Annotations for Communities: Women

The Brazilian weekly, Opinião, reported this week from Rio on the further activities of the Catholic Church in opposing the military government. Brazil's bishops, in their strongest and most detailed declaration of human rights, have denounced various types of discrimination in this country and the limitation on basic freedoms here. According to conclusions of the 13th General Assembly of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops made public last week, "It is the duty of the Roman Catholic Church to inform public opinion of the violations of human rights and to defend those rights." The question of human rights was one of the main topics on the agenda of the General assembly that met in Sao Paulo for 10 days last month. A total of 215 bishops or 80% of the episcopate of the world's largest Catholic country, took part in the meeting.

Opinião continues, "The document is not really an open challenge to Brazilian authorities, but a clear statement of the church's position on the question of human rights, and an offer to work with the authorities to improve the situation. In the last year, individual bishops and groups of bishops have publicly attacked Brazil's military regime on its social policies. In particular, they have denounced police and military authorities for arbitrary and repressive actions which have included torture. They have also attacked civilian authorities for allowing large business interests to exploit rural workers in the name of economic development."

The basic human rights, said by the bishops to be among those least respected, were the right to liberty and physical integrity when faced with excessive repression. The right to political participation, in particular denied to the opposition party. The right to association, especially in regard to labor unions. The right to expression and information. The right to a legal defense, in view of the absence of habeas corpus provision. The right to possess the land on which one works. The right not to be subjected to systematic, political, and social propaganda, and aggressive and indiscriminate commercial advertising. And the right of the church to greater participation in social activities sponsored by the civilian authorities.

Opinião concludes, "The bishops came out even more strongly in denouncing various types of discrimination in Brazilian society. Including discrimination in favor of big landowners and against peasant families. For business management against workers. For whites against blacks. For pro-regime, political parties against the opposition. And for men as opposed to women. The bishop's strongest denunciation was directed against the oppression of Brazil's Indian population. The document charged that about 100,000 Indians were in the process of being exterminated. The document urged that the church make a study of the present condition of the Indians and that all persons engaged and work with Indians join forces to help them." This is from the Brazilian weekly Opinião.

Following upon the recent elections in Chile, election in which President Allende's governing coalition gained strength, we have two reports. On possible changes in the governing coalition of probable significance, Latin America reports from Chile that President Allende has suggested that the ruling coalition, Unidad Popular (Popular Unity), should unite to form a single left-wing party and is to summon a Congress of the Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) in the near future. There has been speculation that the foreign minister might play a prominent role in any such party if it were formed.

Also, the Latin American news staff of The Miami Herald reports on possible changes in Allende's cabinet. President Salvador Allende will name more communists and more socialists to his cabinet and will retain his military ministers, sources said Friday. The entire 15 man cabinet resigned Thursday night to give the socialists chief executive liberty in forming a new government. The ministers continued as caretakers. The sources said Allende planned to name at least one other communist and an additional socialist to the new cabinet. The socialists hold four portfolios in the cabinet and the communists three. This would reflect the results of the March 4th congressional elections in which both communists and socialists gained strength.

The changes in the Popular Unity Coalition and in the cabinet reflects changes registered in the recent election. One indication of the changes in Popular Support was analyzed by Tricontinental News Service.

An analysis of the women's vote in the recent Chilean elections shows a strong leftward drift among Chilean women who have traditionally voted conservatively. A quarter of a million more women voted for the left coalition in this election than in the 1970 election that brought Allende to power. This was an 8.5% increase. This report was from Tricontinental News Service.

More somber consideration for the ruling leftist coalition were reported from Latin America Newsletter. Chilean negotiators sit down with their opposite numbers in the United States at a conference table again this week to discuss the thorny question of Chile's debt. It is now three months since talks were first held, and in the meantime, the urgency of the issue has intensified for the Chileans. Despite its political boost from recent congressional elections and encouraging upturn in the price of copper, the Chilean government finds itself with an economy in the gravest straits.

Dr. Barkin, could you please describe the current situation in Chile? 

That's hard, but in a word I guess we could say it's confused. The present situation is one of a great deal of upset of strikes throughout the country, of great deal of scarcity of food, and of a great deal of political maneuvering. But to understand what's going on, we cannot simply stay in the events of the month of July or June, but we have to go back to the month of October when we had the large strike, which lasted almost a month and in which the truck drivers began—who tried to force the Allende the government to go easy on some of its policies of changing the economic structure so that the people who were working in the factories and in the fields could improve their living standards. 

Back in October, the strikes by the truck drivers, who also are the truck owners, forced a confrontation in which Allende came out winning. By Allende I mean the Popular Unity government, which was legally elected as the government of Chile back in 1970 and has a six-year term of office. 

Now, that situation, which happened in October, created a large economic upset for the country. $200 million is the estimated cost of that situation because of lost exports and economic upset in the country. 

During that period of time, as I said, Allende came out winning because what happened was the government came out with more support among the working classes who realized that the truck owners and other small business people and large business people, of course, were very much up in arms against the interests of the working classes, against the interests of the peasants, because these groups of people represented interests which were not directed towards satisfying basic housing, medical care, educational and food needs for the mass of the Chilean people. As a result, you had a situation in which Allende won, basically. He won, he was able to reestablish a balance of power with Salvador Allende the president at the political helm. 

Now in June, you had another series of events which culminated in a strike by one group of people within the copper mines, the administrative workers. The administrative workers within the copper mines were arguing that they should get an escudo and one half increase in pay for every escudo, that all the other workers in Chile got as a result of inflation. 

Now, this was an inadmissible situation for the Chilean government because the copper workers were already the best paid workers in Chile. As a result, there was a huge and lengthy and very costly copper strike, which took place in Chile. That was resolved, but it was resolved, again, at the cost of great deal of political turmoil, which involved Allende taking very strong measures. 

Now, during the past six or seven weeks, the situation has gotten worse in the sense that the right has correctly seen itself as being threatened by the growing strength that Allende has shown among the working classes, and has therefore had to take much more severe measures to try to control or to get back some of the power which led to the assassination of Allende's military aide-de-camp, the Navy man who was shot in a very, very brutal fashion, machine-gunned in his home one evening several weeks ago. 

Now, what that has forced Allende to do is again, to take stronger measures, and has forced, again, a heightening of tension. But has at the same time made it quite obvious to large segments of the Chilean population that there are conflicts, very severe conflicts of interest between what the right is trying to do and what the Popular Unity government is trying to do. But the Popular Unity government in turn finds pressures from the left, which is asking that Allende go even further in taking over enterprises which are owned by the people who are creating the civil war. 

And about the role of the United States, in December, Salvador Allende denounced past aggressions of the United States economic interests against the Chilean people. Do you think intervention in Chile's affairs continues? 

That question's very hard to answer, because obviously—the answer Chileans give is clearly yes. Although the people who are involved in this are not carrying cards which say, "I'm a member of the CIA" or "I work for ITT." 

What happens is that there's a great deal of intervention in a number of different fronts. The most obvious of them being that the right wing still finds economic support, the right groups. Not only Patria y Libertad or Father Land and Freedom Group, which is the group that's responsible for the assassination of Allende's aide-de-camp, but also for the centrist groups or the so-called centrist groups, the Christian Democratic groups, which are now the opposition party in Chile. 

These groups find, through their normal economic ties with America's largest multinational corporations, that it is easy to find economic and political support, and as is quite clear from an analysis of the American press, the American press is still trying to mobilize American opinion against attempts to give the Chilean working classes a decorative standard of living by claiming that this is going against American interests. 

What it seems to me is that we have to try to understand that it's different groups of Americans who have interests in the welfare of different parts of the Chilean population, and that our support must be for the working people, the people and the peasants who are trying to improve their standard of living. But it seems clear that at least economic support is coming from the United States to help in these counter-governmental efforts. 

On the international front, Chile is finding a great deal of support in most international organizations from groups that are not controlled by the United States government. 

Have recent events hurt Allende's popularity among the working class? 

That is a very important question to answer because in it lies the possibility of understanding three more years of Popular Unity government. I think that contrary to hurting Popular Unity and Allende's popularity, recent events have strengthened it. We have the March 4th elections as testimony to that, where there was a very, very substantial increase in voting and in voting for the Popular Unity government throughout broad sectors of the economy, including the famous conservative women. And I say famous because women are supposed to be, in Latin America, traditionally conservative and traditional. 

As a result, the women's vote is taken as a particularly strong vote of confidence in Allende. What happens is I think that the women realize more than ever how it is that prices and supplies are being manipulated in the grocery stores for the benefit of certain people, and are going through a process of trying to understand the economic situation, and realize that they have to support certain actions. 

Interesting thing, since March, I think his popularity has grown even more with the recent events in the assassination, the copper strike and things like that, so that the right and the Democratic Christian groups have been forced to accelerate their own activities because they feel menaced by the growing solidarity within the working classes. 

If anything, the interesting thing about the working classes and the polarization and Allende's popularity has been their growing radicalization and their demands for more stringent and stronger moves by the government than the government feels it can politically go through right now. But in electoral terms and in terms of the future, I think that yes, his popularity has grown. 

Will the Allende regime survive the current difficulties, and what do you foresee for the future? 

I think I just tried to indicate that yes, the Allende government will survive. The Allende government will survive because Salvador Allende has demonstrated himself to be a magnificent politician, an extraordinarily agile person in terms of manipulating and in terms of playing a very delicate political game, which is heightening, which is becoming more serious, and the stakes are getting higher. Both the threats and the stakes are higher also. 

Right now, Allende has successfully resolved the conflicts between the extreme right and the extreme left by playing a centrist ground. As a result, he's getting attacks from all sides. He's trying a dialogue with the Christian Democrats, which I think is going to have very problematic results. None of these attempts in the past have worked, and I don't think they'll work now, but we'll see. 

But let me just close by saying in the future, I think that there's a great deal of reason to be optimistic because what's happened is the working classes, the majority of the people are beginning to take their own dynamic in trying to control their own lives and in demanding voices, which during past years have been spoken for by the leaders of the country. 

As a result, you have a situation in which the industrial and the agricultural sectors of the economy are beginning to demand participation in decision-making in an autonomous way. And if nothing else, that's perhaps the most exciting thing that's in the future for Chile. 

In view of your optimism for the future, what do you think about the rumors that Chile is on the brink of civil war? 

I think those rumors are very convenient fabrications and misunderstandings by different groups, both within Chile and especially in the American press. The notion of civil war itself is a very difficult notion in a country with a president who's trying to lead the country on a transition through a peaceful way and through the political process. 

The political game in Chile is a very, very complicated one. And the stakes are high, and Allende's success is the reason why the right has been forced to take some of the violent actions that it's taking, and why the economic sabotage, which is going on throughout the economy is taking place. 

The threats from the left are very clear, and I think that there's an attempt by the left, by some elements within the extreme left to also suggest that the country is on the brink of civil war. 

But civil war would require a different sort of display of forces and a different sort of availability of arms and distribution of those arms, than is currently available in Chile. The armed forces are very powerful, and the United States has equipped them very well during the past three years. And they have up to now been very effective in controlling the distribution of arms and have recently been collecting a great number of loose arms, which they find among different groups in both the right and the left. 

The armed forces, if it came to a showdown, would probably support the Christian Democratic groups, but I don't think that that kind of showdown is in the offering, and I don't think that civil war is the way in which the political problems of Chile are going to be resolved. 

This week's feature is on the recent history of US press coverage of Chile. We will be drawing on an article printed in the magazine, The Nation, in January of 1973 by John Pollock of the Department of Sociology and Political Science, Rutgers University. Dr. Pollock is also a member of the Chile Research Group in Livingston, has done research in Chile, and has been specializing in the US press coverage of Chile. 

Mr. Pollock's analysis opens with the US press coverage of Dr. Allende's speech at the United Nations in December of 1972. 

Typical press coverage of Allende's visit is best examined by referring to the major US newspapers which report regularly on Latin American affairs: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, the Miami Herald, and the Los Angeles Times. These papers generally included the following information in reports on Allende's speech. 

One, he called Chile the victim of serious economic aggression by US corporations, banks, and governmental agencies, accomplished through denial of previously available loans, interference by IT&T in Chile's internal affairs, and a boycott of Chile's copper in foreign markets. 

Also, he called the economic blockade of his country an infringement of Chile's sovereignty condemned by United Nations resolutions and a problem for all Third World countries, and that IT&T and Kennecott denied any efforts at interference in Chile's internal affairs or any other wrongdoing. 

Mr. Pollock continues noting that divergent opinions were presented, but the appearance of balance was specious. Although President Allende's views and those of US ambassador to the United Nations, George Bush, as well as those of IT&T and Kennecott copper companies were all mentioned, none of the opinions was investigated or tested in any serious way. 

These leading newspapers did not simply fail to weigh evidence regarding the charges made, they never raised any serious questions about the charges at all. The overall impression was given that Allende was pandering to an automatic anti-American sentiment, easily aroused in an audience comprised largely of Third World countries. 

The New York Times had the gall to run an editorial titled, "What Allende left out." For those unfamiliar with recent developments in Chile or with the press coverage of them, the Times editorial might have appeared reasonable, but close examination of political events there and the reporting of them yields a quite different impression. It is not Allende but the United States press which has left out a great deal. 

None of the newspapers had prepared readers for Allende's visit with substantial background information on Chile and its concerns. None of them mentioned that in stops en route in Peru and Mexico, Allende had been accorded tumultuous welcomes. 

Referring to IT&T activities in Chile, three of the newspapers, including The New York Times, failed to mention IT&T correspondence revealed by Jack Anderson and never denied by IT&T, which implicated that company in efforts to topple the Allende government, and only the Miami Herald linked IT&T to reports of specific subversive terrorist activities culminating in the assassination of Chile's General René Schneider, the army commander-in-chief. 

Only one newspaper, The Wall Street Journal noted that Allende nationalizations actions were legal, having been authorized by a constitutional amendment passed unanimously by the Chilean Congress in January of 1971, which set forth procedures for expropriating mines owned by Anaconda and Kennecott. The most important provision as reported by the Journal was that any profits since 1955 in excess of 12% of the concerns' investments in Chile should be deducted from the payment of the expropriated properties. 

The Journal was alone again in devoting substantial attention to Allende's claim that Kennecott had arranged a boycott of Chile's copper exports to European ports. In fact, it was the only paper which considered the issue of corporation induced embargoes against small countries sufficiently important to explore in any detail. 

Nor did any paper attempt to determine, and only The New York Times mentioned at all, whether Kennecott Copper had indeed made astronomical profits in Chile. According to the Times, Allende charged that from 1955 to 1970, Kennecott had made an annual average profit of 52.8% on its investment. That higher return would doubtless have had provoked substantial comment if reported in any context other than that of Allende's critical speech. 

The omission of important questions was not the only striking tendency in press reporting on Allende's UN presentation. Also evident were characterizations of the Chilean president as essentially insincere and duplicitous. Suggestions that he was more concerned with maintaining an act, charade or a popular posture than with accomplishing what he has often claimed to care about, the achievement of socialism within a democratic framework. 

Noteworthy in this connection was The New York Times editorial with reference to Allende's "cleverness" at the UN. A Washington Post editorial tried to dismiss Allende's presentation as full of "inflammatory tinsel" insinuating "that the beleaguered Chile's beleaguered president did unfortunately, the easy popular thing. Mr. Allende indulged in dubious and gaudy rhetoric." Such characterizations hint that the Chilean president is ineffectual and ridiculous, not to be taken seriously by serious people. 

Mr. Pollock continues, "The crucial questions left unasked and the belittling of the report of Allende presented in press reports, especially in the editorials of two of the nation's foremost opinion shapers, The Washington Post and The New York Times, are not simply troublesome elements in the press coverage of a single event. Rather, they are part of a consistent set of themes and omissions periodically evident in reporting on Chile ever since Allende's election in September 1970. Careful analysis of that reporting reveal several disturbing tendencies." 

One, our newspapers have usually omitted information on the vast minority of Chileans. Most reporting on citizens' reaction to the Allende regime is based upon interviews with privileged national business leaders, large landowners or owners of medium-sized firms. The results of such interviews, anti-Allende in tone, are presented as typical of popular reaction to the new president. Seldom are opinions solicited from those most likely to support Allende: organized labor, unorganized labor, the unemployed, farmers on small and medium-sized plots of land, and the poor generally. 

A second noticeable omission in the US reporting on Chile is the failure to cover right-wing activities. Left-wing activities by contrast receive substantial since sensationalist attention. For example, many articles have been written about the threat to Chile's political system from the Left Revolutionary Movement. Genuine concern about threats to the stability of the Chilean political system would, one might suppose, stimulate press coverage of political activity on both the left and the right. Yet even a cursory review of press reports will disabuse any one of that assumption. 

Activities of the right extremist organizations such as Patria y Libertad, which trains children in the use of arms and forms secret paramilitary organizations in middle-class areas are never mentioned. Indeed, those groups are hardly even reported to exist. It is customary in addition for disruptions to be reported in a way that fails to identify the ideological persuasion of the protestors. They're presented as upset citizens while protestors presumed to be left-wing are characterized in sensationalist terms. 

Consider the report of an assassination clearly by rightist forces of the army chief of staff in an effort to block Allende's ratification by the Chilean Congress, and a subsequent retaliatory assassination assumed to have been performed by the left. The New York Times correspondent wrote that, "Extremists have already produced two major crises since Allende was elected. The assassination of General Schneider, and nine months later, the assassination by left-wing terrorists of Edmundo Zujovic." The right-wing assassinations are simply assassinations. Those from the left are left-wing terrorists. 

Furthermore, in reporting on the victims, there was scarcely any mention of the fact that General Schneider, the one killed by rightists, had been a major force in maintaining peaceful constitutional democratic rule, while the person killed in retaliation by the leftists had been as a previous minister of the interior directly responsible for the torture of political prisoners. 

Mr. Pollock continues that suppressing information on right-wing activity extends to a near blackout on news about disruptive or distasteful activities by Allende's opponents. The most glaring example of such emissions is found in the coverage of a street demonstration by 5,000 women who in early December of 1971 protested food rationing in Santiago. The March of the Empty Pots, so-called because the participants banged empty saucepans as they marched, was reported by several papers. Only one however mentioned any clear estimate of the general social or economic origin of the women, information any reader would consider essential to assess the political implications of the march. The Christian Science Monitor noted that the sound of the marching pots was loudest in the wealthiest sections of Santiago. 

In contrast to the North American papers, highly respected foreign sources did as a matter of course identify the socioeconomic origins of the women. Le Monde, the French paper, the British weekly Latin America, and Excélsior, the Mexican equivalent of The New York Times all reported that the marching women were upper middle and upper class. 

In addition, the US press reported that the women's march was led by groups of men wearing safety helmets and carrying sticks and was broken up by brigades of leftist youths wearing hard hats and carrying stones and clubs, and by an overreacting Allende who asked police to disperse the women. The foreign press, on the other hand, reported that women were led by goon squads of club wielding men, called the march a right-wing riot, and reported it broken up by police after the president and his palace had been stoned by the women. 

A fourth omission, perhaps more flagrant than the others, is the virtual absence of evidence suggesting that Allende has made any social or economic progress whatsoever. News reports and editorials have abounded with dark hints that the Chilean economy and Chilean politics are on the brink of upheaval and Cassandra-like accounts bewail reports of food shortages, unemployment, inflation, and the scarcity of foreign exchange, as though economic ruin were just around the corner. 

What go unreported in the United States are social and economic statistics available to any reporter who cares to examine them. There is some evidence that Chile's first year under Allende, 1971, far from inducing despair, gave reason for hope. Agricultural production doubled. The consumer price index rose at only one half the rate registered during the last year of President Frei's administration, and the construction industry grew by 9%. Unemployment, again contrary to US press reports, declined from 8.3% in December of 1970 to 4.7% a year later. 

Food shortages do exist, but they're a product not of government food austerity policy, but of the increased purchasing power of Chile's working classes. Food production has actually increased in Chile, but the working classes and the poor are buying much more. 

Allende raised wages and froze prices in profits ensuring that the salary and wage segment of national income increased from 51% in 1970 to 59% in 1971. Finally, during Allende's first year, Chile's increase of gross national product was the second highest in Latin America at 8.5%. Our reporters have failed to record such indicators of progress and have fairly consistently labeled Chile's future as dismal and clouded. 

The US press in reporting the economic difficulties and the food lines managed to leave the impression that the socialist leadership was at fault for the grave economic situation, whereas actually the Chilean economy had long been in crisis and Dr. Allende was elected in large part in response to the disastrous economic policy of earlier pro-US governments, and indeed the situation was quite measurably improving for broad sectors of the population after Allende's election. Up until concerted efforts by the threatened local and foreign economic interests began to disrupt the economy in hopes of fomenting unrest sufficient to cover a coup. 

In particular, the reported food shortages were not as such shortages but reflected the fact that for the first time, major sectors of the population could buy more food so that although more food was being produced, demand outpaced supply requiring rationing that upset the wealthier classes who resented the partial equalization of access to food. 

We add that Dr. Allende's popularity and support was consistently growing as proven in the congressional elections. Consequently, the right-wing attempts to reimpose its control could no longer happen peacefully and concerted rightist disruption of the economy began so as to set the stage for a military coup on the pretext of restoring stability. The US press managed to leave the impression desired by foreign and national business leaders. 

A fifth major omission in coverage of Chilean politics is perhaps the most obvious of all. It is difficult to talk about the State of Delaware without mentioning the Du Ponts, and it would be bizarre to talk about Montana without speculating on the role of Anaconda Copper. Yet our reporters somehow managed to write about Chile without examining the political influence of Anaconda, Kennecott Copper, and IT&T. 

Mr. Pollock concludes that the omissions of information on the opinions of less affluent Chileans and the absence of reports on right-wing activity or the disruption activity by Allende's opponents, the failure to report economic and social progress where it's occurred, and the paucity of investigations of multinational corporate activity give a distorted portrait of Chilean political system. 

The foregoing feature is based upon work by Dr. John Pollock of the Department of Sociology and Political Science, Rutgers University and is available in the magazine, The Nation of January 1973. 

International protest to the repressive tactics of the Chilean military junta is rising, according to reports from Excélsior. West Germany has threatened to withdraw from the Inter-American Development Bank if that organization continues to give financial support to the junta. The bank, along with other major international monetary organizations dominated by the United States, withdrew all credit and other financial support from Chile during the Allende regime, helping to precipitate the crisis which brought about his overthrow. 

Excélsior reports also that a French journalist, Edouard Belby of L'Express, was jailed by Chilean authorities after photographing bodies in Santiago, and was subsequently expelled from the country. 

In Chile itself, resistance to the military government apparently continues. The Excélsior of October 29th reports that the war tribunals will continue to function for many more years to apply the death penalty to enemies of the regime. The same issue reports that army and navy troops occupied several cities in the south of Chile, conducting house-by-house searches for arms and leftist leaders as part of a stepped-up offensive against the opponents at the junta. 

According to the Excélsior of November 2nd, about 3,500 prisoners of war are held in various prisons in Chile as a result of this campaign. Two of the Chilean cabinet members, General Oscar Bonilla, Minister of the Interior, and Fernando Leniz Cerda, the new Secretary of Economy, were confronted by hundreds of angry housewives during a visit to the poor communities of Lo Hermida and La Granja on the outskirts of Santiago. 

Excélsior says that the women protested the high prices of necessities, to which the ministers replied that consumption should be decreased until the prices were lowered. The junta's reconstruction policies have hit the poor especially hard. In sharp contrast to the shortages reported during Allende's administration, stores in Chile now have surpluses of many items because prices are so high that no one can afford to buy them. Prices of milk are four and one-half times higher than under the Allende regime. The price of kerosene has risen six times, meat and gasoline eight times each. 

The Excélsior of October 29th charges that inflation will be fought with a progressive decrease in the purchasing power and with unemployment, and that the poor are paying for the reconstruction of the Chilean economy. 

This week's feature is an article by Ana Ramos, who works with the Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina. It is a feminist view on recent developments there concerning women. In her traditionally Latin and religious machismo society, men have had the dominant role in Cuba for at least a century. However, in working for their goal of a society of equality, the Cubans are making major efforts to change the formally second class situation of women in Cuba. The following is a report on the revolution of Cuban women. 

In Cuba, prior to the revolution, foreign ownership of enterprises, a stagnant economy, unemployment and hunger, combined to produce great hardships for many women. With the triumph of the revolution, a new spectrum of possibilities in education and productive work opened up to women changing their position in Cuban society. Purchases nevertheless still persist. In an underdeveloped country, one must struggle on every front to overcome backwardness, not only economic, but also cultural. 

In March of 1962, during a conference on educational and social-economic development in Santiago, Chile, the Cuban Minister of Education compared Cuba with other countries in Latin America. He noted that the promoters of the Alliance for Progress had offered a loan of $150 million a year to 19 countries with a total population of 200 million people. In contrast, one country, Cuba, with 7 million people, has been able to raise its educational and cultural budgets to $200 million annually without having to reimburse anyone or pay interest on loans. That represented a quadrupling, approximately, of the financial support of education and culture in our country. 

The greatest beneficiaries have been women. Since the burden of the budget falls on less than a third of the population, the workforce, women workers are essential to the economy. In 1958, an estimated 194,000 women in Cuba were doing productive work, in 1970, 600,000. 

Many women want to see how a socialist revolution changed the situation of Cuban women. Years of frustrating struggle around such issues as birth control for those who want it, and daycare for working mothers, makes one wonder if any society anywhere has begun to confront the special oppression of women. Before the success of the revolution in Cuba in 1959, the Cuban women looked forward to a lifetime of hard labor by cooking in kitchens that did not have enough food, washing clothes that could not be replaced when worn out, and raising children who would probably never see a teacher, a doctor, or hold a decent job in Cuba's underdeveloped economy of the time. 

Now, women's lives have been changing. Women have begun to organize themselves to help each other by developing cooperative, mutual support to solve their problems and overcome the difficulties created by underdevelopment. 

For this express purpose, the Federation of Cuban Women was formed in 1960 for women between the ages of 15 through 65. Over and over, women described their excitement about being independent contributors to society. One woman from Oriente explained, "Before the revolution I had 13 kids and had to remain at home. Now, I work in a cafeteria in the afternoon and study at night." The mass freeing of women from the home for socially necessary labor began the transition from a capitalist domestic economy in which each woman individually carried out the chores of childcare, washing and cooking, to a socialist one where society as a whole will take on these responsibilities. 

Centers for free daily or weekly childcare, Círculos Infantiles, have been established all over the country. 

In these centers, children as young as two months can be fed, clothed, educated and entertained. Schools, factories and experimental communities offer free meals. Moreover, in a few communities and in all voluntary complements, free laundry services are now available. Even though there are not yet enough of these facilities, nearly every girl and woman is confident that these centers will be available in the future. 

From the first years of the revolution in Cuba, many projects brought new mobility and independence to the women. Night courses for self-improvement were organized for domestics. In a few months, the students had acquired a trade. In 1961, a well-known literacy campaign was begun, 56% of those who became literate were women. Of the women volunteers in the campaign, 600 were selected to enter the Conrado Benitez School of Revolutionary Instructors.

The school, the first created for scholarships students, trained teachers and directors of children's nurseries. It furnished the guiding concept for the system of self-improvement on the island. It has been stated that women ought to study and learn from those women who know more, and in turn teach those who know less.

In the same year, the revolution began the Ana Betancourt program for peasant women. The president of the Cuban Federation of Women in an article in the magazine Cuba, in January of 1969, recalled that there were 14,000 of these women. They came from very distant places all over the island, where people were acquainted neither with the revolution nor with civilization. "It was very interesting," she said, "They took courses for no longer than four months and returned to their homes, we can say, almost as political cadres." 

Presently, 10,000 women enroll annually in the program, where they take courses not only in ensuing, hygiene and nutrition as in the beginning, but also in elementary and secondary education. Many are enrolled in university programs. 

Why these special programs for women? In underdeveloped areas it is characteristic for the cultural level of women to be lower than that of men. After the initial inequality has been eliminated, these programs will disappear in the same manner in which the night schools for domestics are no longer necessary. More than a decade after the seizing of power in Cuba, the ratios of females to males in elementary school, 49% are girls, and secondary school, 55% are young women, indicate an advance. 

Even more significant is the percentage of women in higher education. 40.6% of all university students are women, and their distribution among the scientific and technical disciplines, which traditionally have had little female enrollment in all Latin American countries. Now, there are in all sciences, 50% women, biochemistry and biology, 60%, and in medicine, 50%. 

The scholarship program, or over, benefits over 70,000 girls and women at all levels of learning and provides housing, food, clothing, study supplies, and a monthly allowance for personal expenditures. "The society has the duty to help women," Fidel Castro said in 1966, "But at the same time, in helping women, society helps itself because more and more hands are able to help with production of goods and services for all the people." The Cuban system seeks to bring women into the labor force through the extension of opportunities. In contrast, other Latin American countries feel that the more social benefits are increased, that will reduce the participation of women in the labor force. 

Cuban legislation prohibits women from certain activities that are excessively rough, unhealthy, and dangerous, but at the same time reserves occupations for them. "These fixed positions include jobs of varied responsibilities in services such as administration, poultry raising, agriculture, light industry, basic industry, and so on," says Ms. Ramos. 

Both laws should be interpreted in the light of the need for collective effort and the distribution of workers throughout the economic system. Still, there are times when administrators reject female labor for male labor, since men don't face problems of child-rearing, and so on, which often translate themselves into absenteeism. What is needed, has been argued, is to employ five women where there were four men, and have women available as substitutes and permit those men to go out and occupy a position where they are needed more. 

In September of the same year, the Board of Labor Justice dictated instructions that regulated licenses as leaves of absence without wages for women workers who find themselves temporarily unable to continue work due to child care needs. If the worker returns to work within three months, she has the right to her same job at the same salary. If she returns within six months, she will have some job reserved for her, but at her former salary level. Finally, if she returns within one year, she will be assigned some position, but at the salary corresponding to that position. 

Only when more than a year has passed without her having returned to work will work ties be considered dissolved. The aforementioned measures are only some of the measures that the government has proposed. It is to increase the entrance of women into productive tasks and diminish absenteeism and interruption as much as possible. 

Between 1964 and 1968, the female labor force increased by 34%. More than 60,000 women were working, and they were represented 23% of the labor force. Nevertheless, many Cuban women are still not fulfilling a positive productive role. During 1969 the Federation of Cuban Women visited approximately 400,000 women who had still not joined the workforce. The results were significant, for out of every four visits came a new worker who stepped forward as Cuban women called the decision to work. 

In Cuban society there are prejudices against women working outside the home. During 1969 the Secretary of Production of the Federation of Cuban Women commented, "We spoke directly with women house by house. We spoke to the men in the assemblies and the factories. Among the women, we always encountered openness and enthusiasm. The men have a certain resistance, but when they understand that the revolution needs women's work, the majority change their mind." 

Cuban leaders have said that agricultural programs should never have been conceived without the participation of women, which began on a large scale in 1964. Women's role in the sugar harvest has little by little increased in importance, both in agricultural processes and in the industrialization of sugar. 

In Pinar del Río, the entire tobacco crop is under the responsibility of a woman. In Oriente, women represent half the labor force working in coffee. 

As for industry, 20% of the industrial labor force is female. They are 49% of the workers in the Ministry of Light Industry, 52% in tobacco work, and 33% in the plastic and rubber factories, 77% in the textile industry, 90% in the Cuban artisan enterprises, and 34% in the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art. Women technicians outnumber men almost six to one in the plastic and rubber factories. 

Women are still scarce in certain physically demanding jobs in construction, fishing, agriculture, and industry. 

Women in Cuba have the freedom to use birth control and to obtain abortions. In one of the hospitals in a rural area of Oriente, it was explained that birth control by diaphragms and IUDs, as well as all other forms of medical and dental care, are not only available, but free on demand. However, no campaign urging women to use birth control is waged, since the question of birth control is considered to be a private family decision. 

North American women will also be interested to know that natural childbirth is the norm in Cuba. Although proud of their new role in production, Cuban women feel it important not to lose their femininity. Beauty is not the money-making industry at once was, since everyone can afford such previously considered luxuries. Cuba's revolution, despite its problems, was a great freeing force setting the basis for the ongoing liberation of women, showing it was possible even in a traditionally machismo society for women to make strides in defining their own lives. 

You have been listening to an article by Ana Ramos, who is with the Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina. 

When Juan Perón returned to Argentina early last year after years of exile, he displayed a distinctly nationalist posture. Ever since his election to the presidency this fall, though, he has identified with foreign business interests and moving increasingly to the political right. As a result, many of the leftist forces, which worked so hard for his return, have been increasingly alienated. And social conflict between the right and left in Argentina has heightened. Hopes that things would quiet down were shattered two weeks ago when an Argentine army base 250 miles from Buenos Aires was attacked by 70 leftist guerrillas.

According to the Mexico City daily, Excelsior, the attack shattered a midnight calm and lasted seven hours. The guerrillas, six of whom were women, opened the assault with mortars and bazookas, managed to penetrate the perimeter of the base, and tied down approximately 1000 government troops for seven hours until reinforcements finally came and forced the guerrillas to retreat.

It was immediately thought that the attack was probably executed by the People's Revolutionary Army, more commonly known as the ERP, a major leftist group, which has been responsible for many kidnappings of foreign businessmen. Sure enough, the following day, the ERP claimed credit for the attack. The Uruguayan weekly, Marcha, noted that the attack had the predictable effect of increasing Peron's determination to wipe out the guerrillas.

His first action was to appear on television in the uniform of a lieutenant general with a firm promise to apply a hard counterinsurgency policy. A nationwide manhunt was launched. And the next day, 210 persons were arrested on suspicion of belonging to subversive organizations. Later in the week, the army claimed to have captured 22 members of the ERP, but both figures are open to question. Peron criticized the provincial administration, even hinting that there might've been complicity on the part of the authorities.

Although the Peronist Youth Group, a leftist element of the Peronist party which has considerable support, has maintained its opposition to stronger laws to deal with political crimes. Peron made it clear in a meeting with left-wing Peronist deputies that he would tolerate no opposition to the legislative measures and demanded their passage through congress within a week. Excelsior reported that the tougher laws were passed only four days after Peron's request. Marcha notes that the immediate military consequences of the attack are not particularly alarming. One sentry, two guerrillas, a colonel, and his wife were killed, and another colonel was kidnapped, but the ERP's aims must surely have been political rather than military.

The ERP strategy, says Marcha, is clear. By such a provocative attack on an army base, They hope to drive Peron into the arms of the hard line military, thus exposing him as the right-winger they have always said he is, leaving no room for leftists with Peronism. The next stage, the ERP hopes, would be the emergence of an anti-Peronist left with a genuinely popular base. Foreign interests, at least, seem to see the logic of this strategy since the Financial Times recently published an editorial warning Perón against total identification with the right wing of his movement.

Peron's administration is seemingly no more clever than its military predecessors at catching kidnappers. The government has been virtually powerless at stopping the string of ERP kidnappings. And recently, the ERP kidnapped the owner of a gun importing company and released him in exchange for telescopic sights and precision pistols. All indications are that the guerrillas are in better shape now than they were a year ago, and their growing strength will be soon Peron's number one problem, says Marcha. 

The feature this week is a report on recent developments in Chile under the leadership of the military junta, which came to power last September in a bloody coup overthrowing Salvador Allende's democratically elected Marxist government. The situation in Chile has been of central importance in the Latin American press for the last five months. This report is compiled from the New York Times, the Mexico City daily, Excelsior, Prensa Latina, Business Latin America, El Mercurio of Chile, and a report from the World Council of Churches. 

Excelsior reports that a representative of the International Democratic Federation of Women, who visited Santiago and other Chilean cities during the week of January 8th, told the United Nations that 80,000 people had been killed and that 150,000 people had been sent to concentration camps since the Junta came to power in September. Amnesty International had formerly estimated at least 15,000 killed and 30,000 jailed.

Amnesty International has stated more recently that despite Chilean President Pinochet's claims to have stopped the practice of torture, tortures continue each day. Prensa Latina reports that at least 25,000 students have been expelled from the universities, and an astounding 12% of the active Chilean workforce, over 200,000 people, have lost their jobs. All trade unions are forbidden. Political parties are outlawed. The right to petition is denied. The workweek has been extended. Wages remain frozen, and inflation has climbed to 800%.

The sudden drop in purchasing power and the specter of hunger in Chile have caused a dramatic shift in attitude toward the Junta, the New York Times reported late last month. Dozens of the same housewives and workers who once expressed support for the Junta are now openly critical of the new government's economic policies. A working couple with four children that earns a total of 8,000 escudos monthly, estimated that with post-coup inflation, they need 15,000 escudos a month just to feed their families.

Although the belt tightening has hit all economic classes, the Times said, it has become intolerable for the poorest Chileans who must contend with such increases as 255% for bread, 600% for cooking oil, and 800% for chicken. This month, reports Excelsior of Mexico City, the food shortage has increased so much that it is practically impossible to find bread, meat, oil, sugar, or cigarettes. Gasoline prices, meanwhile, have increased 200%.

Unemployment also continues to rise dramatically. In October 1973, there was an increase of 2,700 people without jobs. And according to statistics from the National Employment Service, unemployment grows at a rate of 1000 people per week. In public services, for example, 25% of the workers were fired. The New York Times reports that those workers who are considered politically suspect by the new government authorities and factory managers are the first to be fired. 

The result has been a severe economic hardship for workers in Chile who have no way to fight since the unions and their leaders have been outlawed. The World Council of Churches estimates that 65% of the 10 million Chilean population now simply do not earn enough to eat, 25% are able to cover basic necessities, and only 10% can afford manufactured goods. 

Excelsior of Mexico City reports that the Junta has responded to the economic crisis by promising to slash public spending, which means eliminating public sector programs in health, education, and housing instituted by the Popular Unity government. The Junta has also canceled the wage increase implemented under Allende's government. Last week, Pinochet called upon businessmen to fight inflation by stopping their unscrupulous practices. 

According to Prensa Latina, political repression in Chile appears to be entering a new stage now. In many ways, it is even more sinister than the previous terror, belying the apparent tranquility on the surface of life in Santiago. Instead of the haphazard mass slaughter of the first days, there is now a computer-like rationality and selectivity in political control and repression. Instead of dragnet operations, there is the knock on the door at midnight by the Chilean political police. Instead of the major political leaders, it is the middle level cadres who are now the hunted targets. Through the use of informers, torture, and truth drugs, Chilean military intelligence are extracting the names of local leaders and militants who are being hunted down with less fanfare, but increasing efficiency. 

Another priority of the new repression is education. Many who thought they had survived the worst period are now finding that the investigation and purge of universities and schools have just begun. Professors are being told they can either resign their posts or face military trials on absurd but dangerous charges such as inciting military mutiny. Secondary education is undergoing an equally severe purge with military principles appointed and dangerous subjects like the French Revolution eliminated from the curriculum. A similar purge is beginning in primary education while all the teachers colleges have been closed for, quote, restructuring. Teachers are being classified in permanent files with categories like, "Possibly ideologically dangerous." This will make political control easier in the future. 

While the persecution of intellectuals is accelerating, the workers who bore the brunt of the initial brutal repression, have not been spared. Again, it is the local leaders, the links between the mass base and any regional or national organization, who have become the targets of the repression. In Santiago, a sit-down strike of construction workers on the new subway to protest the tripling of prices with wages frozen was ended by a police action in which 14 of the leaders were seized and executed without a trial. In the huge [inaudible 00:20:28] cotton textile factory in Santiago, seven labor leaders were taken away by military intelligence because of verbal protests against low wages. Their fates are unknown. 

According to Prensa Latina, this new phase of political repression in Chile is featuring the crackdown on social interaction. Any party or gathering of friends carries with it the danger of a police raid and accusations of holding clandestine political meetings. The crackdown on the press continues. During the last week in January, the Junta passed a law demanding jail penalties of from 10 to 20 years for any press source publishing information on devaluation of money, shortages, and price increases or on any tendencies considered dangerous by authorities. 

Although there is no official estimate of the number of political prisoners in Chile at this time, more exact figures are available about the situation of those who sought refuge in embassies. According to a report of the World Council of Churches, some 3000 Chileans are still in UN camps, looking for countries to accept them. And many more thousands are waiting just to enter the crowded camps as the first step towards seeking asylum abroad. Even those people who were fortunate enough to take asylum in an embassy have a grim February 3rd deadline hanging over them.

If they are not out of Chile by that date, the Junta has declared that there will be no more assured safe conduct passes, and all United Nations and humanitarian refugee camps will be closed down. In the meantime, the Junta has limited the number of safe conduct passes issued. While internationally, most countries have refused to accept Chilean exiles, the United States, for example, has provided visas for one family, Great Britain for none.

The policies of the Junta continue to draw international criticism. Not only has the government received telegrams of condemnation from the World Council of Churches and the United Nations, Excelsior reports that the military government's repressive policies are now the subject of investigation by the Bertrand Russell Tribunal, an international body originally convened to investigate torture in Brazil. British trade unions have made a number of strong anti-Junta moves, including a decision not to unload Chilean goods. Also, the French government has prevented two French companies from selling tanks and electronic equipment to the Junta. 

A group of goodwill ambassadors from the Junta has been striking out all over Latin America and appears to have abandoned its tour after being expelled from Venezuela early this month. The group started by being refused visas to Mexico, which feared that its presence would provoke rioting there. The first stop was Bolivia, where the visitors broke up their own press conference because of hostile questions and insulted the journalists there. Shortly after landing in Caracas, the six ambassadors were declared undesirable visitors by the Venezuelan government and put on a plane for the Dominican Republic, according to Excelsior in Mexico City. 

International criticism and rejection of Junta representatives had led to a mounting anti-foreign campaign in the controlled Chilean press on December 5th. The front page headlines in El Mercurio proclaimed, "Chile is alone against the world." The news magazine, Ercia, recently attacked the New York Times and Newsweek, and other overseas publications it considers communist controlled, under the headline, "The False Image, Chile Abroad." Junta member, General Gustavo Leigh, wants the many military governments in Latin America to form a league for self-help and consultation. 

The only international groups trying to shore up the Juntas image are the banking and business communities. There has been a dramatic turnaround in the availability of private bank loans for Chile since the coup. Under Allende, credit had dried up and by mid-1973, was down to $30 million from a high under the previous administration of Christian Democrat Frei, of $300 million. Business Latin America states that the United States was the first to make financial overtures to the new government.

Within days of the coup, the United States Commodity Credit Corporation granted the Junta a $24 million credit line for wheat imports, followed immediately by an additional $28 million for corn. In exchange, the Junta has just announced that the banks nationalized under the Popular Unity, including the Bank of America and First National City Bank, will be returned to their private owners. Compensation will be paid to Kennecott and Anaconda, and Dow Chemical Corporation has already been handed back to petrochemical industries.

According to Prensa Latina, resistance in Chile is taking numerous and varied forms. Freshly painted forbidden slogans are appearing on the walls of Santiago. The practice of writing anti-Junta slogans on Chilean paper money has become so widespread that the Junta has declared the propagandized money illegal and valueless. Resistance is also taking more organized forms. The Jesuit wing of the Catholic Church has recently taken a public stand opposing the Junta. The major cities in Chile are presently experiencing a 60% work slowdown in opposition to the Junta. 

The major proponents of arms struggle are biding their time and preparing for the moment conditions are ripe. guerrilla warfare on a small scale, however, has already begun. Rural headquarters were established in two southern mountain regions, and the military admit to have captured only a small part of the left's arms. 

This report is compiled from the New York Times, the Mexico City daily, Excelsior, the Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina, Business Latin America, El Mercurio of Chile, and a report from the World Council of Churches. 

Also in Chile, the military junta's economic policy has not yet convinced foreign investors and has caused an important breach with the Christian Democrats. The British news weekly Latin America commented that five months after the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, the Chilean military junta, is still very far from stabilizing the internal situation. Consequently, it continues to have difficulty in persuading the international financial community to back what might be called "its revolution and economic freedom."

Fernando Léniz, the minister of the economy, returned to Santiago recently from a trip to Washington. Not exactly empty-handed, but with little more than stopgap loans to keep the economy afloat. The International Monetary Fund did its best to point out that, "Chile needs substantial assistance from the international community in terms of credit and investment." But emphasize that at the same time, it must make huge efforts to overcome its own grave difficulties.

The real problem, says Latin America, is that the economic situation is undermining the junta's political support. The chief complaint has been about price rises, particularly of staples like sugar, tea, rice, and oil, which all enjoyed a subsidy in the Allende administration. 

Before he left for Washington, Léniz had to face a meeting of angry housewives demanding that there should be no price rise without a corresponding wage readjustment. Lines for cigarettes have appeared again, almost certainly due to hoarding. 

The economics minister had nothing to offer the housewives and the price increases announced in January make gloomy reading. Sugar has more than doubled in price since last September. The price of oil has not quite doubled and gasoline has almost tripled its price. The problem is that while the consumer can decrease consumption of non-essentials, he can hardly give up buying food altogether. 

Nor is food the only problem. Devaluation of urban and rural property is to be increased 10 and 30 times respectively, which will have a disastrous impact on rents. The existing differentials between rich and poor will be further worsened by next year's abolition of the income tax. New decrees are being brought in to cope with those who abuse these measures. One law specifies that a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment for speculation, hoarding, and rumor mongering.

The Cuban news agency Prensa Latina has reported that five leaders of the Bus Owners Association in Valparaíso, fierce opponents of the Allende government have been jailed for distributing supposedly subversive pamphlets. They had been protesting against the government's refusal to allow transport prices to keep up with the new prices for fuel. 

Perhaps none of this would matter, says Latin America, were it not for the fact that the Christian Democrat Party has now at last come out with major criticism of the government. A private but official letter signed by the party's right wing president was given to General Pinochet and was made public in Buenos Aires. 

"A lasting order cannot be created on the basis of repression", said the letter. "Many Chileans have lost their jobs, been denied civil service promotions, been arrested, harassed, threatened or pressured in different forms without any evidence or concrete charge being brought against them." And in a reference to the economic situation, the letter pointed out that, "In view of the level of prices and the fact that earnings of workers are insufficient to cover the cost of food and other vital items for their families, we feel it is no exaggeration to say that many of these people are simply going hungry." 

The letter's pointed political message was clear, "We are convinced that the absolute inactivity of the democratic sectors facilitates the underground efforts of the Marxist groups. Without guidelines from their leaders our rank and file members and sympathizers are at the mercy of rumor, trickery and infiltration." 

The reply of the military was not long delayed. General Pinochet said that there were certain bad Chileans who were calling for an end to military rule. He emphasized that there was no prospect of elections for at least another five years. The deputy minister of the interior revealed that the police were investigating the activities of political parties which were not obeying the military decree, ordering complete abstention from political activity. 

Having alienated the Christian Democrats, the question of unity within the armed forces themselves once again becomes important. The minister of the interior is a known Christian Democrat supporter and has shown indications of populous leanings. While the defense minister seems to be emerging as the chief spokesman of the hardliners and has flatly denied that anyone within the armed forces is unhappy about the economic policy. "The policy of the junta," he said in an interview with El Mercurio, "so intelligently and dynamically carried out by Minister Léniz is the authentic Chilean road to development and general prosperity." This report from Cuba's Prensa Latina and the British news weekly, Latin America.

Our feature this week, taken from Excélsior of Mexico City and from a United Nations speech of Mrs. Hortensia Allende deals with international reaction to the policies of the military Junta of Chile. This government headed by General Augusto Pinochet came to power in a coup on September 11th, 1973. At this time, the democratically elected Marxist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown. Governments throughout the world are voicing opposition to the brutal repression, which has taken place in Chile since that time. 

Mexico City's Excélsior reports that the Mexican government, for example, has announced that it will withdraw its ambassador from Santiago. The Argentine government is also considerably annoyed with the Junta. After protests at the torture and execution of several Argentine citizens in Chile, there was an awkward border incident when Chilean Air Force planes machine-gunned a Jeep 12 miles inside Argentina. Next, a Chilean refugee was shot dead while in the garden of the Argentine embassy in Santiago; only hours later, the house of the Argentine cultural attache in Santiago was sprayed by gunfire. Nevertheless, the Argentine government continues trade with Chile, including arms, and has afforded some credits to the Junta. 

The Indian ambassador in Chile issued a protest at the treatment of refugees in the Soviet Embassy in Santiago, which is now under Indian protection since the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with the Junta. Cuba has frozen all Chilean credits and stocks in retaliation for the attempt by the Junta to lay its hands upon $10 million deposited in London by the Cuban government for the Popular Unity Government. The Prime minister of Holland, Excélsior reports, made a radio speech severely criticizing the Chilean Junta and praising the Popular Unity Government. He suggested possible forms of aid to the resistance in Chile. Although the People's Republic of China has maintained relations with the Junta, there seems to have been some break in communication. The Chinese ambassador was recalled at the end of October and requests for the acceptance of the new Chilean ambassador to Peking have so far met with no response. Surprisingly, reports Excélsior, there have even been criticisms of the Chilean Junta in Brazil, and these have not been censored in the Brazilian press. 

The event which has drawn the most international attention to Chile recently was a speech made by Mrs. Hortensia Allende, a widow of Dr. Salvador Allende, who spoke before the United Nations Human Rights Commission in late February. It was the first time in the history of the United Nations that a representative of an opposition movement within a member state was permitted to address an official meeting of the UN. United Nations is restricted by law from discussing the internal affairs of its member nations, but the circumstances of the coup and the subsequent actions of the Junta have increasingly isolated it in the world and made the issue of Chile an international one. The following is an excerpt from the translation of the speech delivered at the UN Human Rights Commission. 

"I have not come to this tribunal distinguished delegates as the widow of the murdered President. I come before you as a representative of the International Democratic Federation of Women and above all, as a wife and mother of a destroyed Chilean home as has happened with so many others. I come before you representing hundreds of widows, thousands of orphans of a people robbed of their fundamental rights, of a nation's suffering from a state of war imposed by Pinochet's own troops, obedient servants of fascism that represents violations of each and every right, which according to the Declaration of Human Rights, all people should follow as common standards for their progress and whose compliance this commission is charged with safeguarding."

Mrs. Allende continues to describe how she feels. Each article of the UN Declaration of Human Rights is being violated in her country. According to these postulates universally accepted throughout the civilized world she says, all human beings are born free, equal in dignity and rights. In my country, whose whole tradition was dedicated not only to establishing but practicing these principles, such conditions are no longer being observed. There is discrimination against the rights and dignity of individuals because of their ideology. Liberty does not exist where man is subjected to the dictates of an ignorant armed minority. 

The declaration establishes that every man has the right to life, liberty and security continues, Mrs. Allende. Distinguished delegates, I could spend days addressing you on the subject of how the fascist dictatorship in my country has outdone the worst of Hitler's Nazism. Summary executions, real or staged executions for the purpose of terrifying the victim. Executions of prisoners allegedly attempting to escape, slow death through lack of medical attention. Victims tortured to death are the order of the day under the military Junta. Genocide has been practiced in Chile. The exact figures will not be known until with the restoration of democracy in my country, the murderers are called to account. There will be another Nuremberg for them. According to numerous documented reports, the death toll is between 15 and 80,000. Within this framework, it seems unnecessary to refer to the other two rights enunciated in the Declaration of Human Rights, liberty and security do not exist in Chile. 

Mrs. Allende continues, "I would like to devote a special paragraph to the women of my country, who in different circumstances are today suffering the most humiliating and degrading oppression. Held in jails, concentration camps, or in women's houses of detention are the wives of the government ministers who, besides having their husbands imprisoned on Dawson Island, have had to spend long periods of time under house arrest, are the women members of parliament from the Popular Unity Government who have had to seek asylum and have been denied safe conduct passes. The most humble proletarian woman's husband has been fired from his job or is being persecuted, and she must wage a daily struggle for the survival of her family." 

"The Declaration of Human Rights states that slavery is prohibited, as are cruel punishment and degrading treatment. Is there any worse slavery than that which forces man to be alienated from his thoughts? Today in Chile, we suffer that form of slavery imposed by ignorant and sectarian individuals who, when they could not conquer the spiritual strength of their victims, did not hesitate to cruelly and ferociously violate those rights."

Mrs. Allende continues, "The declaration assures for all mankind equal treatment before the law and respect for the privacy of their home. Without competent orders or formal accusation, many Chileans have been and are being dragged to military prisons, their homes broken into to be submitted to trials whose procedures appear in no law, not even in the military code. Countless Chileans, after five months of illegal procedures, remain in jail or in concentration camps without benefit of trial. The concept of equal protection before the law does not exist in Chile. The jurisdiction of the court is not determined by the law these days but according to the whim of the witch hunters. I wish to stress that if the 200 Dawson Island prisoners are kept there during the Antarctic winter, we will find no more than corpses come spring as the climatic conditions are intolerable to human life and four of the prisoners are already in the military hospital in Santiago." 

Mrs. Allende said, "The Junta has also violated the international law of asylum, turning the embassies into virtual prisons for all those to whom the Junta denies a safe conduct pass for having had some length with the Popular Unity Government. They have not respected diplomatic immunity, even daring to shoot those who have sought refuge in various embassies. Concrete cases involve the embassies of Cuba, Argentina, Honduras, and Sweden. Mail and telephone calls are monitored. Members of families are held as hostages. Moreover, the military Junta has taken official possession of all the goods of the parties of the Popular Unity Coalition, as well as the property of its leaders." 

Mrs. Allende continues, reminding the delegates, "the Declaration of Human Rights establishes that all those accused of having committed a crime should be considered innocent until proven otherwise before a court. The murder of folk artist Victor Jara, the murders of various political and trade union leaders and thousands of others, the imprisonment of innumerable citizens arrested without charges, the ferocious persecution of members of the left, many of them having disappeared or executed, show that my country is not governed by law, but on the contrary, by the hollow will of sectors at the service of imperialism." 

The declaration assures to all, freedom of thought, conscience, expression, religion and association. In Chile, the political parties of the left have been declared illegal. This even includes the moderate and right-wing parties, which are in recess and under control to such extent that the leaders of the Christian Democratic Party have expressed their total inconformity with the policies of the Junta. Freedom of the press has also been eliminated. The media opposed to the Junta has been closed, and only the right wing is permitted to operate, but not without censorship. Honest men who serve the press are in concentration camps or have disappeared under the barrages of the execution squads. 

Books have been burned publicly recalling the days of the Inquisition and Nazi fascism. These incidents have been reported by the world press. The comical errors of those who have read only the titles have resulted in ignorant generals reducing scientific books to ashes. Many ministers sympathetic to the sufferings of their people have been accused of being Marxist in spite of their orthodox militancy following Jesus' example. Masons and layman alike have been tortured simply for their beliefs. It is prohibited to think, free expression is forbidden. 

Mrs. Allende said the right to free education has also been wiped away. Thousands of students have been expelled for simply having belonged to a leftist party. Young people just a few months away from obtaining their degrees have been deprived of five or more years of higher education. University rectors have been replaced by generals, non-graduates themselves. Deans of faculties respond to orders of ballistics experts. These are not gratuitous accusations, but are all of them based on ethics issued by the military Junta itself. 

"In conclusion", says Mrs. Allende, "the Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right of all men to free choice of employment, favorable working conditions, fair pay and job security. Workers must be permitted to organize freely in trade unions. Moreover, the Declaration of Human Rights states that people have the right to expect an adequate standard of living, health and wellbeing for themselves and their families. In Chile, the Central Workers Trade Union confederation, the CUT with 2,400,000 members, which on February 12th, 1974 marked 21 years of existence, has been outlawed. Trade unions have been dissolved except for the company unions. Unemployment, which under the Popular Unity Administration had shrunk to its lowest level, 3.2% is now more than 13%. In my country, the rights of the workers respected in the Declaration of Human Rights have ceased to exist." These excerpts were taken from the United Nations speech of Hortensia Allende, widow of Dr. Salvador Allende, leader of the former Popular Unity Government of Chile. 

There has been speculation in the international press about the relationship between the September, 1973 military coup in Chile and the Brazilian military takeover in 1964. A recent article in the Washington Post, dateline Rio de Janeiro, substantiates many of the questions that have been raised about Brazilian influence in Chile. 

Dr. Depaiva describes himself as a mining engineer with a number of other interests. One of his recent interests as a leading figure in a private anti-communist think tank in Rio de Janeiro was advising Chilean businessmen how to prepare the ground for the military overthrow of President Salvador Allende last Fall. A founding member of a Brazilian paramilitary group says he made two trips to Chile as a courier, taking money for political actions to a right wing anti-Allende organization. 

These men are two of a number of Brazilians who acknowledge helping Chilean foes of Allende. Other private and business interests in this country gave money, arms, and advice on political tactics. There is no evidence that the Brazilian government played any role in this anti-Allende effort. Although its sophisticated military intelligence network must have been aware of it. Brazil was never publicly hostile to Allende. The Washington Post points out that the coup that brought Brazil's armed forces to power in March, 1964 appears to have been used as a model for the Chilean military coup.

The private sector played a crucial role in the preparation of both interventions and the Brazilian businessmen who plotted the overthrow of the left-leaning administration of President Goulart in 1964 were the same people who advised the Chilean right on how to deal with Marxist president, Allende. Soon after Allende's election, thousands of Chilean businessmen took their families and fortunes abroad, settling principally in Ecuador, Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil. 

In Brazil, the well-to-do Chileans quickly found work in multinational corporations or invested their capital in new companies or on the stock exchange. And in their dealings with Brazil's private sector, they quickly established contact with the architects of the 1964 Brazilian coup. For example, they met Gilberto Uber, the wealthy owner of Brazil's largest printing business. In 1961, Uber and several powerful business associates had founded the Institute of Research and Social Studies, a political think tank with the specific object of preparing to overthrow Brazil's so-called communist infiltrated civilian government.

Between 1961 and 1964, the institute organized, financed and coordinated anti-government activities and served as the bridge between private enterprise and the armed forces before the coup. The Executive Secretary of the Institute was General Couto e Silva, who founded Brazil's Political Intelligence Agency in 1964. 

One year ago, Chilean Luis FuenZalida, who had joined Uber's Printing Company, told friends proudly, "We are going to throw out Allende, and I'm learning from Uber that the Brazilians did in 1964." Another key member of the institute and one of its founders was Dr. Depaiva, a leading conservative economist, ardent anti-communist, and an admirer of the United States, which he has visited frequently.

Depaiva also acts as a consultant to a number of US and multinational companies in Brazil. He believes the Allende government was a threat to the entire continent, but it was clear Allende would not be allowed to stay. He said, "The recipe exists and you can bake the cake anytime. We saw how it worked in Brazil and now again in Chile." 

Dr. Depaiva's recipe involves creating political and economic chaos, fomenting discontent and deep fear of communism among employers and employees, blocking legislative efforts of the left, organizing mass demonstrations and rallies, even acts of terrorism if necessary. His recipe, Depaiva recognizes, requires a great deal of fundraising. "A lot of money was put out to topple Allende," he said, "but the money businessmen spend against the left is not just an investment, it is an insurance policy." 

After Chile's coup, a prominent Brazilian historian who asked not to be named said, "The first two days I felt I was living a Xerox copy of Brazil in 1964. The language of Chile's military communiques justifying the coup and their allegations that the communists had been preparing a massacre and a military takeover was so scandalously identical to ours, one almost presumes they had the same author." 

Following in the footsteps of the Brazilian Institute and using its recipe, Chile's Gremios or Middle Class Professional Brotherhoods with Business and Landowners Associations created the center for Public Opinion Studies. Public Opinion Studies was one of the principle laboratories for strategies such as the crippling anti-government strikes, the press campaigns, the spreading of rumors and the use of shock troops during street demonstrations. The center also served as headquarters for the women's movement, which was so effectively used against the Marxist president. 

According to the Washington Post, Dr. Depaiva takes particular pride in the way we taught the Chileans how to use their women against the Marxist. In Chile, the opposition to Allende created Poder Femenino, Feminine Power, an organization of conservative housewives, professional and businesswomen who became famous for their marches of the empty pots. Poder Femenino took its cues, its finances, and its meeting rooms from the gremios, the professional brotherhoods.

Despite the directives from the male dominated leadership, Dr. Depaiva explains that, "The women must be made to feel they're organizing themselves, that they play a very important role. They're very cooperative and don't question the way men do. Both in Chile and Brazil," Depaiva points out, "women were the most directly affected by leftist economic policies, which create shortages in the shops. Women complain at home and they can poison the atmosphere, and of course, they're the wives and the mothers of the military and the politicians." 

There appeared to be no shortage of financial offers. The inflow of dollars from abroad was no secret to Allende. By early August, it had become public knowledge that the organizers of the transportation strike preceding the coup were paying close to 35,000 drivers and owners of trucks, buses, and taxis to keep their vehicles off the road. Two taxi drivers told me they were each receiving the equivalent of $3 at the black market rate for every day they were not working, and a group of truck drivers said they received $5 a day, paid in dollar bills. On the basis of this, Allende aides calculated that the 45 day strike cost close to $7 million in payoffs alone. 

It was also an accepted fact that the thousands of Chileans abroad were raising funds and sending in contributions. Jovino Novoa, a conservative lawyer and a member of the Chilean exile community in Buenos Aires said in an interview, "Of course money was sent to Chile. We all did what we could, each according to his capacity." 

This roundup of evidence linking the recent military coup in Chile with the 1964 Brazilian coup is taken from The Washington Post. 

The British News Weekly, Latin America recently ran the following background of current negotiations between the United States and Panama. On his recent whirlwind visit, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Panama's Foreign Minister signed an eight point agreement of principles providing for the eventual restoration of Panama's territorial sovereignty over the Panama Canal and the 550 square mile zone surrounding it.

According to this agreement, a new treaty will be negotiated that supersedes the existing one signed in 1903. The original treaty gave the US control of the canal "in perpetuity". The new treaty will contain a fixed termination date for US jurisdiction over the canal, likely to be about 30 years from now, and it will provide for Panama's participation in the administration, protection and defense of the waterway in the meantime. 

The agreement indicates that some progress has been made in the long stalemated negotiations over the canal, but enormous problems lie ahead. At the heart of these problems lies the US military presence in the canal zone, which the Pentagon is committed to maintaining. At the same time, political developments to the left and right of the government of Panamanian President, Omar Torrijos, which reflects problems created by the US military presence and economic penetration, threatened his government. 

Torrijos came to power in a military coup in 1968. Inspired by the Peruvian model of military nationalism, he has consistently spoken of the importance of Panamanian control of the canal and the country's other natural resources. Three years ago, he said, concerning the US presence in the canal zone, "The Americans must pull out with their colonial tent." 

But under the Nixon Administration, US military activity in the zone has been greatly stepped up. Almost the entire US counterinsurgency force for Latin America, including military training centers and a jungle warfare school is housed in the zone. It is also the headquarters for the US Southern Command, SOUTHCOM, which coordinates all US military and intelligence activities throughout Latin America, supervises all US military assistance programs and maintains a communications and logistics network for US forces. It was originally created to defend the canal zone itself, but a State Department official recently told Congressman Les Aspin that the only justification for SOUTHCOM is for an intervention force in Latin America. 

Another important element of US military presence in Panama is the US Army School of the Americas. Many of the leaders of Chile's current military junta and the Chilean Director of Intelligence are graduates of this school, according to Latin America. Documents recently made available to the North American Congress on Latin America describe the activities of the Army School. According to the documents, the major purpose of the program is to train and select Latin Americans in curating out counterinsurgency missions for the repression of national liberation movements.

There is a heavy emphasis on intelligence operations and interrogation techniques, as well as the teaching of US Army doctrine ideology. In response to the growing wave of guerilla activity in Latin American cities, new courses have been developed on urban guerilla warfare and sophisticated criminal investigation techniques. Classroom exercises range from the selection of labor union informers to methods of protecting leaders from assassination temps to the recovery and deactivation of explosive devices. 

Because of the sensitive nature of these operations, it is unlikely that any other Latin American country would allow the Pentagon to set up operations within its borders. In a period of growing nationalist feelings, no Latin American regime could afford to so visibly compromise its integrity. 

According to Latin America, the growing importance of the military presence in the canal zone has deadlocked negotiations for some time, but growing pressure from the left in Panama has forced President Torrijos to step up the pace of the talks. That pressure peaked during Kissinger's visit when a government authorized demonstration by the Student Federation turned into a militantly anti-US confrontation led by the outlawed peoples party, the Communist Party of Panama. 

At the same time, Torrijos is under increasing attack from the right in Panama. According to the New York Times, a growing sector of the national business community has become so disgusted with Torrijos' current domestic policies that they have withdrawn their support for him and hope that his treaty aims come to nothing, so as to further destabilize his government. Under Torrijos' rule, business has prospered in Panama.

There are now 55 banking houses in the country with deposits of $1.5 billion. They're pumping $100 million a year into the economy, but businessmen have become increasingly disgruntled since October of last year when Torrijos ordered construction of low income housing and cut short a high rise building boom. This has led to anti-government demonstrations, including a march of the empty pots by middle and upper class women. 

Latin America continues saying that Panamanian officials fear that the US may take part in new efforts to bring about a coup in concert with these right-wing forces if Torrijos succumbs to mounting leftist pressure. John Dean's senate testimony implicated Watergate plumber, E. Howard Hunt, in plans to assassinate Torrijos just after the US elections in 1972. The mission was scrapped, but Panamanian officials took it seriously enough to interrupt canal negotiations. In recent weeks, at least 11 right-wingers have been arrested on charges of plotting against the government. 

Like other nationalist leaders in Latin America, Torrijos is faced with a three edged problem. One, a growing socialist and anti-imperialist movement that is demanding that he live up to his nationalist principles. Two, a national bourgeoisie whose support is mercurial and divided because of its economic dependence on the United States. And three, the United States itself, which is dedicated to preserving and expanding its interest in Latin America.

The Latin American military plays a central role throughout Latin America in maintaining a political stability that is favorable to the US and canal zone operations are important for developing the military's essential allegiance to capitalist ideology and the US itself. It is against this backdrop that the negotiations over the canal zone take place. The outcome of the negotiations and the political activities in Panama and the US that surround them will have a profound effect on the future of all Latin America. That report from the British News Weekly, Latin America. 

The British news weekly Latin America recently carried this story about political refugees from Haiti, a tiny Latin American country which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. 

Latin America begins by telling the story of Mrs. Marie Sanon, a woman who recently fled Haiti to escape the fear of beatings and the threat of jail. Mrs. Sanon thought when she fled Haiti that she would find asylum in the United States. Instead, she's one of some 400 Haitians in the United States, over 100 of them in jail, who are faced with deportation as illegal aliens. 

Since there are no immigration quotas for the Western hemisphere countries, immigrants may be admitted when they meet certain qualifications or if they are political refugees. Tens of thousands of Cubans are in this country because they are the type of refugees acceptable to the State Department. US authorities claim that escapees like Ms. Sanon are not political refugees because, they say, there is no political repression on that Caribbean island. The State Department says that since the death of Papa Doc Duvalier three years ago, his son, Jean-Claude, has brought about a more liberalized regime. But, says Latin America, Ms. Sanon and many others have charged that nothing has changed in Haiti and that the reform is just a cosmetic device to attract tourists to the island.

Mrs. Sanon lived in Port-au-Prince Haiti with her parents and nine other brothers and sisters in a small house. To meet increasing family expenses, her father rented a room to a man they later learned was a member of the Duvalier secret police, the Leopards. Early last year, after months of not receiving any rent from their boarder, one of the sisters went to ask for it and was brutally beaten. When the father went to find out what happened, he was arrested. Later, her mother was arrested too, and both were kept in jail for a month. 

After their release, the family lived in constant fear of further beatings or arrests. One of Mrs. Sanon's brothers, a law student, refused to help plan national sovereignty day observance at the university and declared his opposition to the regime. One day, Mrs. Sanon's friends told her that the Leopards were going to arrest her and her brother that night. With another brother, they left Port-au-Prince and made their way to Cap-Haitien where they met others who also wanted to escape. 

38 of them, including 30 men, seven women and a 16-year-old boy jammed into a small 20-foot sailboat they found and set sail for freedom, Miami, 750 miles away. But after two days out, the rudder broke and Gulf Currents brought them to the Cuban shore. Cuban officials offered them asylum, but they refused saying they were not Communists. They made repairs and set out again. Days later, the rudder failed again and the boat floundered. 

After nine days of helpless drifting, they were cited by some fishermen who then radioed the US Coast Guard. They were soon picked up and brought to Miami. The group, of course, asked for political asylum, but the State Department refused since it holds the view that no political repression is practiced on the island. 

Yet, says Latin America, despite proclamations of the Duvalier government to the contrary, terror and imprisonment have been documented by a number of human rights groups such as Amnesty International. In a report issued last year, Amnesty said no real changes have taken place in Haiti, except for an increasing struggle for power, both within the Duvalier family itself and among the ministers and other officials. For many years, hardly any information about political prisoners seeped out of Haiti. Prisoners who were released or exiled did not dare speak for fear of reprisals on themselves or their families. 

United States government officials say that many Haitians have come to this country for purely economic reasons, and that 30% never request asylum. They also say that the refugees who can't establish that they will be subject to persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular group cannot remain in the United States. Why the State Department is treating Haitians differently than other refugees is a question that has been posed by many groups supporting the Haitians. 

In Miami, a former Justice Department attorney who represents 250 of the refugees says what it boils down to is that the United States is unwilling to accept the fact that people who come from right-wing countries are oppressed. People who flee to the United States from Communist countries are always granted political asylum, but we have a long history of refusing those from right-wing or Fascist dictatorships. That from the British newswekly, Latin America.