WASHINGTON: THE ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000100400002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 30, 2013
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 18, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2613/12/30 : CIA-RDP73-00475R000100400002-1
? , MAR 1 8 1866
? !'
Washington: The Alliance for Progress?
By JAMES RESTON
!, WASHINGTON, March 17?
The paradox of America in the
.world today is that it can fairly
claim to be making progress
? almost everywhere, yet finds
that its problems are, out-
? stripping its gains.
t We have come to the end of
the first half of the ten-year
Alliance for Progress in this
hemisphere, for example, with ?
-some. encouraging results to
report, but with little real hope
of achieving the objective of ;
self-sustaining growth by the
end of the 1960's.
The reason for this is not
?
that the republics of the hemi-
sphere have not ? made gains,
' but their gains have been very
;uneven from country to coun-,
try, and they find that their
? economic growth must increase
, faster and faster just to keep
pace with their' population
growth.
?? ?
'The Gains
! Psychologically, the atmos-.'
? phere is much better. The cruel
gap between the very rich and
the very poor remains, but ,
there is visible evidence of
! change and improvement in:
many places. There is 'more
help from the advanced cowl-.
tries of Latin America?Brazil,,
Mexico, Argentina and Chile--
to the poorer countries of Latin
?America than ever befOre, and',
%the new generation of prag:. than double to between 500 mil- , ? inhabitants must be built each
matic technicians is appearing lion and 600 million by the end' year, but no more than two
' with little interest in the old of the' century, and there is ?units per thousand inhabitants ?
economic myths and political ? nothing in the present economic are in fact being built, so that
feuds of the past. ,,,trends to compare with this the housing tleficit is expected',
, Nevertheless, the statistics perple'xing prospect. \ to increase this year once more...
.now being published to mak,' There are some hopeful signs ?
the progress Of the Alliance's , in some countries. Brazil, Argen- ? ?
Land reform and social re-
halfway mark are somewhat ''?,tina and Chile, whose gross
- forms are proceeding slowly, the
misleading. The goal of .the 'national product amounts to
:Alliance Was an 'economic - almost 56
capita a year, ahd after a slow er ent a the total experts at. the bank concede. ^
?
'growth rate of 2.5 per cent per , gross product of all Latin. But agricultural production has
start this was achieved in 194 actually slowed down over the
? "
i
America, have finally managed
and 1965, but only about hal to mak last five years and the educan
e some progress against tional reforms are not keeping
their inflation. Mexicci, Vene- ? pace with the mounting school,a
, of the Latin-American republics zuela, Peru and Colombia have
population.
, achieved this growth rate, and had an average economic growth
. most of the countries actually .. rate of well above 4 per cent Of every 100 children enrolled
. annually in the first year of
had a lower growth rate in 1965 , for the last few years, thougjv 1
than in 1964. :
the P 17. gr e e- school in Latin America, only
:.? It is the trend of the eco- ?c ?
. iined last year in all of these . eight complete their secondary,?
, nomic growth rate in relation four countries except Pent. ducation, and in 1964 the tug...,
versity population of the entire 1
to the trend of the population
ng to the Inter-Amer-
growth rate that is most dis- region. was only 4 per cent oil
turbing. The population is now
Increasing in Latin America as.
.. a whole at a rate of 2.8 per
1 According
cent; in Costa Rica, where thet Housing and Schools It is true that in any 10-year .1
econcenic growth .rate was 0.9 program of reconstruction, the I
can Development Bank, the so- the university age group,
cial progress in the region 'as a 1
This is the kind of situation 4
that causes rebellions and wars. 1
,I
whole has been discouraging.
. ,
? per cent last year,. the popula- ?! ?.tecause of the increase of the: progress. always tends to be
' tion growth was.. 4 per cent; ?population and the vast migra- slow in the first half, but there 1
and in Central America . as a ??; tion of the peoples in the hemis-? ? is very little in this picture to
wh,ole, the population is now .phere from the land to the justify the current official op-.
?growing faster than in any ':cities, there is a housing deficit timism here about achieving the.,
other part of the world. ? In Latin Arnerica,'according to 2,.5 per cent per capita growth
1.. ? Dr. Sanz de Santarnaria, the Inter-Anierican Bank, of be- :--rate. ,It "is the over-all trend
?chairman of the Inter-American ? tweens 15 million and ip that counts, and the trend is not,
, Committee on the Alliance ,,tuiits,.TO eliminate this and pro- running ,toward President Ken.
? Progress,- estimates that for' the, rising population::nedy's objective of self-suitia
? present Latin-American popu*-2, the inhk estimates that 11 to 12 clency by 1070, but is actually
tion,of 22,.0 '; per thousand pr thousand ? runnittragainst IL ? ? ? -;
:
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/30: CIA-RDP73-_00475R000100400002-1