin countries --Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala and Brazil--to reject U.S. military assistance rather than agree to prepare "report cards" for Washington on human rights. The Administration hopes to keep relations from deteriorating further--without, however, backing off on human rights entirely. Thus Todman was to shore up relations with the continent's right-wing military regimes, while Derian would press Carter's human rights campaign with civic leaders and government officials. In what was seen as an important move to improve relations with Washington, Chile's President Augusto Pinochet announced late last week that he was disbanding the country's notorious secret police agency, DINA. The action came shortly after Todman arrived.

Young's mission carried a heavy load of political evangelism for the new Administration--and he in turn was greeted like an old friend with warm abrazos. Reported TIME Correspondent Curtis Prendergast, who accompanied Young on part of his tour: "Carter could not have picked a more effective emissary for the diplomatic tone-setting job than Young. He functioned as considerably more than a U.N. ambassador, traveling virtually as an alternate Secretary of State with a retinue of specialists on the region from appropriate agencies, as well as the U.N. mission. No small part of his effectiveness is his own record in the civil rights and anti-Viet Nam War movements. Whether arguing the merits of nonviolent solutions in southern Africa or assuring his listeners that Carter's concern for human rights is for real, Young is able to draw on that background to speak persuasively and authoritatively."

He talked with virtually everybody --students, legislators, opposition leaders, government officials--stressing over and over that "a coalition of good will" has come to power in Washington. In Mexico, he told an airport gathering that U.S. officials would be "coming down and doing more listening" than in the past. The response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. As Jamaica's Governor-General Florizel Glasspole told Young: "With Africa, you've scored many a bull's-eye. It's given the U.S. a new look in the eyes of the world."

At a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica with a group of Peace Corps workers, reported Prendergast, "young men and women swarmed around Young as if he were a new Bobby Kennedy." Sounding one of his favorite themes, he urged his audiences to work for nonviolent solutions to racial problems: "Our African policy has grown out of sensitivity to the problems of blacks in the U.S. Blacks and whites in the South used to fight each other and both stayed poor. When we stopped, we got a Southern white President and a black ambassador."

Young said his mission was to "put together a comprehensive approach" to Caribbean policy and not to come on like a dollar-wielding "Big Daddy". But increased aid will follow--especially for Jamaica and Guyana. Relations with both countries have been strained in recent years, partly because of the leftist convictions of Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica and Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of Guyana, and partly because of the two leaders' independent stance in pursuing good relations with Cuba. As Young assured a Guyanese audience, "past difficulties" would not stand in the way of "common agreement."

The Church mission to Cuba was also something of a milestone: the Senator landed in the first U.S. Government plane to touch down in Cuba in 16 years. "At least," as Castro joked at the welcoming ceremony, "it is the first time one has come here legally."

Next month the U.S. and Cuba, which broke diplomatic relations in 1961, will establish "interest sections" in each other's capitals--a step toward eventual restoration of diplomatic and trade ties. In three days of talks, Church and Castro discussed a wide range of issues--including Castro's desire to get the U.S. trade embargo lifted--on which the Senator is expected to report back to Carter. Castro had promised he had something impor tant to offer Church--and so he did. Eighty-four American citizens and their families will be permitted to leave Cuba (the Americans had previously been free to go but not their Cuban wives and children). Castro also released the crews of two Miami-based boats (including the nephew of Bebe Rebozo, friend of former President Nixon's) that had been seized in Cuban waters with cargoes of marijuana, and promised to review the cases of seven Americans being held as political prisoners.

Back home, Church described the gesture as a "very important breakthrough," and said he was certain the White House would find a way to respond. Castro, he added, was a man of "dignity" with "a great sense of justice. I wouldn't pretend the same kind of freedom that is so dear to me here exists in Cuba. But Castro seemed to meet with the affection of the Cuban people wherever he went."

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