LITTLE SUPPORT IS FOUND IN LATIN MISSION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060084-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2005
• Sequence Number: 84
• Publication Date: March 1, 1981
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
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81 PAG2
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901R0007000
'Lhffe'.~"SiiPV_%ort-
'. Foy
Latin'
Ttme?Lite New, Servica '
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina = API
ter a week'bf closed-door meetings
with Latin`=American,leaders; over
the explosive' politico-military-sit-
uation in-EF-5alvador-and with. 'a
few more meetings to gd- the Unit-,
ed States"special envoy, former Dep- i
uty CIA`Director' Vernon a ters,
as not emerge wi muc to snow
or tell::;::;.,
Nor, probably, coulde be-expect-
ed to'do so
The-issue-that the Reaga admin.
istration has decided to make one of
its first major foreign policy tests
'drawing a line in the sand of El Sal
vador's Fonseca Bay over the'indi-
rect, arms-supplying support by the
Soviet Union and Cuba of Salvador-
an insurrectionists'-- 'is" really. its
first reconnaissance mission into a
controversial territory "inherited
from Jimmy Carter. six
In no other area of the globe has
there-been a greater advertised turn
around-of-U.S.' foreign- policy" than
between the:.: 'vociferous, -'anti-
military, human rights stand-of the
Carter administration and the prag-
matic' anti-communist, containment
-policy. of the new Republican admin-
istration.
Justified or"iiot the. turnaround
means that,Reagan's aides -are=not
merely consulting in the: regionbut
areaiso'compiling`an inventory"of
thedifferences that dlvided'the Car:
ter administration irom?many goo-
ernments~-that:.:.hairL-:,.traditionally
supported.the,.Uniteda:States,reflex=_
ively-
14ASHNGTO?V STAR
1 MARCH 1981
Understandably, special envoy kern Cone, Walters -had doubtless
Walters -whose mission is no dif- found hisbest audience. Thegovern-
ferent than the highly publicized meat of Argentina has for, years
visit of diplomat Lawrence Eag been arguing. the anti-terrorist line
leburger to Europe,: where Reagan that Secretary of State Alexander M
has also been trying to gather sup- - Haig Jr. has now taken up.
port - has had far, less to say. than I ti .. s
Eagleburger. The government of Chile has done
;,: He has been far less .'photo- likewise, and has undoubtedly-been
graphed', far less pursued. But a new bolstered by the Reagan administra-
:Latin American alignment,Iess ste- ; tion's-recent unilateral decision- to
? reotyped and less straightforward in
its goals,. is emerging from Walters'
tour.;a,.. ,;s -
The , Reagan mood,, of skepticism
about El Salvador is echoed in many
Latin American capitals.-Walters has
lift economic sanctions levied inthe
wake of the assassination of Orlando
Letelier in Washington in 1976
In short;.Walters as a U.S. envoy.
has encountered a paradox. It is sim-
ilar to that ascribed to Louis XVI: "He,
zit Argentina and Chile_' In mn.'t' has remembered nothing, and' for-`
..cases,, he has'come across,'cdiintries
that think differently =and live dif-
ferently -, than Carter administra-
tion. policies would argue
.
In Mexico,..Walters . meta
relatively concerted wave of. mis-
trust over U.S:motives it El Salvador
a .relatively traditional policy. "
>gotten, .nothing.".. Latin American
governments, which were always di.
verse, are reactin.in diverse ways'
to the first Reagan initiative in this
region. The Walters mission will not be
the last in which Ronald Reagan's
In.Venezuela, he did not. The goo-' governmenttwill have to convince a
ement of Luis Campins Herrera,' s diverse population of the universal-
ity of its point of view.
far, more. conservative than its pre-,, .. -.- . r ..._
'decessor, and Venezuela -. one of.
the staunchest democratic states on
a militarized continent,-,shares'a
U. S. concern with the radicalization
of Central America n.'strife..
Brazil thinks differently. Tl~e
most populous South American na-,
tion;-,and the one where Walters,
a former Army attache in Brazil, has
the most friends .-is. confronted
these days with a variety of complex
social;: economic-and political_prob.
lems " ,
r .The country is attempting to solve.
them through non-military means
an' attitude :not sufficiently, ap-
plauded by Carter. Itfisdoubtful that
Brazil can easily go along with:the'
Reagan line on what is wrong in. El,
Salvador: Even more doubtful is the.
idea that Brazil's government -wants:;
to. In the notorious, militarized Sout-:
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700060084-6