1973-05-09

Welcome to Latin American Press Review, a weekly selection and analysis of important events and issues in Latin America as seen by leading world newspapers, with special emphasis on Latin American press. This program is produced by the Latin American Policies Alternatives Group.

Chile again appears to be increasingly embroiled in open conflict between economic classes, reminiscent of last fall's scenario. The following article from Le Monde is entitled, "Is Chile on The Road to Civil War?"

The Chilean capital was last week plunged into violence and disorder comparable to that which reigned last October when the truckers and shopkeepers strike brought on a situation so crucial that the very existence of the regime was thought to be in danger. Groups of young 15 to 18-year-old anti-government students swarmed into the city center last week, chanting anti-government slogans and openly seeking clashes with the police and with supporters of the Popular Unity government.

Probably for the first time in the nation's history, the seat of government in Central Santiago was a target of demonstrators' anger. A Molotov cocktail was hurdled at the building and several windows, including those in President Allende's own offices, were broken under a hail of stones. This anti-government demonstration by Christian Democrat students and rightist and extreme rightist militants was ostensibly to protest against the implementation of a scheme for a unified national school. But clearly, the issue was a pretext since the project had been abandoned by the government for this year.

Recent events seem to fall into a program of stepped up violence expressly designed to recreate conditions of last October's crisis. Steps have been taken in the past three weeks, which include repeated anti-government demonstrations in the heart of Santiago. In last April, a number of communist and socialist party premises, homes, and newspapers were sacked across the country and in the capital in an apparently coordinated operation.

Le Monde continues saying that the Christian Democrats who, on occasions, have flirted with the idea of a dialogue with the government, seemed to have fallen back on a policy of unreserved hostility. This particularly, since Mr. Allende publicly referred to a Washington Post article stating that Eduardo Frei, the Christian Democrat candidate, had received $20 million from the CIA and from US-based multinational corporations to finance his 1964 electoral campaign.

The Christian Democratic Party appears determined to go to war against the social sector of the economy by introducing a reform bill meant to repeal the entire policy of nationalization. The rightist National Party will obviously go along with the Christian Democrats.

Faced with the growing threat to the government, the workers have again expressed solidarity and readiness to mobilize as in October to defend their factories and offset the rightist inspired violence, Le Monde continues. One hundred thousand workers living in the southwest industrial belt of Santiago have declared a state of general alert. Despite all government efforts to prevent the situation from taking too dramatic a turn, the entire nation wonders anxiously whether Chile is engaged in an electable course towards civil war. That from Le Monde.

Another article, this time from Latin American Newsletter and postdating the above story, reports subsequent developments in the crisis. The article begins, "After street riots in which a pro-government worker was killed, tension has raised to the level of last October and relations between Popular Unity and the Christian Democrats are worse than ever. Unidad Popular, the governing coalition, is blaming the death on the Christian Democrats since the shots which killed the worker appeared to come from the party's building, outside which the pro-government demonstration was held."

In the confused situation prevailing, no firm evidence has been found as to who actually fired the shots, but the Christian Democrats at first denying the responsibility, then said that they had to defend themselves because the demonstrators were about to attack their headquarters and the government had deliberately left them without proper police protection."

Latin American Newsletter goes on to say that relations between both sides are now so bad that most observers are discounting any prospect of functional compromises or cooperation in congressional work, which it is thought President Allende was seeking with the Christian Democrats.

To block any such synthesis would certainly be in the interest of the right, indeed, some people in the government side are saying that the current wave of violence is a deliberate right-wing provocation. Certainly, there is evidence of right-wing thugs egging on opposition student demonstrators who clashed with pro-government students last week.

Latin American Newsletter goes on to observe that with the church still showing signs of withdrawing its tacit support of the government, especially over the new education program, and the army also appearing to be reserving its position, Allende is undoubtedly in trouble. Moreover, this is occurring simultaneously with a difficult congressional struggle with the opposition of nationalization. The above article was from Latin America Newsletter.

An even later article, this time from the American Daily at the Miami Herald, reports that the Marxist blood government decreed a state of emergency on May 5th in the province of Santiago, banning public gatherings and putting the military in charge of public security. The undersecretary of the interior said the mild form of martial law was imposed, "in the face of a state of social agitation troubling Chile." An anti-government demonstrator was shot and killed, and four others were wounded Friday night in an anti-government protest in Santiago.

In Concepción, a major city in another province, thousands of anti-government demonstrators protesting the shooting, battled police Saturday for two hours. The state of emergency declared May the 5th affects three and a half million people in Chile's largest province, where about one third of the country's population lives. Last October, the government similarly declared a state of emergency in most Chilean provinces to deal with widespread disturbances and strikes by truck owners, shop owners, and some professionals. The demonstration in Concepción on Saturday was organized jointly by the Christian Democratic Party and by the right-wing Fatherland and Liberty organization.

In Brazil, currently ruled by a right-wing military organization, an editorial headline, "Brazil Will Have The Bomb", the pro-government Rio weekly Manchete said Brazil would put into operation a "great power policy" sooner than anyone imagined. Referring to the recent purchase of French Mirage jets, Manchete said, "No one should be surprised if after the mirages, in an almost inevitable progression to cover the next decade, they'll come Phantoms, F-111s, modern tanks, Polaris nuclear-powered submarines, aircraft carriers, satellites, rockets, and the atomic bomb itself." The Weekly said that the Brazilian military power would not be used against anyone, but rather as a "persuasive force," but the atomic bomb is as they say, perhaps a military necessity for Brazil. Manchete generally reflects the thinking of the Brazilian military government.

In a more peaceful vein, an article from Latin American Newsletter, entitled "Bears Like Honey", reports that a major deal with the Soviet Union seems likely to follow the journey of the head of Brazil's sugar industry to Moscow. Neither the Brazilians nor the Russians seem anxious to give the negotiations the prominence they deserve. The Cuban government sent a discreet protest to Moscow last week manifesting Havana's concern at the official welcome accorded by the Soviet authorities to the president of Brazil's Instituto de Azucar.

The officials' trip during the week before Easter was deliberately played down by the authorities so as not to attract attention. The reasons are clear, Moscow did not wish to offend Havana and the Brazilians are always sensitive to possible reactions from Washington. The overt purpose of the trip was to exchange views on matter of mutual interest ahead of this week's conference in Geneva, where a new international sugar agreement is to be discussed. That from Latin America Newsletter.

The following article on Argentina's current state of crisis is from Latin America Newsletter. Argentina's military regime is currently in what can best be called a state of high hysteria. Once again, there is speculation as to whether the military junta that is currently ruling Argentina will permit the transition to civilian rule as scheduled for May 25th. Héctor Cámpora, the Peronist candidate, won the presidential elections conducted earlier this spring in a climate of dwindling effectiveness on the part of the military rulers. The juntas' reluctance to give up the official control they do exercise is however being exacerbated by Argentina's condition of increasing militancy on the part of both Peronist and non-Peronist oppositions.

Two events in particular appear to be the proverbial last straws on the camel's back. The first of these was the announcement by the Secretary General of the Peronist Youth Movement that the movement proposed to organize popular militias stating that they would be necessary to ensure implementation of the civilian government's programs. The second event was the shooting of Admiral Quijada by a member of a non-Peronist revolutionary group called the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo. The shooting was a declared reprisal for the Trelew Massacre for which the admiral was regarded as directly responsible.

The Associated Press reported that Admiral Quijada was killed by two guerrillas riding double on a motorcycle. They opened fire when the admiral's limousine slowed at a traffic light. Quijada's chauffeur shot back and fatally wounded one. Police sources said that the guerrilla's body was found later in a flower strewn apartment in a well-to-do part of Buenos Aires. Floral wreaths on the street in front of the building called the attention of the police to the apartment. The apparent inability of the government to guarantee the safety of even their senior officers is causing great alarm in military in executive circles.

Since the March 11th elections, guerrillas have killed two ranking military men, kidnapped two others, raided half a dozen police stations, shot six policemen, set off a bomb at the naval headquarters and taken credit for other robberies, bombings and armed sign painting attacks on government installations. Not to mention several extremely profitable kidnappings of high executives. And what is even more apparent is that popular support for these armed movements does not seem at an all-time low.

The hysteria of the right wing of the military was perhaps most clearly revealed during the wake before the admiral's funeral. Angry navy officers demanding stiff measures against left wing movements shouted insults at the president of the governing military junta, General Alejandro Lanusse, when he and his wife appeared at the wake of the navy admiral. Lanusse left the wake at the navy headquarters soon after his arrival. Also, during the outbursts, the Navy officials refused to let former president Arturo Frondizi even attend the vigil. He was pushed to the ground during an angry argument with the navy officers when he tried to enter the wake.

Latin America Newsletter continues that the capitol and five provinces were placed under Martial Law. Hector Cámpora, the Peronist president-elect, who tries to thread the impossible line of fire between the military regime and the increasingly popular militancy flew home from Europe upon the request of General Lanusse. Cámpora's line on the guerrilla has until now pin to blame military violence and repression. Most recently, he has said that he was confident the violence would stop when he took power on the 25th of May. He's supported in this by the published declarations of all the guerrilla groups, including the ERP.

But Cámpora warns, if the incoming government is prevented by the armed to forces from carrying through the reforms promised in the electoral program, then "the guns will be heard." It is unlikely that Cámpora will abandon this line. He has resolutely refused to condemn the guerrillas and has remained firm on the question of a broadly based amnesty for all political prisoners. At the same time, he's clearly going to be under great pressure from the armed forces to say something to disassociate himself from the latest wave of guerrilla activity. The state of emergency decreed on Monday by President Lanusse is unlikely to contribute to the prevention of violence, but it could be the cover for a new phase of direct military rule. That from Latin American Newsletter.

La Nación of Buenos Aires reports that in Montevideo, Uruguay, all eight daily newspapers have closed, three under government decree and the others by a strike protesting the government action. President Juan Bordaberry on Friday ordered La Mañana, Ahora and El Popular shut down for three days starting Saturday for allegedly publishing state secrets. One of the editors was temporarily detained by the police. Excélsior of Mexico reports that thousands of students participated in the funeral procession for four of their companions killed in May Day clashes with the police. The funeral ceremonies held May 3rd went off without incident following two days of disturbances. The violence was touched off May Day when police tried to stop 300 students in a building of the autonomous University of Puebla from joining a downtown May Day demonstration.

Receiving front page coverage in the US press was the kidnapping of US Consulate General Leonhardy, Mr. Leonhardy was safely released May the 7th in exchange for the kidnapper's demands.

The Christian Science monitor notes that the terrorist kidnapping of the United States Consulate General in Guadalajara, Mexico's second city, could hardly come of a more difficult time for President Echeverría. Fresh back from a month-long world trip designed to enhance Mexican global prestige, the Mexican leader this past week has been faced with mounting student unrest spotlighted by the killing of four students in Puebla.

Moreover, the continuing activity of guerrillas in the mountains south of Mexico City is causing new concern. And now comes the abduction of Consul General Terrance G. Leonhardy, coupled with the terrorist demands that the Echeverría government released 30 political prisoners in exchange for consul. The government quickly agreed to the release and the 30 were flown to Havana in a Mexican Air Force plane. The secondary and tertiary demands, namely reading of the kidnapper's public message and a ransom of one million pesos were also met in the government's concern to protect the consul general's life. This from the Christian Science Monitor.

You are listening to Latin American Press Review, a weekly selection and analysis of important events and issues in Latin America as seen by leading world newspapers with special emphasis on the Latin American Press. This program is produced by the Latin American Policy Alternatives Group. Comments and suggestions about the program are welcome, and may be sent to us at 2205 San Antonio Street, Austin, Texas. This program is distributed by Communications Center, University of Texas at Austin.

This week's feature is on Mexico and we're happy to have Robert Hedner with us who has been a correspondent to Mexico for some time. What can you tell us given the recent kidnapping of the American consulate about the guerrilla movements in Mexico?

Well, first of all, due to the attitude of the government and the controlled press, little is really known about the guerrilla movement. The government either denies their existence or claims that they have just been destroyed or alternatively says they're only a matter of thieves and assassins anyway and they can be dealt with by the local police. The press complies by relegating all reports of guerrilla activities to the crime pages. So, it would seem that the Mexican authorities would prefer that Mexico be known as the country with the highest crime rate in the world rather than having foreign investors and tourists and most importantly their own population suspect that a widespread popular movement may be developing.

How widespread would you say that movement is?

Well, I think first of all, we have to speak of various local movements rather than a national movement. There doesn't seem to be evidence that there's any national coordination among these various local movements. The strongest movement is undoubtedly that of in Guerrero, which is in the state and the southeast of—excuse me, the southwest of the country and is headed by Lucio Cabañas. Judging from the repression there, the movement seems to be very strong indeed. There's been two to three years of repeated search and destroy missions in Guerrero. The former leader of the movement, Genaro Vázquez, was murdered by the police about a year and a few months ago, has now become a national hero.

Napalm has apparently been used, American helicopters, CIA-trained counterinsurgency teams, but all of this has failed to diminish the growing movement. Growing in any case, if we can measure it by the attacks on military camps, army convoys and the repeated kidnappings of the past year and a half, which now have been reported in the newspapers. There's also mass repression in Guerrero, reports of mass arrests in the slums of Acapulco and the other major cities in Guerrero, and also reports of what the Mexicans call "Vietnam villages", which are what we call strategic hamlets, villages surrounded by barbed wire in order to control the rural population.

So, that apparently, Lucio Cabañas, his group is not just a guerrilla band, but a popularly supported movement, not just in the countryside but in the cities of Guerrero and not just in Guerrero, but also in neighboring southern states. There have been many reports of other guerrilla movements such as in Sinaloa, in Tlaxcala, in Chiapas, and in various other parts of the republic.

Are there any reports of activities in some of the major cities?

Yes. There have been numerous reports of urban guerrillas, particularly in Monterey and Acapulco, in Mexico City, but in almost all the main cities of Mexico. And in all of them, you find now that the banks have details of soldiers outside them guarding them. Usually these guerrillas demand the freeing of political prisoners, and this suggests that the Mexican jails are once again overflowing with them. I think the most important urban guerrilla movement has been that of in Chihuahua. In January of '72, a number of the downtown banks were expropriated, as the guerrillas put it. Some of the guerrillas were then arrested. There were reports of there being tortured and even of murders in jail.

In the face of these reports, a popular assembly was called Foreign Chihuahua and 15,000 people turned out for the first one. Subsequently, a popular tribunal was formed to judge first the local repression, but then finally the repression on a national scale to judge the whole regime and it's a permanent political organization, and there now have been popular assemblies in other cities in Mexico, including Puebla and Monterey. So that there seems to be a connection and certainly a great impact between the guerrilla movements, the underground and clandestine movements and these popular movements. But in some, again, I would say that there's no national coordinated movement with a national program, but rather growing local guerrilla actions and then generally, a growing political movement despite sophisticated and very violent repression in Mexico.

Guerrilla movements sound rather strange to us. I was wondering if you could explain some why there are guerrilla movements and why these movements seem to be growing.

Well, I think the fundamental and root cause is the distribution of the social product in Mexico, a distribution which despite, or rather really because of Mexico's wanted economic growth in the past 20 or 30 years is very, very uneven. The 50% at the bottom of the social scale received 15% of the national income and the 15% at the top, those have been benefiting from this economic growth now receive 60% of the national income. This of course after American corporations have subtracted their part.

Why is the income so concentrated or so uneven?

Well, as in all societies, control of the means of production determines how the product will be distributed. In Mexico, which is a dependent capitalist society, the means of productions are controlled by the foreign monopolies in alliance with a local big bourgeoisie. Together, they have pursued an economic policy, which they call import substitution, which is finally responsible I think for the nature of the distribution of the social product there.

This particular policy of import substitution, what is that? Can you describe that?

Yeah. I think there are two ways of looking at it. One, from the point of view of the Mexican and the other from the point of view of the multinational corporations. The Mexicans, and for the underdeveloped countries in general who undertake this kind of policy, it means the substitution of products previously imported from the metropolitan countries, almost always manufacturing, manufactured products, substituting for these imports by making the products at home, by importing the means of production to make them. That is, instead of importing commodities, you import machinery and you make the products at home.

Where did they get the capital for that? How is that arranged?

Well, the capital comes from multinationals. And from the point of view of the multinational corporations, this is a very attractive policy. Rather than export to Latin America manufactured items made by expensive American labor, you export your youth machinery and you get the super exploited Latin American worker to produce the products. And in exchange for this flexibility, you get a guaranteed monopoly in the national market and tax concessions from the local bourgeoisie anxious to share in the profits from foreign capital investment.

However, this process does create serious problems. The one thing, it's based on an existing and given market, that is all it does is substitute where the product is made, and since this foreign investment is attracted by low wages, it's very difficult to expand the market. What happens is to the extent that the market is expanded is it is expanded by deepening it, the 15% or so who are benefiting from this process by more, television sets and automobiles, let's say. So, that capital moves from one branch, which has been substituted such as textiles to another branch, such as television sets, and then when this branch is saturated, when the market has been used up or can't expand anymore, capital has shifted into another branch such as now petrochemistry, or intermediate production goods in general.

But what happens is that the population remains underfed and underclothed and 15% of the population, which benefits from the process continues to benefit and the gap grows wider. It also causes balance of payment problems because the whole process is finally dependent on foreign loans to pay for the importation of machinery from the metropolitan countries.

Given this economic situation, what are the multinationals in the Mexican government planning to do?

I think basically they're planning to follow the Brazilian model, the model that Brazil has followed since 1964, which is to emphasize exportation, to try to solve the balance of payment problems by exporting manufactured items principally to the regional markets in Latin America. However, this also creates problems, perhaps even more serious problems. In order to participate in the world market, the Mexican industry must become more efficient. It's now been protected by 30 years of high tariffs in this import substitution policy, so that it is very inefficient. Therefore, productivity has to be increased, machinery has to be bought, the industry has to be modernized.

Well, it's obvious that the companies which can afford to buy machinery will be the big ones, the monopolies, the foreign monopolies particularly, so that those companies which will benefit from the process will be the North American companies, who will continue to penetrate the Mexican market even more so. The small businessman will be the one who will suffer. He's been protected by this import substitution policy, but now tariffs are being lowered again to raise the efficiency of Mexican industry.

And finally, since the whole process is based on increasingly sophisticated machinery, technological unemployment will rise. The only thing that the president of Mexico, Echeverría, has done to deal with these contradictions, particularly among the smaller businessmen, is to present his policy as a very nationalistic anti-imperialist policy that Mexico will grow greater and begin to export. In fact, it is anything but an anti-imperialist policy and Echeverria is perhaps the new model of the anti-imperialist imperialist statesmen.

How would you see then the future of this development that would seem that the income distribution is already severely strained and that the possible growth plans for the economy would emphasize exports rather than improvement of the mass standard of living at home, that would only seem in the long run to make things worse?

Yes. I think that on the one hand, there will be some attempt to co-opt the working class as they have been to some extent the unionized working class co-opted since World War II. But they haven't been so much co-opted, as had their trade union organizations controlled and dominated. But they will try to create a kind of labor aristocracy in Mexico, but it'll be very, very difficult in the face of falling wages.

I think the only thing that would really be left for the government is what they're already doing, which is massive repression of any kind of political descent, mass descent movement. There will be increasing political prisoners and the left will be faced with the job of really implementing the worker, peasant, student and unemployed alliance that they have been talking about. I think a great deal will depend on the working class movement. If the working class movement, which has arisen in the past few years and has threatened the control of the trade unions in the past two or three years, if this movement becomes more than a syndicalist reformist movement and begins to become a revolutionary movement to align with the campesinos, to align with the unemployed and with the students, then I think Mexico will be entering into a pre-revolutionary, even a revolutionary period.

And the whole, I think an interview in El Punto Crítico, which is the finest magazine in Mexico for this kind of information, an interview with one of the guerrillas, one of the Chihuahua guerrillas perhaps summarize what we can expect in Mexico in the next few years. This prisoner was in jail and heard that one of his compañeros, one of his associates had been captured. He later heard the next day that there had been a shootout in the jail and that someone was killed. He was told that. When he asked who it was that was killed, he received no answer and was just left wondering what had happened to his compañero.

A few hours later, the subdistrict attorney came in and the interview goes on and says, "He told me that the dead man was Raul Diaz," his campanero. I answered him. I said to him, "Revolutions are made with the barbarity of some and the sacrifice of others. And I think this is what we can expect will continue to be the case in Mexico, and even more so in the next few years. Barbarity on the one hand and enormous sacrifice on the other."

Thank you very much. We've been listening to Bob Hedner, who's a correspondent and has been in Mexico for the last several years. And you have been listening to Latin American Press Review. This program is produced by the Latin American Policy Alternatives Group. Comments and suggestions about the program are welcome and may be sent to us at 2205 San Antonio Street in Austin, Texas.