FOREIGN POLICY STUDY GROUP: PART VIII U.S.-LATIN AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH MARCOS MCGRATH, ARCHBISHOP OF PANAMA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000100080007-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 24
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 31, 2005
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: March 28, 1974
• Content Type: LETTER

program to improve understanding of Phone (?02) 332 6929
international issues through direct
communication between Government
officials and private citizens sponsored
jointly by the American Foreign Service
Association and the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace
March 28, 1974
Foreign Policy Study Group: Part VIII
U.S.-Latin American Relations
with Marcos McGrath, Archbishop of Panama
Dear Study Group Member:
On Tuesday, April 16, Marcos McGrath, Archbishop of Panama, will
discuss with us U.S.-Latin American relations, starting from his Foreign
Affairs article "Ariel or Caliban". (Copy enclosed.)
Our discussion, on the eve of the next meeting of.U.S./Latin
American Foreign Ministers (Washington, April 17/18), will focus on
Latin American fear of United States domination, with the Panama Canal
Treaty as a case study.
Archbishop McGrath was former Vice President of the Council of
Latin American Bishops (1966-72) and member of the Doctrinal Commission
of Vatican Council II (1962-65).
George C. Lodge, Professor of Business Administartion at Harvard
University, and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Inter-American Founda-
tion, will moderate the session.
We will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Federal City Club (off the lobby
of the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel, 16th & K Streets, N.W.).
The Archbishop will begin his remarks at 7:00 p.m., followed by
discussion, dinner at 8:00 p.m., and discussion continuing after dinner
until 10:15 P.M.
Please let Mrs. Haskins know whether or not you can join us.
(Tel: [phone].)
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN?
By Marcos G. McGrath
FOREIGN
AFFAI ~S
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
AN AMERICAN QUARTERLY REVIEW
OCTOBER 1973
Foreign Policy, Public Opinion and Secrecy
Nicholas deB. Katzenbach
D
oes War Have A Future?
Toward a Western Philosophy of Coexistence Louis J. Halle
I
20
Marshall D. Shulman
The Dom
sti
P
li
35
e
c
o
tics of the New Soviet Foreign Policy
Ariel or Caliban2 Wolfgang Leonhard
.
59
The Concert Europe . . . . . . Marcos G. McGrath
75
ace
Chace M
6
utual-Hostage Relationship between America and Russia
9
Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky Io9
Canada and Its Economic Discontents . Robert M. Dunn, Jr. I1g
Japan and Russia: The View fro-n Tokyo . . . Elizabeth Pond 141
Making American Diplomacy Relevant . . . Monteagle Stearns 153
Pressures on Apartheid . . . . . David Hirschmann 168
Correspondence . . . . . 180
Byron Dexter (1900-1473) . . . .
Recent Books on International Relations . . . . . . ? ? ? 192
Source Material . . ? 1
' Donald Wasson toq
og
WILLIAM P. BUNDY
Editor
JAMES CHACE
JENNIFER SEYMOUR WHITAKER Managing Editor
a ELIZABETH H. BRYANT
ssist,...,
ditor
Editorial Advisory Board
A. DOAK BARNETT HARVEY BROOKS
C. FRED BERGSTEN JOHN J. MCCLOY
CARL KAYSEN HARRY C. MCPHERSON, JR.
JAMES H. BILLINGTON WILLIAM L. LANGER
WILLIAM M. ROTH
Published quarterly by Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. Editorial and Business Offices,
58 East 68 Street, New York, N.Y. 1002r. All mail, including correspondence about subscrip-
tions, should be sent to this address. Cable address Foraffairs, New York. Subscriptions,
$1o.oo a year, post free to any address. The Editors will consider manuscripts submitted, but
assume no responsibility regarding them. Reprints of articles are available for purchase.
Printed at 34 N. Crystal Street, East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
Vol. 52, No. I. Copyright 1973, Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN?
By Marcos G. McGrath
ET me begin with a story. It occurs in a backward rural area
of Panama. Perhaps it may help toward a better under-
standing, in simple terms, of the larger subject of the
Americas.
Some years ago when I was Bishop of a poor rural Diocese in
the Republic of Panama, a situation of conflict developed be-
tween the residents of a small town and the "campesinos" (poor
farmers) of the surrounding district. The conflict was basically
economic; but it took on many other aspects, became quite emo-
tional and developed into situations of violence.
To understand the problem one must understand the area. The
district is hilly, partly jungle, and undeveloped in that it lacks
roads and, outside of the main town, electricity and running
water. The town had about 6oo inhabitants. It had a complete
primary school. Most of the people in the town could get their
children through primary school and even send them off to high
school or vocational school, and some to the university, either
in the capital of the Province or in the nation's capital. Most
of these townspeople lived off their larger tracts of land; some
made their living from the three or four stores in the town, or in
government positions such as mayor, teachers, etc. But in the
countryside the ro,ooo campesinos who lived scattered over the
more than r,ooo square miles of the district suffered from ex-
treme want. The land was fertile, but very few of them owned
any land. They used the slash-and-burn method, shifting from
one place to another every two or three years as the land gave
out because of the lack of fertilizer, insecticide, etc. Most were
illiterate.
The main problem of the whole area was its inaccessibility.
The rich produce-coffee, citrus fruits, bananas, potatoes, corn,
rice, sugar cane-was noncommercial because during the long
rainy season of six to seven months it could only be shipped out
from the main town by the few available four-wheel traction
cars, or by light airplanes that risked flying up to the hills and
landing on the dangerous airstrip serving the town.
For generations the campesinos had lived on less than a sub-
sistence economy. Most of them received an annual income of
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76 FOREIGN AFFAIRS
less than $so in cash. They raised what little they could on their
small scattered sites. Because the produce was so small that they
could not afford to take it into the larger towns for sale, they had
to sell it to the stores in this center town of their district. But the
storekeepers gave them less than the going market price; and at
the end of the harvest season, when the produce had perhaps
glutted the market, sometimes the campesinos could not sell it
at all. Even selling it to the stores in this little town, often they
received part cash and had to accept the rest in credit with
the store. When in turn they would have to buy a few essential
items, such as cloth with which to clothe themselves and their
children, the prices were higher than in the capital city and even
in the capital of the Province.
This tremendous economic dependence on the storekeepers
carried over into other forms of dependence. Since the campe-
sinos were squatters on lands which belonged sometimes to the
townspeople, sometimes to absentee landowners resident in the
capital city who were represented by some of the local towns-
people, the campesinos were also politically dependent. In the
frequent political campaigns they were expected to vote in the
manner dictated by the local "cacique" (political leader), who
represented the economic interests of the stores and of the large
landholders. What began to break up this whole situation and
produce conflicts was the introduction of cooperatives among
the campesinos.
This was begun by the local Diocese. First a Panamanian priest
and a young high school graduate from a.nearby town in the same
Province, both of whom had studied cooperatives in Antigon-
ish, Canada, and then other young high school graduates from
the Province who received this or similar training, began visiting
the towns and countryside to talk about cooperatives. The Di-
ocese set up a social office to organize and support this effort. Its
personnel promoted meetings among all those who were inter-
ested. This led to the construction of a center to which the cam-
pesinos would come for courses of one, two, three or more days.
At first hardly anyone with economic or political power paid
any attention to this movement because it was generally consid-
ered that the campesino was incapable of any real initiative to
improve his situation. He was thought ignorant, lazy, indiscrim-
inate in his moral practices, often abandoning women and chil-
dren as he shifted from one area to another in his slash-and-burn
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN?
method. But after about two years of patient, weekly meetings,
cooperatives began to take shape in some communities. They
were first called pre-cooperatives, because they had not yet
reached the stage of formal organization, or of incorporation in
the law. But they soon began to act as cooperatives, and by the
third year of their existence the scattered groups had formed a
federation of cooperatives named after Pope John XXIII, which
acquired an identity before the law and began to set up stores
for the buying and selling of its own goods, first in the capital
city of the Province and then in some of the main townships of
the districts, including the town we were speaking of.
Not long after beginning their labors in cooperative training,
the first priest and layman in this effort discovered that they had
to set aside the classic method of starting with a savings cooper-
ative for the simple reason that these campesinos had almost
nothing to save. They developed what gradually turned into a
production and consumer cooperative.
The first year that the original store operated in the capital of
the Province it barely kept out of the red. The second year it had
a.capital movement of $27,000. By the fourth year it was close to
$500,000. Also by this time the cooperative stores in the outlying
towns were prospering. In the particular town in question, the
cooperative store had become far and away the best equipped, the
best operated and the largest in town.
Myths were being broken. Studies carried out by the Diocese
had established that the so-called laziness of the campesinos was
largely due to a permanent state of malnutrition. Many of them
during the scarcest months of the rainy season had to subsist along
with their families on a cup of coffee and some bread in the
morning and a plate of rice and beans during the day. The alco-
holism or general drunkenness among the campesinos came to
be seen as the obvious effect of taking liquor whenever possible
to get quick energy for work, a habit which easily turned the
campesinos into real or potential alcoholics. The apparent lack
of concern for the wife and children and indiscriminate aban-
donment of both to set up new families in other areas were many
times the sad effects of having no land on which to set up a per-
manent home. The miserable housing, with lack of even minimal
health conditions, was due to the lack of incentive to build when
every two or three years the campesino would have to move on
to a new site. The lack of education of the children, who often
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78 FOREIGN AFFAIRS
were not even sent to the schools by their parents, was due to the
same lack of incentive and the need to count on these children to
help in the hard tasks upon the land.
The myths were broken for those who were studying the ques-
tion. But the caciques in the town, their families, and the towns-
people in general, continued to believe in these myths. They con-
tinued to talk about the many kindnesses they had performed
for the campesinos in the past. They could not recognize that this
paternalism was a disguise for continuing a state of economic and
political subjugation which impeded the development of these
campesinos. The new personality and initiative of these campe-
sinos surprised and worried the townspeople.
Since the single priest in the district could visit each of these
country communities only -every two or three months, the
Church's effort for the campesinos in the economic area was
coupled with what is called "evangelization." This consisted of
the training of men and women in each of the country areas to
lead religious services on Sunday and prepare all of these people
and their children, not only for prayer and some knowledge of
the faith, but also for the reception of the sacraments and par-
ticipation in the Mass. Many of the couples who had long lived
together were married at their own request, often in the presence
of their children, and began participating actively with commu-
nion in the liturgical services. This religious stability was due
not only to a growth in faith, but also to the beginning of some
economic stability as a basis for family life.
On one occasion some 5o campesinos had come in from the
land for a three-day course in the main town. From humble, pas-
sive peasants, with heads bowed and straw hats in hand, they
had developed into upright persons speaking independently and
fairly about religion, about their families, and about their efforts
to improve their situations. They spoke with no bitterness or
aggressiveness against others, but rather of their own efforts.
Their peacefulness was demonstrated on this occasion. On the
Friday night of their weekend course, some of the children of
the local townspeople had gathered around the rancho in which
the campesinos were trying to sleep and shouted insults at them,
telling them to go back to their land and stop bothering the town.
The local policeman did nothing about it. The following night
the same children, mostly of high school age, who were in town
on vacation, repeated their act and added to it by throwing stones
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN? 79
at the rancho. Again the campesinos did nothing. They did not
even tell me about this when I came the next day. It was the priest
who told me.
I went with the priest to see the town mayor. I asked him why
neither he nor the policeman had stopped these abuses. He could
give me no answer. I told him that unless something were done
about it I would bring criminal charges against the parents of
these children in the capital city of the Province. In view of this
he called a meeting of all the townspeople for that very evening.
In the meeting, one after another expressed their excuses and
regret for the incident. I tried to get at the heart of the question.
It was true that the cooperative store cut down the sales of other
stores in town; but it was quite obvious that the campesinos had
not only a legal right to the store, but also a moral right to fight
for a more decent level of life. This did not impress them. I tried
another argument. A more prosperous "campesinado" would
mean economic progress for the whole area. If they all joined in
fighting for the year-round road to the town, all would benefit:
in trade, in services, even in tourism. Instead of fighting over a
few pennies, why did they not consider the prospect of a more
abundant situation for both the campesinos and themselves? Both
arguments, the moral and that based on self-interest, were coldly
received.
Shortly afterwards I had to leave this Diocese when I was
named Archbishop in the capital city. The conflicts between the
townspeople and the campesinos went on and on. The usual accu-
sations against the campesinos of drunkenness, of laziness, of rob-
bery, of immorality, etc., continued to be used as excuses for mea-
sures, sometimes violent, to stop the cooperative movement. The
center of attack became the priest, who, with the support of the
new Bishop, time and again defended the campesinos in their
rights. Finally, one sad evening toward midnight, the priest was
dragged from the hut where he was staying, disappeared, and
has never been found. Tragedy reached its peak in this incident,
which struck at the heart of the Panamanian people and of the
Church in Panama. The crime has not been solved to this day,
but its causes were evident.
The cooperative goes on and has even grown in strength. But
the resentments of many townspeople remain; no real alliance
for progress in this area has yet been achieved; and the dangers
of violence remain ever present. The situation of injustice for
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8o FOREIGN AFFAIRS
so long wreaked upon these campesinos, and which is only be-
ginning to be solved in this area, exists throughout much of Latin
America. The attempts on the part of the campesinos to group
together and better their situation are often met with the same
kind of repression disguised with moral accusations against them.
This particular group of campesinos, thanks to its Christian for-
mation, has continued on the path of positive nonviolent action.
But how easy it would be for them, now conscious of their dig-
nity, their rights and their possibilities, to meet injustice -vi ith
hate, to attack repression with violence!
Why do I recount this story in such detail? There are several
reasons. The first perhaps is to recognize from the very beginning
that the situations of injustice existing in Latin America, inter-
nally speaking, are our own fault. We cannot lay the blame on
the United States or anyone else. The second reason is to point
out the great potential that a message of liberation, joined to
organizational know-how, holds for these poor. But so much de-
pends on who gives this message and what it says!
The third and obvious reason is to draw a parallel. The same
kind of myths which are used by the townspeople to rationalize
systematic injustice toward the campesinos characterizes the
attitude and actions of many individuals and many institutions
in the United States toward Latin America.
II
While both the United States and Latin America are off-
shoots of Europe, they have grown off separate branches, in dif-
ferent manners, and with very little contact between one
until this century. another
What is now Latin America was visited, conquered and settled
by Europeans in the century before Plymouth Rock. They came
in the name of the Kings of Spain and Portugal. They brought
with them the mental and social structures of monarchy and
feudal organization. They established a colonial regime depen-
dent politically, economically, culturally and religiously upon
the mother countries, and cut off, like them, from the Europe to
the north. The conquerors mixed with the original native and
the later black slave populations, sharing with them their blood
and their faith. But not completely. The structures of economic
and cultural dominance remained unchanged even by the revo-
lutions of independence in the early nineteenth century. The
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ARIEL OR CALI BAN ? 81
new political constitutions, in the spirit of the French Revolu-
tion and modeled upon the U.S. Constitution, set up formal
democracy, for which there was no working basis. Colonialist
dependence, giving up prime materials in exchange for manu-
factured goods, continued-now toward England and France.
Later it would be primarily toward the United States.
By contrast, the first communities which landed on the eastern
seaboard of what is now the United States came from England
and northern Europe. Many came in protest against their mother
countries, often to escape religious persecution. They brought the
Protestant ethic, which emphasized individual responsibility,
work and material success as signs of divine predestination.
At this early stage of independence, there was little effective
contact between the new nation to the north and those to the
south. Latin American leaders, political and literary, voiced
strong admiration for the great new democracy that had shown
the way to freedom. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 was well
received by them. They appreciated the promise of help against
European interventions. They were disappointed when, in the
face of concrete interventions, it was not given.
But the picture changed. In the early 18oos there was not much
difference in the material standards and comforts, north and
south. Cultural and artistic manifestations were richer in Latin
America. But the Industrial Revolution between 1820 and igio,
aided by 28 million immigrants, a ready-made work force, lifted
the economic standards in the United States. Soon the U.S. per
capita income was twice that of Latin America. By 1970 it
would be 18 times greater, with the gap growing wider.
Second, the United States began to appear on the horizon
as a predatory threat. The Mexican War and land grab (1846--
48) sent a shock wave all the way to the South Pole. Beautiful
clipper ships presaged the spread of U.S. economic interest and
investment-with the same colonialist spirit shown by Europe
in the past. Growing U.S. interest and intervention in the Carib-
bean area, in pursuit of its own interests, burst into the Spanish-
American War, the so-called "taking of Panama" with an im-
posed treaty, and the continued "big stick" policy of "dollar
diplomacy" and armed intervention which marked the next
3o years in Mexico and the Caribbean. Jose Enrique Rodo,
the Uruguayan author, wrote, in 1goo, oriel and Caliban: the
values of the spirit versus ambitious material expansion. Marti,
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Ruben Dario and others expressed the same fears. Garcia Cal-
deron, prominent Peruvian writer, warned in 1911: "Every-
where the Americans of the north are feared. In the Antilles and
in Central America hostility against the Anglo-Saxon invaders
assumes the character of a Latin crusade."
Meanwhile new processes were at work in Latin America.
The application of modern medical progress had kicked off
toward the end of the century the beginning of the phenomenal
population explosion. The Industrial Revolution began to take
real effect in some of the major urban areas about the same time,
and these two new factors provoked crises on the land, where
the population could no longer support itself, leading to the
flooding of impoverished peasants to the urban areas. The center
of political concern shifted from the old anticlerical and clerical
debates to what had become far more existentially meaningful:
the new economic concerns. In these early decades of the century
we find the first beginnings of the labor unions, of the Socialist
parties of the Left, and with the Russian revolution, the Marxist-
Communist influence. The universities, expanding in numbers,
became nerve centers of political awareness and agitation. This
process took place particularly in the more politically mature
areas of the southern cone of Latin America-along with the re-
markable phenomenon of the Mexican Revolution.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the "Good Neighbor
Policy" as a road to understanding and collaboration. It was
forgotten during the conflagration which was the Second World
War. After the war, the process of industrialization continued,
if in a desultory fashion, throughout Latin America, in the midst
of an economic recession resulting from the falling off of sales
for the war effort. There developed throughout Latin America
serious concern for the ever more complicated socio-economic
problems, typified by the swelling urbanization (Sao Paulo, for
example, growing by 300 to 400 thousand a year). Political pres-
sure polarized to the Right, to the Marxist Left, and into the new
reform movements of Christian inspiration, characterized as
Christian Democratic parties and labor unions.
It was at this point that the so-called decade of development
of the ig6os was announced amid new hope. It had been sharply
motivated by the Communist take-over in Cuba. It was phrased
in the terms of the Alliance for Progress as set up in Punta del
Este in I g61.
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN? g3
There are many reasons for the failure of the Alliance for
Progress: It made some gains. But it failed in the essential aim
of effective economic assistance from the north, not only from
the United States but also from Western Europe, not only from
the governments but also from private investment; it failed to
get at the key issues of trade and the powerful weight of foreign
and international investments in Latin America; and it failed in
most of our countries because of the ineffectiveness of the reform
measures that it relied on-such as land and tax reforms.
These failures cast great doubt on the possibility of achiev-
ing the necessary reforms for the integral development of our
peoples within the capitalist structure of each nation and the
overall capitalist structure of the international and particularly
the inter-American economy. They have cast serious doubt upon
the possible effectiveness of democratically constituted nations,
in which the exercise of democracy has been for the most part
merely formal and often abused by the few in power for their
benefit. We have seen military take-overs in one after another of
our nations. We see the widely and rapidly expanding convic-
tion among many that the only salvation for Latin America is in
one or another of the possible Socialist solutions. We see the rise
of nationalism within each country in the affirmation of its rights,
particularly over its natural resources and major public services
and the industries based on natural resources. We see the rise of
an overall nationalism in Latin America-of a consciousness, so
far not translated effectively into action, that the whole of Latin
America must group together in its common interests if it is to
face up effectively to the powerful nation to the north and in
general to the developed nations of the world. We see a growing
desire in Latin America to make common cause with the rest of
the so-called Third World.
III
The recent Rockefeller Report on Latin America devotes
exactly nine lines to the Church-and writes it off as ingenuous.
This is true Caliban. One could as well ignore Islam in an anal-
ysis of the Arab nations.
Pope Paul VI, in addressing the Latin American Bishops in
Rome a few days before the close of the Second Vatican Council
(November 24, 1965), said: "The Church by her actions must
give proof that not only has she been an integral part in the for-
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mation of each of the nations of Latin America, but that today
also she strives to be a beacon light and a saving force in the
present process of transformation."
There were glories of the Church during the colonial period
in Latin America-glories both religious and humanitarian.
There were, to the modern eye, also many defects: especially her
close identification with the whole social structure, such as it was.
She was an integral part of what went on.
The revolution of independence shook the Church. Many
bishops and priests who sided with Spain had to leave; others
sided with the revolution. Christians were deeply divided. For
many years, because of the conflicting claims of Spain and the
new nations, no new bishops could be named, seminaries were
closed, and the number and quality of priests declined seriously.
Political factions, all from the upper classes, divided into clerical
and anticlerical postures. In one country, 95 percent Catholic,
the anticlericals in power made the celebration of Mass by a
priest a criminal offense subject to capital punishment.
At the close of the century, the official Church was weakened
and tired. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII convoked in Rome the First
General Conference of (all) Latin American Bishops. Reforr.-i
and renovation were badly needed. The primary insistence was
on better preparation of the priests and stronger motivation of
the laity. Through the early decades of the century the accent was
still individualistic, in the static context of the old society. But
by the decade of the 193os, largely in response to Papal encycli-
cals, new movements emerged of liturgical promotion, of lay
apostolate, and of social action.
In the face of the economic recession after the Second World
War and its wake of socio-economic distress, the various Chris-
tian social movements among students, workers and campesinos
broke off from the traditionally conservative Catholic political
parties. This was the period of foundation and growth of new
political parties and labor unions of Christian inspiration, bent
upon serious structural reforms in society.
By this time not only the Vatican but the rest of the Catholic
world had come to the sharp realization that the Catholics of
Latin America represented approximately one-third of the Ro-
man Catholics of the world, and that their boo bishops repre-
sented approximately one-fourth of the world's Catholic Bishops.
Out of this conviction and at the urging of the Holy See, the
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN? 85
Catholic Bishops of the United States, Canada and the West
European nations began strong programs of support for the
Church in Latin America. These involved the sending of priests,
nuns and lay leaders, principally from Spain and the United
States, and of considerable funds for religious and social promo-
tion from the North American and European Churches, espe-
cially in West Germany.
There is no doubt that this concentrated effort, along with the
interest from which it sprang, gave to the Church in Latin Amer-
ica a greater awareness of her mission as well as significant and
timely assistance. As the world began to be aware of the contrast-
ing situations of the rich and the poor nations, as development
came to the fore as the major problem of most nations, many be-
came suddenly aware that Latin America constituted the only
large area of the underdeveloped world which was predomi-
nantly Christian. It shared in the West European Christian tra-
dition, but also shared in the post-colonial problems of depen-
dence and development of the African and Asian worlds. What
happened here in Latin America came to be of considerable im-
portance for Christianity and particularly for the Catholic
Church everywhere.
The .Latin American Bishops at the Second Vatican Council
surprised their colleagues, who had rather expected that they
would be passive participants. Quite to the contrary, they repeat-
edly urged that all questions be presented in a global, and not
merely in a European, context. They insisted on issues of wealth
and poverty, on the local and on the international plane. The
Council in turn had a profound effect on the Church in Latin
America. Along with Pope John XXIII's encyclical Pacem
in Terris in 1963 and Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum
Progressio in 1967, it officially confirmed the new orientation of
the Catholic Church of Latin America. Temporal issues like
development have taken on new meaning. Salvation is integral-
of the whole man. Working for a better human society now is
the personal condition and collective preparation for the world
to come. "Development is the modern name for peace," Pope
Paul VI has said.
The creation of the Council of Latin American Bishops
(CELAM) in 1955 provided a superstructure which, with time,
would give impulse to this new orientation. Although only a
Council, composed of 'elected bishops from each of the nations
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86 FOREIGN AFFAIRS
and without jurisdiction over the Churches in each of these lands,
CELAM set up a number of departments and training insti-
tutes, and promoted numerous seminars on every level in which
the message of the Council was brought to bear on the Latin
American situation. All of these meetings led to the Second Gen-
eral Conference of Latin American Bishops in Medellin, Colom-
bia, in 1968. There about 15o bishops, elected to represent their
Churches, along with a good number of experts and Protestant
observers whose presence denoted the new ecumenical tone of the
Church in Latin America, felt themselves to be, as it were, in a
new Pentecost. This two-week meeting was convoked by Pope
Paul VI at the request of CELAM, which in turn organized it,
and the Pope himself personally inaugurated the meeting.
Medellin is a strong and eloquent call for serious religious
renovation. This is characterized, as in the Council, by a return
to the sources of faith in the scriptures, by a broader participa-
tion of all members of the Church in the spreading of this faith.
through preaching and living the Gospel in concrete terms, and
by an open ecumenical attitude toward other Christian Churches
and all men of good faith. Medellin also sounds a strong call to
serious and concerted action, in honest conformity with the Gos-
pel spirit, toward justice within each community and on the inter-
national level as the necessary condition for peace. Some of the
texts demand a serious reexamination of accepted positions. For
example:
The liberal capitalist system and the temptation of the Marxist system appear
as the only alternatives in our continent for the transformation of economic
structures. Both these systems are affronts to the dignity of the human per-
son. The first takes as a premise the primacy of capital, its power, and the
discriminating use of capital in the pursuit of gain. The other, although
ideologically it may pretend to be humanist, looks rather to the collective
man, and in practice converts itself into a totalitarian concentration of state
power. It is our obligation to denounce this situation in which Latin America
finds itself caught between these two options and remains dependent upon
one or other of the centers of power which control its economy. (Document
on Justice, paragraph io)
There are other similarly strong statements on the abusive con-
cept of the absolute right to. private property, on the necessity of
worker participation in the decisions of economic enterprises,
on some of the more blatant injustices suffered by Latin America
on the international level, and similarly on some of the cruder
injustices suffered within our borders. Medellin rejects violence
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN?
87
as a solution to these problems, as not in the spirit of the Gospel.
But it denounces existing situations of oppression, which it does
not hesitate to call "institutional violence" against the poor.
The five-year period "after Medellin" has seen a rich and con-
fusing development of different tendencies in the Church of
Latin America. Some sectors of the Church have insisted pri-
marily on the religious renovation in the faith and liturgical life;
others far more upon Christian denunciation of existing oppres-
sion and the pursuit of radical change for social justice. Still
others, in turn, have resisted and denounced what they consider
the extreme positions in both the religious and the social domain.
Priests, anxious for quick action in the social area, have spoken
out individually and in groups, especially in the southern cone
of South America, asserting a new kind of political and socio-
economic leadership which most of the bishops have criticized .
as not proper to their priestly functions. The tendency of some
of these groups to make common cause with all activists in the
area of social reform, and very concretely with the Marxists-
not only in their historical analysis of the situation of oppression
versus liberation but also in the support of Marxist Socialist par-
ties and governments-has produced a minor shock wave
throughout the Church of Latin America. The "theology of lib-
eration" has been developed in sundry articles and in a few more
systematic books. It strives to integrate eternal salvation and revo-
lutionary action for a just order in this world into one and the
same concept and process of "liberation." Its applications cover
the gamut of problems from nonviolent resistance (pacifism) to
"Christians for Socialism" who choose common revolutionary
action with Marxism.
The urgency of the reforms often leads to quick unreflective
action, to oversimplicity in new theological formulations-for
some, dedicated to a new "evangelization" of our peoples, in the
domain of faith, sacraments, and the ministry; for others, intent
upon social reform, in the areas of faith and revolution. Many of
the forerunners, both religious and social, voice their impatience
with the "authorities" of the Church-who are more cautious
and deliberate. Tensions develop on both sides, varying accord-
ing to the extent and effect of "dialogue" within each local
Church. The mass of Catholics continue expressing their faith
largely through popular devotions. The conservative clergy in-
sists on respecting these expressions, and views with reluctance or
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88 FOREIGN AFFAIRS
dismay both religious innovations and the sharp social and po-
litical edge of such groups as "the priests of the Third World" in
Argentina. For the progressives, however, such a conservative
attitude amounts to whistling in the dark, while faith becomes
increasingly irrelevant in today's secular world.
While dialogue and "liberation" ferment in the Church, most
of the Latin American governments have come under author-
itarian military control. Whether these tend to the Left or to the
Right, they exercise strong control over the press and society.
The Church, especially her liberation movements, is a prime tar-
get. There are frequent tensions which occasionally erupt into
open conflict-sometimes because priests, nuns and lay Church
leaders are jailed or deported; on other occasions when Bishops,
singly or together, protest against social injustices or repression.
Both liberals and Marxists agree in rejecting the "intrusion" of
religion in the social and political domain. Most military leaders
as well. This is part of the problem. While the Church struggles
for a new understanding of her relationship to the world, most
secular leaders continue to think of her and deal with her on
the old nineteenth-century terms.
However this process of "Church and State," or, more in
depth, "Church and the World" may develop, active Christians
in Latin America are increasingly convinced that religion must
speak to the vital issues of their people. The "theology of libera-
tion" in Latin America takes many forms. But conscious Church
leadership in Latin America agrees on the main point: that our
people desire and deserve liberation, both internal and exter-
nal, both temporal and eternal. This leads the Church to take
official stands supporting national and Latin American demands
for justice, for example in the control of their own natural re-
sources; while at the same time the Church may find herself tak-
ing equally difficult stands in face of local injustices, which cause
tensions and conflicts with local governments.
In short, the conviction has been irremediably established
among Christians that they cannot live divorced from the tem-
poral issues which so deeply affect their people. Fifty years ago,
and even 30 years ago, this could hardly be said of most Cath-
olics, even leading Catholics of Latin America. This is a remark-
able change and constitutes, as one prominent Christian politi-
cian stated a few years ago, perhaps the principal political
phenomenon of Latin America in this generation.
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN? 89
IV
What, then, of the relations between the United States and
Latin America? Are we, shall we be, friends or foes?
What is friendship between nations? We talk about inter-
American relations in friendly terms-"Good Neighbor Policy,"
"Alliance for Progress," "People-to-People" programs. This
goes well with traveling symphony orchestras, but does it de-
scribe the reality of the day-to-day economic, political and cul-
tural relations between north and south? The facts say no.
It is a stark reality that 25 percent of the world's population
are now consuming 75 percent of the world's goods. The United
States with six percent of the world's population consumes over
30 percent of the world's goods. A child born in the United
States will consume from 30 to 5o times more goods of all descrip-
tions in his lifetime than one born in the highlands of Bolivia.
There is blatant waste in face of cruel want-within nations,
and between nations and hemispheres. The accelerated uncon-
trolled consumption of "wastemaker" nations threatens to grad-
ually extinguish not only flora and fauna, but also the prime
materials necessary for modern civilization. High-level pollu-
tion in the developed nations threatens the health of their
peoples, and of the peoples of the world.
The underlying world economic structure continues to be
colonialist, in the sense that the developed nations export manu-
factured goods and import prime materials which usually come
unprocessed, placing tariff restrictions upon the importation of
processed or manufactured goods from the less-developed na-
tions. Despite exceptions, the historical economic process tends
to place a higher price on the manufactured goods and a rela-
tively lower price on prime materials-to the continuing im-
poverishment of the poorer nations. Examples abound. Iron-
ically the efforts of the prime producers-for instance, of crude
oil-to exact a higher price from buyers to the north have roused
pious cries of protest: "Extortion!" Suddenly northerners fear
that they may have to "depend" on foreign producers. Do they
ignore the extortion and economic dependence they exercise upon
the poorer lands? This is "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth" in international economics. But who set the rules for the
game? The Christian nations to the north.
Objective economic reports establish an annual deficit for
Latin America, in its trade with the United States, of approxi-
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mately three-quarters of a billion dollars. How can this be bal-
anced by the bare $300 million assigned annually by the United
States for aid? The bulk of this is loan money, given at near com-
mercial interest, which so heightens Latin American foreign
indebtedness that some nations are hard pressed to cover their
debts, even with new loans. A former U.S. AID director pointed
out quite frankly, for the rest, that very little money is turned
over in cash by AID. More than 8o percent is spent on its own
personnel, on U.S. technical advisors, and on materials bought
in the United States and shipped in U.S. bottoms. Even develop-
ment loans at two percent interest can become exorbitantly ex-
pensive when the borrower must spend a large part of the monies
on "services" which refund the monies into the U.S. economy.
The multilateral aid agencies should be completely free of
these trammels. In fact, they are not. The Inter-American De-
velopment Bank, for example, determines its aid-mostly loans,
most of them at semi-commercial rates-by vote. The United
States has .l.o percent of the voting power, a fact painfully felt by
nations whose requests were turned down because they had na-
tionalized previously U.S.-controlled interests.
This recalls the post-colonial issue of a nation's right to control
its natural resources, a right affirmed by the United Nations and
in Papal encyclicals. Washington manifests concern at the small
capital control exercised within its own frontiers by foreign in-
vestors. But it finds it hard to understand the resentment, leading
to government take-overs, toward U.S. or other foreign control
in some of our nations of the bulk of industry and commerce, in-
cluding that based upon prime natural resources.
One could go on and on. One could discuss the growing power
of the multinational corporations--whose capital and produc-
tion so far exceed that of the smaller nations (for example, the
gross annual sales of General Motors are five times the gross na-
tional product of Peru). The consequences in economic-political
power are obvious, especially when U.S.-based multinationals
claim both benefits: national rights where they operate, and U.S.
political support when they are threatened there.
One could discuss the tariff barriers which restrict the sale of
Latin American manufactured or even processed prime goods
to the north, thus perpetuating the colonialism of the past, in
which the poorer nations grow poorer by helping the rich to
grow richer.
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN? 91
One could also point out the arbitrary determination of the
world monies by the richer nations-with virtually no consulta-
tion with the poor. One could point out the technological and
scientific interchange between the richer nations, with but crumbs
for the poorer, which further widens the economic gap between
them. And the yearly increase in the gross national product of the
United States is usually greater than the entire GNP of India,
a nation of 55o million people. The gap truly widens. How can
this make for conditions of international peace?
What about military expenses? In 1970 they totaled world-
wide $204 billion, exceeding the total income of the poorest half
of mankind. Ninety percent of this was spent by the richer na-
tions, two-thirds by the United States and Russia. At their peak
the U.S. war expenditures in Vietnam in one week surpassed the
total U.S. annual AID program for Latin America. Is this
"containing communism?"
Does the growing "entente" between Russia and the United
States offer hope to the poorer nations? Perhaps, if it means less
military expenditure and more control over nuclear weapons.
But hardly in economic terms, given the fact that both nations
have been grossly neglectful of international social and economic
obligations: both decline year after year in their commitment to
economic aid, falling very short of the one percent of GNP re-
quested by the United Nations; both exercise "colonialist" eco-
nomics in their principal trade areas. An understanding between
them, on this basis, sends shivers through the underdeveloped
world.
V
Arguments take on special meaning when applied to concrete
situations. I therefore include here the key parts of a press state-
ment on the Panama Canal issue which I gave on the occasion
of the United Nations Security Council meeting held in Panama
in March of this year.
The Church cannot stand aloof from these questions.... As Archbishop I
wish to speak for the sake of peace and understanding. This peace is based
on justice and truth. Justice, of course, contemplates all the parties involved
in the Canal: Panama, the United States, and all the users of the Canal....
Morally, the Justice of the Panamanian position regarding the Canal and
the Canal Zone is unquestionable.
Historically, its geographical location and configuration are Panama's prin-
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92 FOREIGN AFFAIRS
cipal natural resource. In this connection, let us recall the declaration of the
U.N. General Assembly (Resolution 3016, XXVII, 1961) that affirms the
rights of every nation to control its natural resources for the sake of the de-
velopment of its people. In his 1963 encyclical Pacern in Terris, Pope John
repeated and underlined this principle, placing it in the context of interna-
tional justice: "(Nations) have the right to play the leading part in the proc-
ess of their own development. . . ." (9z), and he continued: "no country may
unjustly oppress others or unduly meddle in their affairs" (tzo).
In the light of these reasons, let us look at the Panama Canal Treaty of
1903. It establishes a monopoly in perpetuity, in favor of another government,
over the principal natural resource of the Republic of Panama.
This treaty is, in fact, of dubious moral validity, since it was drafted with-
out the participation of a single Panamanian, and was accepted by Panama
under duress. Since then, and despite the seventy years that have passed in
this century in which other peoples have achieved their independence, or have
established their sovereignty over their territory and natural resources, this
treaty has been kept essentially unchanged, at the insistence of the more
powerful of the two signatories.
This is morally unacceptable; and as long as it continues, it is bound to keep
on causing greater tensions.
Let us see some of the concrete effects of the situation thus created, which
hinder the development of Panama:
-The existence of the Canal Zone deprives Panama of access to contiguous
lands so that it can develop them in housing, agriculture, industry and com-
merce; and it divides the nation in such a way as to prevent its full phys-
ical, social, cultural, economic and political integration;
-The operation of the Canal according to norms established unilaterally by
one of the parties has frozen tolls at the level set in 1914, thus limiting the
income from the Canal to what barely covers operational costs and the pay-
ment of interest on the initial investment to the U.S. Treasury; and it de-
nies to the other partner, Panama, what is due to it in potential income
from the Canal;
-The exercise of jurisdictional powers by another government within the
territory of a sovereign state is anachronistic in this last third of the 20th
century; it is unnecessary for the efficient operation of the Canal; and it is
offensive to the dignity of any nation.
These facts make the justice of Panama's position manifest, as it legit-
imately calls for abrogation of the present treaty, in order to:
-eliminate the perpetuity;
-extend full Panamanian sovereignty over the entire national territory;
-integrate the present Canal Zone with the rest of the country economically,
culturally and politically;
-share in the direct income from the Canal and take advantage of the po-
tential of its geographical position; all this, in such a way as to guarantee
the efficient operation of the Canal and safeguard the legitimate interests
of the United States, as well as those of all who use the interoceanic water-
way.
Anyone who considers these and other factors closely and dispassionately
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will have to concede the justice of the basic aspiration of Panama. They cer-
tainly do not constitute a "campaign of hatred against the United States,"
as a U.S. Congressman unfelicitously stated a short while ago. Panama is a
friendly people. But this people now calls upon the high dignitaries of the
United States, who in the past as in the present have sincerely offered their
support for the cause of international justice and aid to needy peoples, to
translate their noble intentions into deeds in Panama.
For this purpose, the public must be told the real facts. Any distortion, any
false representation of the facts prevents the understanding that we need.
Many outlandish statements about the Canal have been appearing in news-
papers abroad; in fact, a Catholic newspaper in the United States went so far
as to say that the Canal Zone is a part of the federal union of the U.S.A.-
and that its secession would be comparable to the secession of the Southern
States that led to a Civil War in that nation a century ago.
It would be tragic for both nations, and for the hemisphere, were such a
misreading of the reality to produce attitudes among the people of the United
States that would prevent a mutual understanding.
Panama, with other member-nations of the Security Council,
presented resolutions urging the solution of differences on the
Canal issue. Of the i 5 member-nations, 13 supported the resolu-
tions, one abstained. The United States exercised its veto. Later,
the U.S. delegation explained that it was not against the content
of the resolutions, but rejected the effort of Panama to present
a "bilateral" problem to a world forum. The question for Panama
is whether a just solution of this bilateral problem is not being
held up unilaterally.
We return for a moment to the story of the little town in rural
Panama. Can we accept the parallel?
Latin America is a vast and variegated collection of nations,
large and small. There is much injustice within its borders, as in
that little town. It must set its own house and family in order. But
its task is collectively hindered by the situation of dependence,
of inbuilt colonial injustice, in which, paradoxically, from its
poverty it pays tribute to and supports the economy of the richer
nations to the north. Just as do the campesinos in our tale, with
respect to the townspeople.
Experts on inter-American relations know the facts. But the
people of the United States do not. History, in U.S. schools, con-
centrates on the United States and its origins in northern Eu-
rope. Latin America is but a vague shadow cast by the yet black
legend of Spain. U.S. news media-newspapers, radio, television
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-rarely carry any except the bizarre news about our countries:
earthquakes, revolutions, or perhaps that a twelve-year-old girl
in the Amazon gave birth to triplets. North Americans have a
strong conviction that their government has given huge sums of
money to our nations; that this money has been lost by corrupt
and ineffective governments; that our people are hugely ungrate-
ful for this largesse; that this foreign aid had best stop so that we
learn to sink or swim by ourselves. Their attitudes are reflected in
their lawgivers. President Nixon. has spoken, more diplomat-
ically to be sure, in these terms.
How does one break through these barriers-of ignorance (in
a well-informed people), of indifference (in a generous people),
of myth (in an otherwise pragmatic people) ? Can U.S. news
media be awakened to their public duty to inform, rather than to
merely sell? Can U.S. public leaders be aroused to really lead
in this vital area? To what extent is the indifference of the U.S.
public and its leaders the result of a very anachronistic provin-
cial spirit-that the United States can go it alone? To what ex-
tent is it the result of a press controlled by big business, which,
for its benefits, creates and perpetuates the mythical image of
the wealthy, generous Uncle Sam whose international kindness
is so ungratefully abused?
One can appeal to high motives. There is much more at stake
than economic injustice. The modern consumer society, of which
the United States is the prime exemplar, follows so blindly the
pied piper of high-powered salesmanship. The better life it is
being sold, with solemn evangelical tones on every TV adver-
tisement, is forcing it to live off the rest of the world and to sate
itself with millions of fuming cars and endless hours of empty
TV spectacles-in color, to be sure. Is this massification that
much better than the Russian variety? Are not the signs of vi-
olence and protest and other social sicknesses eloquent enough a
call for a return to higher ideals? Will the U.S. people learn to
look beyond their borders and accept as a duty and an honor
their world responsibility?
Or one can resort to convincing arguments of self-interest. The
world is getting smaller, tighter and fuller, day by day. To para-
phrase Lincoln, it cannot long remain one-third rich and two-
thirds poor. There are wars, and rumors of greater wars. Inter-
national peace cannot be had without a minimum of international
equity. The world's resources are for all, and their use must be
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ARIEL OR CALIBAN? 9S
planned by all, or we will die fighting over the fragments. Con-
cretely, the process of revolutionary change in that part of the
Third World most closely dependent on the United States,
namely Latin America, is underway. How radical it becomes,
in its desperate grasp at a better life, or even a fairer deal, de-
pends largely on the United States. If that nation's business inter-
ests, rather than the demands of justice and peace between
peoples, continue to determine the relations of the entire nation
toward Latin America, there are much darker days ahead.
The Catholic Church today strives to "incarnate" herself in
every land, to identify herself with the problems and hopes of
each people. Thirty years ago for us to speak of the "Chilean
Church" or the "Spanish Church" or the "U.S. Church" would
have smacked of schism. Today it is a commonplace. In Latin
America the Church identifies herself more and more with the
aspirations of each people and of the entire continent. She earn-
estly breathes spirit into justifiable nationalism.
But by her very Catholic nature, she cannot hold for strictly
national Churches. Nothing would be more contrary to her
Founder's teachings. It is the Church's mission, as it is of every
world religion, especially today, to stress our oneness around the
globe-if not as brothers, at least as very close neighbors who
desperately need one another.
During Vatican Council II, a drafting committee inserted into
a text of the Council the statement that men must consider them-
selves first of all citizens of the world, and then citizens of their
individual nations. The statement was struck from the text, not
because it was not urgently true, but because the authors feared
it could not yet be understood.
The hour has rapidly come upon us in which we must under-
stand and accept that statement. If we refuse to recognize equal
rights for all men and for all nations, then not much time remains
for us all on this small planet we inhabit together.
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