1974-01-04

This is the Latin American Press Review, a weekly selection and analysis of news and events in Latin America as seen by leading world news sources with special emphasis on the Latin American press. This program is produced by the Latin American Policy Alternatives Group of Austin, Texas. 

Today's program is the summary of 1973's events in Latin America. It has been compiled from Excelsior of Mexico City, Latin America, the British News Weekly, and La Prensa of Lima, Peru. 

One of the most prominent stories from Mexico in the world press in 1973 was the May kidnapping of the US consul, Terence Leon Hardy, in Guadalajara. Tension was already high early in May as a result of the police shooting of four students in the May Day demonstrations in Puebla, east of Mexico City. The pueblo university rector and student bodies were calling for the resignation of the state's right-wing governor and ultimately won their demand.

The US consul, Leonhardy, was seized by a group known as the revolutionary armed forces of the people and the government immediately conceded all the guerrillas demands, although apparently only after President Echeverría himself had overruled the strong objections of the army.

These demands included the release of 30 imprisoned guerrillas and political prisoners and their safe conduct to Cuba. The unprecedented broadcast of a long political manifesto on the ills of Mexico and the need for social revolution. And into police investigations before Leon Hardy was released and a ransom of about $80,000. Leon Hardy was released unharmed after the demands were met. It was the first time a foreign diplomat had been involved in Mexico, although a number of wealthy Mexicans have previously been held for ransom and the release of political prisoners. 

President Echeverría's handling of the kidnapping was strongly criticized by Mexican conservatives as weak. Indications of the expected pressure on Echeverria to be much tougher with the left and with students came a week after the kidnapping, when police banned a demonstration in protest against the Pueblo killings and lined the streets with 10,000 heavily armed men to enforce the ban. The demonstration was called off at the last minute to avoid serious trouble, but the angry reaction of the student suggests that what is really in danger is Echeverría's policy of a so-called Democratic opening to the moderate left. 

In August, student unrest flared again in Mexico City, where the invasion of the campus of the National University by armed police recalled memories of the 1968 student massacres in Tlatelolco Square. The August incident marked another chapter in the struggle between left and right for control of the universities. In late 1972, the refusal of the former rector to call in the police to evict armed students from university buildings have led to the right supporting a strike of university employees, which led to the rector's resignation. 

The rector explained the August 1973 university occupation by police who arrested 50 students by claiming that he himself had been the victim of a kidnapped attempt some two weeks earlier. The Comités de Lucha, into which the most militant students grouped themselves ridiculed the rector's story, describing it as a mere pretext for the intervention at the university. Certainly the decision to send in the police was accompanied by a well-planned press campaign condemning the anarchy and criminality of today's students. 

It seems that events in 1973 have led President Echeverría so-called reform programs to an empasse due to the quick reaction of the conservative elements. Assailed by rich businessmen, President Echeverría is going to the masses for support of his policies as Mexico goes through a period of uncertainty. This follows an upsurge of terrorism, inflation, labor unrest, and bitter criticism of the government accused by private industrialists of encouraging urban guerrillas with its left wing policies. 

As foreign diplomats take special precautions against being kidnapped, they receive anonymous pamphlets in the mail attacking President Echeverría, accusing him of leading Mexico towards socialism. One such leaflet accused the president of having associated with communists and said, "Either we are for the line of Echeverría or we are for Mexico and freedom". 

The clash between the reform-minded government and conservative private industry had long been building up, but was brought to a head by an upsurge in urban guerrilla activity. The crunch came when Don Eugenio Garza Sada, a key founder of the Monterrey Group, which virtually controls Mexican industry, was assassinated in September in the northern city of Monterrey. 

President Echeverría flew to Monterrey for the funeral only to hear a seething attack on his policies by a representative of the Monterrey Group, Ricardo Margain. Margain accused the government of indirectly encouraging terrorism by supporting left-wing ideas. He also charged the public order in respect for authority had broken down in Mexico. Since the assassination of Garza Sada, one of Latin America's richest men, there were other kidnappings involving the honorary British Council in Guadalajara, Anthony Duncan Williams, and a millionaire industrialist. 

Apparently reacting to criticism, the government rejected a demand from the kidnappers to fly 51 political prisoners to North Korea and stated, "The government and the people will not negotiate with criminals." The council was free after he convinced the kidnappers he had no money. The industrialist was found dead in a car and an anonymous caller told a paper, "We killed him because he is bourgeois." 

In his clash with powerful private industry, President Echeverría has been stressing that he has the support of the 71,000 strong armed forces, the decisive factor in any confrontation or upheaval in Mexico. Mexican army generals have stayed out of politics since 1946 and there is no sign that they're seeking a comeback, but President Echeverría is aware of their importance and gave the armed forces a 15% pay raise in October. 

Government officials say the current unrest is an inevitable result of President Echeverría's efforts toward a more open society, greater democracy, and the redistribution of wealth in Mexico. At a recent rally in Toluca near Mexico City, he blamed the climate of uncertainty on emissaries of the past. His usual term for powerful conservative business interests who oppose his social reforms. President Echeverría's recent controversial decision to sell many of Mexico's public concerns to the private sector may be a move to appease businessmen. 

Anti-government criticism from private industry welled up in September after businessmen were forced to give in to pay rise demands of up to 20% under threat of nationwide strikes. Used to high profits under the official policy of protectionism for local industry during the 1960s, they saw their gains being eaten away by higher taxes and wages. 

It has been said that to some extent the stage four Colombia's recent problem of plagued in 1973 was set during the closing moments of the 1972 session of congress. A Molotov cocktail hurled into the congressional chamber brought to an abrupt end what had proven to be an extremely slow and unproductive year of lawmaking. 

Among the endless list of legislation left pending were vital bills dealing with agrarian reform as well as long awaited reform in urban, university, labor, and electoral sectors. 

This continued non-committal position towards significant social reform on the part of Congress as well as that of President Misael Pastrana Borrero, coupled with an unprecedented rate of inflation dealt Colombia a year of frequent and often quite violent domestic unrest. The three active communist guerrilla organizations all intensified their operations in February by carrying out a rash of sporadic attacks on large landowners and kidnapping several wealthy industrialists. Laboring the guerilla activity a national security threat, the Colombian government launched a two-pronged attack on the three groups, which included introducing the death penalty and beginning a sweeping search-and-destroy effort. 

By the end of October, a Colombian army spokesman announced that they had nearly eliminated the most powerful of the insurgent groups and that it would be turning its attention to a second guerrilla outfit. 

The Pastrana Borrero administration was also forced to deal with major strikes and demonstrations by truck and bus operators, teachers, students, and landless peasants. The two major factors said to have spurred the protests have been the rising cost of living and public outrage over alleged tortures and unnecessary killings of students and workers as well as guerrilla leaders. 

Although by early November of 1973 there was a move toward positive negotiations, the yearlong Colombia-Venezuela dispute over the demarcation of their territorial waters continues without solution. The extremely heated debate stems from their common belief that the disputed area in the Gulf of Venezuela contains rich oil deposits. Colombia's interest in the outcome is compounded by its realization that at the end of the coming fiscal year, it will no longer be an oil exporter, but rather an oil importer. 

As with most of its neighbors, a spiraling inflation has upset Colombia's economy during 1973. The rate of inflation, which reached 30%, has seen the greatest increases in the price of food and petroleum products. The irony of the situation is that, for Colombia, 1973 has been an exceptionally profitable year. There was a rise in total exports of nearly 40% over the previous year. At the close of the year, however, it appears that the government's measures of scattered price fixing have failed to provide a deterrent to the inflationary trend. 

Perhaps of greatest significance is that against the background of widespread political unrest, Colombia's three major political parties have managed to successfully appoint their presidential candidates and carry out vigorous campaigns for the upcoming election in April. This year's elections are doubly significant in that they indicate the decline of the 16-year-old national front agreement between Colombia's conservative and liberal parties. 

Under this agreement, the two leading parties have willingly alternated in power from one term to the next, thus severely limiting the hopes for the third party, ANAPO, National Popular Alliance. 

The pact was to have extended through the 1974 election. However, major splits within the two leading parties during their 1973 conventions have resulted in the premature cancellation of the National Front Pact. The conservatives and liberals have nonetheless settled on a somewhat modified version of the same agreement by which the losing party will automatically fill certain vital cabinet positions. The ANAPO candidate whose strength as astounded, many observers would, it has been said, be overthrown by the Colombian army immediately were she elected.

The greatly reformed minded Maria Eugenia, who has wide popular backing may be weakened regardless of the vote of the still farther left communist and Christian democratic candidates because of the pre-planned nature of the Colombian elections. They have customarily been marked by extreme apathy. This April's election is proving to be no exception.

Today's program is a summary of 1973's events in Latin America. The program has been compiled from Excelsior of Mexico City, Latin America, the British News Weekly, and La Prensa of Lima, Peru. 

You are listening to the Latin American Press Review, a weekly selection and analysis of news and events in Latin America as seen by leading world news sources with special emphasis on the Latin American press. This program is produced by the Latin American Policy Alternatives Group. Comments and suggestions are welcome and may be sent to the group at 2205 San Antonio Street, Austin, Texas.

This program is distributed by Communication Center, the University of Texas at Austin. The views expressed are solely those of the Latin American Policy Alternatives Group and its sources and should not be considered as being endorsed by UT Austin or this station.

African liberation struggles and the oil crisis will soon be felt in Latin America. And from Latin America, a British weekly journal, comes a report by an African diplomat who said that in deciding to mount a common front against Zionist expansions and colonial racism in Africa, the organization of Arab Unity has planted the basis for a nationalist movement for the colonial peoples, which will transcend the frontiers of Africa and the Middle East. 

The same diplomat said that the Arab states, which were not members of the OAU, had requested that Nigeria deal on its own account with the question of oil supplies to Brazil, since Brazil was outside the limits of the African continent. In the view of some African diplomats, Nigeria's position as a leader of the OAU and at the same time, the world's eighth-largest exporter of oil must inevitably lead it into conflict with the Brazilian government. 

Brazil is one of the largest importers of Nigerian oil and one of the biggest investors in the development of the Portuguese colonial territories in Angola and Mozambique. Last year, not only did Brazil negotiate still closer economic ties with Portugal, but the Bank of Brazil also opened branches in Portugal's African possessions. Some observers believe that Nigeria is now on the verge of giving an ultimatum to Brazil. Either Brazil openly proclaimed support for the national liberation movements in Africa, including the recognition of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau proclaimed on 24th of December. 

Or Brazil will be included in the oil embargo against Portugal and the other colonialist countries. The Brazilian foreign ministry has already indicated its concern at the decisions taken at the OAU meeting and their implications for Brazil. Last week, government sources in Brasilia warned of increases in the price of petroleum derivatives and Petrobras included increased the price of petrol by 10%. 

The result of an oil embargo for Brazil in the view of most observers could be to bring current development plans to a complete stop. Although a large part of Brazil's energy demands are met by hydroelectric power, it has no other effective energy sources. Its coal reserves are comparatively small and of poor quality. While the development of a nuclear energy is still in its infancy. With the switch away from prospecting for local oil reserves to dependence on foreign supplies, Brazil appears to have placed itself in a highly vulnerable position. 

The whole of the current development program is to a greater or lesser extent dependent upon petroleum, and the loss of Nigerian oil could not be easily made up from other sources. If Nigeria does give Brazil an ultimatum, the Brazilians might find themselves having to consider reversing their well-established policy of support for Portugal. In view of the blood ties that exist between the two countries, the implications of such a decision could be profound and cause even more dissatisfaction within Brazil. 

Military thinking on guerrillas in Colombia is taking a new twist. As La Marcha reports from Bogota that on the 15th and 16th of December, the armed forces of Colombia engaged in stiff fighting with guerrilla groups who operate in various regions of the country. In the Department of Antioquia, the army faced a unit of the National Liberation Army commanded by Fabio Vasquez Castanio and killed three guerrillas. After the battle, the army announced that three industrialists held by the liberation forces had been freed. 

The battle unfolded in the mountains, which surround the Sierra Nevadas of Tolima and Huila at more than 12,000 feet altitude. Criticism was raised that the operation put in grave danger the lives of those kidnapped, but Marcha goes on to report, "Of even more interest than the fighting at Antioquia is the new military attitude towards the causes, program, and social origins of the guerrillas." 

All this encompassing a situation, which will yield to the armed forces a decisive role in Colombian society, will change now, from the regime of the national front and alliance of the conservative and liberal parties in command for the last 15 years, to a regime in which only one party will exercise power. In a book which he edited, Jorge Mario Eastman revealed his conversations with an important military leader, a colonel by the name of Rodriguez, for whom, "The objectives of the guerrillas are foremost social objectives, and to fight them, it is necessary to go to the sources. That is to say, to undertake profound reforms in an unjust society." 

Eastman reproduces a document written by the army for the National Commission, which studied the country's unemployment problem. In the report, the army sustains that repressive action is indecisive in combating the guerrillas. In the same document, the army criticizes the government's negligence in maintaining its borders, especially that with Brazil, and it asserts that, "National security is also based on the economic and social security of the people." 

These concepts seem clearly inspired by the positions taken by the Peruvian and Argentine military in the last meeting of Latin American military heads in Caracas. Certainly, the reconsideration of the true origin of the guerrillas does not mean that the army, for a moment, has reconsidered its decision to exterminate them. Far to the contrary, the change of attitude of the army towards the guerrillas, the offensive the army has mounted against their last readouts, seems to confirm that the changes are deep and can transform the army in the coming years into a decisive factor in Colombian social and political life. 

To most experts, it is clear that should the guerrilla resistance cease, the army will be able to confront whatever civilian government there is. With this argument, we have fulfilled our part of the anti guerrilla action in maintaining order, but the causes which give birth to them still exist. That is to say, here seems to be repeating itself the experience of the Peruvian military dictatorship who after defeating the guerrillas of the left militarily raised the banners of the guerrillas in legitimizing their own takeover. This report from La Marcha, a newsweekly of Colombia.

Excelsior, one of Mexico City's leading dailies, reports that the United Nations General Assembly, by a huge majority December 14th, approved a committee report declaring Puerto Rico was in fact a colony of the United States, not an independent country. The vote was 104 to five, with 19 abstentions. The opposing votes were cast by the United States, Britain, France, Portugal, and South Africa. The vote showed that the great majority of the world's countries were not persuaded by US propaganda that Puerto Rico is a free-associated state, an independent country whose people voluntarily choose to live under US hegemony. 

Ricardo Alarcón, Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, played a leading role in support of the resolution during the more than three months of diplomatic struggle within the world body prior to the final vote. Juan Marie Bras, head of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and Rubén Berrios of the Puerto Rican Independence Party spoke to the United Nations Committee on decolonization in late August. The US and its few allies on this question bitterly opposed the campaign at every step. At the last minute, the US succeeded in delaying the general assemblies vote by a few days. But the defeat, when it came, was overwhelming. The vote marks an epic in the struggle by Puerto Rican independence forces for international recognition. 

It signifies that in the view of the world body, Puerto Rico is similar to Angola, Mozambique, and other territories directly ruled and occupied by a foreign power. This according to United Nation principles means the people of the island nation have the same legitimate right to rise up against their foreign rulers, as do the people in Portuguese-occupied Africa and other colonial territories. During the debate, speakers exposed to the whole range of United States domination and exploitation of the island, including manipulation and financing of political parties and governments, military occupation of huge bases, repression of patriots, brutal treatment of prisoners, and wholesale economic pillage by United States Corporation. This story from Excelsior of Mexico City. 

From Latin America, a British Weekly, we have a report on the energy crisis and the specter of inflation in Mexico. Although Mexico, which produces the greater part of its own oil, is better placed than many countries to cope with the world energy crisis, it is not immune from its effects. Indeed, the government had been forced to eat the words of the director of the state oil concerned PEMEX, Antonio Dovalí Jaime, who last month declared that the world oil shortage would not affect Mexico or bring an increase in its domestic price. At the end of last week, not only was just such a price increase decreed, the first since 1958, with rises right across the board of 60 to 80% for all oil products, but President Luis Echeverría Alvarez convened an unprecedented public conference to discuss the crisis as it affects Mexico. 

This conference, chaired by the president himself, brought together the members of the cabinet, directors of state companies, the diplomatic corps and the press, and was televised live throughout Mexico. Undoubtedly, this was meant to impress Mexicans with the gravity of their country's economic situation. It has been confidently predicted that the 1974 budget will be characterized by its austerity, and life for the man in the street has not been made any easier by the oil price rise or the increase in electricity rates, which preceded it. 

The low prices which have prevailed for these sources of energy for years have been dictated by political and social pressures and have helped to keep the cost of living down for the mass of the poor. But the consequence has been a shortage of investment funds as well as two inefficient and loss-making industries. A vast amount of capital is now to be poured into the search for new oil deposits and their exploitation. And the private sector is undoubtedly pleased that the government has at last been brave enough to impose what it sees as realistic rates for oil and electricity. Relations between the government and the private sector have in fact improved enormously over the past few weeks. 

The retiring United States ambassador Robert McBride declared at the end of November that investors from his country continued to have great confidence in Mexico and the rate of United States investment was likely to be maintained at 130 to $150 million a year. For the average Mexican however, 1974 is unlikely to be a good year. Wage increases, high though they have been, are not keeping pace with inflation. While for the unemployed life will be even harder. This report from the British News Weekly, Latin America. 

A final brief report from the Washington Post of December 16th, president Juan Perón of Argentina suggested yesterday that the United States military hatched the Watergate scandal to discredit politicians. He is quoted as saying, "We have to defend politicians all over the world and especially in Latin America, where politicians have been slandered." Perón, who recently had his rank of general restored, is also quoted as saying, "The actions slandering politicians has its roots in military organizations. It's born in the Pentagon and this policy comes from there. The whole Watergate process comes from there." Juan Perón, as quoted in the Washington Post of December 16th. 

You have been listening to the Latin American Press Review. A weekly selection and analysis of news and events in Latin America, as seen by leading world news sources, with special emphasis on the Latin American press. This program is produced by the Latin American Policy Alternatives Group. Comments and suggestions are welcome and may be sent to the group at 2205 San Antonio Street, Austin, Texas. This program is distributed by Communication Center, the University of Texas at Austin.

The views expressed are solely those of the Latin American Policy Alternatives Group and its sources, and should not be considered as being endorsed by UT Austin or this station.