Volume 1 Number 3, Summer 1989

Hemisphere Volume 1 Article 1 Issue 3 Summer

1989 Volume 1 Number 3, Summer 1989

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/lacc_hemisphere Part of the Latin American Studies Commons

Recommended Citation (1989) "Volume 1 Number 3, Summer 1989," Hemisphere: Vol. 1 : Iss. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/lacc_hemisphere/vol1/iss3/1

This work is brought to you for free and open access by the Kimberly Green Latin American and Carribbean Center (LACC) Publications Network at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hemisphere by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 1 Number 3, Summer 1989

This issue is available in Hemisphere: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/lacc_hemisphere/vol1/iss3/1

Discover Latin America with American Express

Unique landscapes. Gracious and friendly people. Lands alive with legends. The American Express®"' Card can help you enjoy all of Latin America. The Card is welcomed at fine shops, luxurious hotels and charming restaurants throughout Latin America. And at our Travel Service Offices* you have a variety of unparalleled services, like emergency Card replacement, American Express®~"Travelers Cheque refunds and personal check cashing. Enjoy the enchantments of Latin America. And remember, if you need us, we're here to help.

*Offices of American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., its affiliated Companies and Representatives. ®M Registered Trademark of American Express Company. 1987 American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. Hemisphere

A MAGAZINE OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN AFFAIRS

Summer 1989 Volume One * Number Three Five Dollars

EDITORIAL STAFF COMMENTARY Editor: Anthony P. Maingot Deputy Editor: Richard Tardanico Accountability in Cuba and Puerto Rico by Anthony P Maingot Associate Editor: Mark B. Rosenberg Assistant Editor: Sofia A. Lopez Life (and Death): An Andean Saga by Mark B. Rosenberg Book Review Editor: Eduardo A. Gamarra Bibliographer: Marian Goslinga Circulation Manager: Adolfo Leyva Graphic Designer: Juanita Mazzarella Baert REPORTS Copy Editor: Michael B. Joslyn Crisis and Carnival: Rio deJaneiro by Elizabeth Station Production Assistants: Patricia Arena, Cristina Finlay, Raquel Jurado, Teresita Marill, Rene War, Peace, and Music: The Guianas by Kenneth Bilby Ramos, Kevin A. Yelvington Two Plans, No Solution by Edgar Ortiz CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Argentine Prospects by Enrique Loncan Janet M. Chernela Raul Moncarz Rodolfo Cortina Dario Moreno Stories of Foreign Language by John V Lombardi DennisJ. Gayle Lisandro Perez Jerry Haar Luis Salas Peter Habermann Mark D. Szuchman Suzanne Koptur FAXFILE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Francisco Rojas Aravena Robert A. Pastor Ettore Botta AnthonyJ. Payne FEATURES Bernard Diederich Guido Pennano Roberto Espindola Alejandro Portes Amazonia: Contending Voices Gustav Franco Sally Price Brazil: Fire in the Forest by Anthony W Pereira Wolf Grabendorf David Ronfeldt Harry Hoetink Selwyn Ryan Colonizing the Amazon by Anna Luiza Ozorio de Almeida Vaughan Lewis Steven E. Sanderson Planning Hydroelectric Projects by Maria Teresa Fernandes Serra Larissa A. Lomnitz Saskia Sassen Abraham E Lowenthal Carol A. Smith Declarations on the Amazon by Jos Sarney, Paiakan Kayap6, Frank Manitzas Yolande Van Eeuwen The Group of 100, and Orlando Valverde Richard Millett Arturo Villar Andres Oppenheimer Juan Yafies Superpowers and Latin America Hemisphere (ISSN 08983038) is published three times a Redefining Soviet Foreign Policy by Alexei Izyumov and Andrei Kortunov year (Fall, Winter, and Summer) by the Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International Univer- Perestroika and Central America by Rafael Angel Calder6n sity, The State University of Florida at Miami. Copyright ©1989 by the Latin American and Caribbean Center, Moscow and Latin America by Augusto Varas Florida International University. All rights reserved. Bordering on Consensus: US Policy by Gilbert W. Merkx Hemisphere is dedicated to provoking debate on the problems, initiatives, and achievements of Latin America and the Caribbean. Responsibility for the opinions expressed lies solely with the authors. REVIEW FORUM EDITORIAL, CIRCULATION, AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: Latin American and Caribbean Center, Hemispheric Controversy Florida International University, University Park, Miami, Florida 33199. Telephone: 305/554-2894. FAX: Hard Choices by Mark Falcoff 305/554-3593. Please address manuscripts and editorial correspondence to the Deputy Editor. Common Ground by Rosario Green SUBSCRIPTIONS: US, USVI, PR, and Canada: $14 a year. Elsewhere: $22 a year. Please make check or money order (US currency only) payable to Hemisphere. PUBLICATIONS UPDATE This publication was produced at an annual cost of Perestroika and Latin America, Recent Books on the Region $11,051,or $3.68 per copy to inform the public about a University program. by Marian Goslinga M M

Accountability in Cuba and Puerto Rico

by Anthony P Maingot

Consejo de Estado, if the people were, he said, in danger of being Libre Asociado will enter its agreed with our decisions, but this "corrupted." In 1986 the free agri- fourth decade, and the Cuban was not indispensable: "One cannot cultural markets were closed revolutionn 1991 the willPuerto observe Rican its Estado 32nd do what public opinion believes or because they were "corrupting" the anniversary. Historically speak- asks, but what is beneficial for the peasants. Today he regards peres- ing, both experiments are nation." If the verdict on Ochoa troika and glasnost as little more than young. Yet they both have a were to be decided by a simple pub- corruptions of socialist practice. great deal to tell us about crucial lic opinion poll, Castro concluded, Finally, he accuses the "interna- elements of Caribbean and world there would be no need for a Consejo tionalist" missions in Angola and politics. de Estado. Nicaragua-to say nothing of Pan- Increasing the political account- This Castro, of course, is a differ- ama-of being riddled with corrup- ability of those in power has been ent Castro from the one who consis- tion. The execution of four high the goal of political movements since tently claimed that neither elections officials, including Ochoa, a "Hero at least the Magna Carta. Whether nor plebiscites were needed in Cuba of the Revolution" no less, and the the issue is trial by jury, taxation because the Cuban people exercise virtual gutting of the Ministry of the without representation, regularly a daily referendum on government Interior, indicate that the anticor- held elections, or universal suffrage, actions. In a country without the ruption campaign is part of a dra- the movements are facets of the slightest pretense of a free press or matic shift in political emphasis. quest for a responsive elite and a independent interest groups, much Those who oppose this change responsible public. This quest cer- less independent opinion polling, -withdrawal from the corrupting tainly appears to be at the heart of Castro's assertion of Leninist princi- world currents-appear to be falling the monumental changes taking ples reflects Cuban reality more by the wayside. To be sure, Albanian place in the USSR and parts of East- accurately than his previous claims and North Korean leaders have sur- ern Europe, and it underscores the to an original and sui generis form vived long-term national hermeticism. fact that in the 20th century the of accountability. But perhaps a more suitable analogy search for accountability transcends Castro's problem is that there no to the "reign of virtue" that seems differences in political systems. longer exists much of an audience to be approaching in Cuba, is the What then can Cuba and Puerto for the Leninist formula of govern- France of Maximilien ("The Incor- Rico show us about this universal ance. One has the distinct impres- ruptible") Robespierre. trend? sion that he is experiencing that What is the difference between most debilitating of political ail- Castro's recent discourses on Cuba's ments: isolation. A major cause of lonely stand on principle from Castro's Record this isolation might well be "cogni- Robespierre's notorious peroration For the past 30 years Fidel Castro's tive dissonance." Holding on to a on "the two opposite genii;' locked record on this score has been a mat- belief system that is sharply at odds in combat "to determine irretrieva- ter of concern. In the early stages of with movements and changes occur- bly the destinies of the world"? And the revolution "charismatic mobili- ring in the real world can bring what differences are there with zation" was sociologically under- about psychologically disturbing Robespierre's conclusion that "we standable-no matter what one's and disorienting effects. When, not have to strangle the internal as well ideological predilections. But the surprisingly, politicians so inclined as the external enemies of the notion falls short of elucidating are unable to harmonize the world republic, or perish with her!"? In a present practices. with their beliefs, the resulting psy- world in which Hungarian, and pos- During the July trial of General chological discomfort spurs isolation sibly even Soviet, observer status in Arnaldo Ochoa and six other high from that world-in-change. the EEC is being discussed, Cuban officials, Castro minced no words The process is all too evident in puritanical hermeticism has nothing when he explained that the Leninist contemporary Cuba. It started years to contribute to the pan-Caribbean principle of exclusive elite govern- ago when Castro prohibited Cuban debate. History has demonstrated all ance still reigns supreme on the students from studying in several too often that reigns of virtue end as island. It would be nice, he told the Eastern European countries. They reigns of terror.

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Y

Puerto Rico's Choice repeated calls for a "breakthrough some of them probably not yet even from nationalism:' for "flexibility":' conceived-it is important to keep In Cuba the revolution continues to "adaptability;' "audaciousness;' and open the avenues of democratic dis- consume its children, and no one for "the will to experiment, to adapt course. Both principles lead to an seems to know what the future and revise" helped prepare the important juridico-political point holds. In Puerto Rico there is a mas- ground for the peaceful and demo- much overlooked in the heady post- sive, multifaceted mobilization cratic decision that Puerto Rico will colonial days: political independence aimed at reaching a definite decision make in 1991. is a purposeful creation of positive on the island's status by 1991. In Whether Puerto Ricans vote for law. It is not a natural right but a Cuba, Castro-and only Castro-an- independence, statehood, or an remedial right. True, independence nounces every July 26 where Cuba improved commonwealth status, was universally and quite unam- will be heading for at least the next they will do so after one of the great biguously accepted as the sole rem- year. In Puerto Rico the people will political debates of our century. edy to the wrongs of colonialism, decide the course of the future Gordon Lewis, certainly no friend of racism, exploitation, and general through a referendum. Mufioz Marin's political formula, oppression. But, logically, if these ills Any choice in Puerto Rico will struck a blow for academic and intel- can be remedied by other political involve material and psychological lectual honesty when he called the statuses, the latter clearly have equal costs. Two of the choices, improved Puerto Rican debate "a magnificent footing as a "right." This is so espe- commonwealth status and state- obsession." But it was more than a cially if they can make a case for hood, raise the issue of cultural debate on the type of status the doing a better job of governance. integration. A third choice, independ- island should have; it was also a Thus no particular status enters the ence, entails economic costs. In all debate on how a people, any people, 1991 referendum with the aura of cases, moreover, there remains the can peacefully arrive at a decision as being a natural or inherent right. issue of reconciling a popular momentous as what their national Each option will have to convince Puerto Rican choice with an all- and international regime should be. the voters-in both Puerto Rico and significant act of Congress. Attention to public opinion and the US-of its overall empirical and There are those who might be concern over accountability have emotional merits. smitten by the "totalitarian tempta- been central to Puerto Rican poli- Whether Puerto Rico's 1991 deci- tion": "let one charismatic leader tics. Plebiscites, political parties sion should be held up as the model decide." Puerto Ricans, however, (each promoting a different status), of self-determination is not the issue have not chosen this route. They elections every four years, free and here: the real issue is what the have made their choice despite con- unencumbered execution of public Caribbean and the world can learn siderable disdain from much of the opinion polls, and a plethora of from the process that led to 1991. intellectual world and uncertainty independent interest groups and The days of willy-nilly imitations of a concerning how the US Congress news media, all form part of Puerto particular "model":' Puerto Rican or will respond to their 1991 decision. Rico's concept of governance. It is otherwise, are over. Compared to the shelves of not that Puerto Ricans have Puerto Ricans of all political books on Fidel Castro and his revo- invented much new in terms of dem- parties have agreed on the 1991 ref- lution, there are only a few modest ocratic politics. It is, rather, they erendum. It is a reasonable and volumes on the father of the Puerto have given new life and meaning to democratic decision that merits our Rican experiment, Luis Mufioz timeless democratic principles. attention, understanding, and admi- Marin. The fascination of academics Puerto Ricans have reminded ration. Unfortunately, since words and journalists alike with revolution the world that any political system and not bullets will decide the out- goes on and on. Yet there is little must fundamentally be an instru- come, the world will probably pay lit- international knowledge or under- ment for the securing of a better life tle attention. Be that as it may, this standing of a revolution in constitu- with the greatest freedom for the indifference will not make the proc- tional doctrine and international greatest number. They have also ess one iota less significant for relations that the father of the reminded us that, since there are those sincerely seeking more Puerto Rican state wrought. His various ways to achieve that goal- accountability from their leaders. .

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Commentary

Life (and Death): An Andean Saga by Mark B. Rosenberg

In a country accustomed to ter- nearby parishioners, gunned him bleak economy, Peru rorism, the impact of D'Achille's down. Less than a week later, the stands as testimony to the murder was profound-perhaps well-regarded 35-year-old mayor of perseverance and deprav- because she was a European and a another town was shot pointblank in ity of humankind in the woman, or possibly because of her the back as he carried fresh fruit to last decadeby violence of the 20th and a commitment to environmentalism, his home for lunch. Sendero took Afflictedcentury. This dichotomy which even in Peru has growing sup- credit for the murders. was pervasive in the life and death of port. Some wondered why she was What can Peruvians do to pro- Barbara D'Achille, a European refu- traveling in an extremely dangerous tect themselves? One US-educated gee who made her home in this district. After all, Sendero had Peruvian says logic collides with Andean nation of 21 million people broadcast its intention to seize con- ethics: the former dictates that ter- after fleeing the horrors of World trol of Huancavelica by murdering rorists must be physically elimi- War II. development workers and officials. nated. But moral and ethical values As a Peruvian resident, D'Achille make this response unpalatable. At became an accomplished environ- any rate, such a policy would proba- mental and wildlife specialist, using bly be impossible to carry out under Peru's print media to establish her a democratic regime. reputation as a professional dedi- Democracy affords the possi- cated to the preservation of the bility for pluralist dialogue, even country's rugged backlands. A regu- among the most contentious of lar contributor to the newspaper forces. But its premises are unity of El Comercio, D'Achille became the purpose among groups and con- nation's ecological conscience and sensus about the rules of the game. an indispensable resource on Peru In Peru there is neither unity of pur- for the global network of environ- pose nor consensus about the rules mental organizations such as the of the game. The administration of 20th Century Fund and the World Alan Garcia is in disarray, its policies Wildlife Fund. having led to the breakdown of the D'Achille's efforts were remark- economy and the dispersion of polit- able given Peru's extraordinary ical power. In this setting institu- hardships of daily survival. Govern- tions are giving way to violence in ment incompetence, economic the conduct of politics. The options decay, and relentless capital and of Peruvians are becoming dis- human flight are set against the Unfortunately there was little tressingly narrow. How can they backdrop of a merciless terrorist time to contemplate the larger tame terrorism without sinking into movement, Sendero Luminoso. meaning of D'Achille's life and Sendero's violent agenda? Traveling through Huancavelica death. On June 3, on a narrow Throughout their history Peru- on May 31, 1989, D'Achille and her downtown street choked with Lima's vians have suffered and inflicted vio- companions, according to Peruvian usual mix of vehicles, tricycle carts, lence on themselves. Today's press reports, were intercepted by a and people, a street vendor pushed a calamities are the newest thread in group of Senderistas. The terrorists dynamite-laden cart under a bus this historical and social tapestry. released most of her fellow workers, carrying guards to the presidential Although we prefer stories with warning them never to return. But palace. Six died and 19 suffered happy endings, for Peru no such they did not release D'Achille, order- serious injuries. The force of the ending is in sight. We must celebrate ing her to interview them on the explosion ripped a six-foot crater in those whose daily lives become political visions of Sendero. She the road. Shortly after the bombing, heroic. D'Achille and other victims refused. They persisted. Her body on June 16, a 29-year-old priest was in Peru must be remembered if the was discovered a day later: her skull called out of his religious sanctuary nobility of the human spirit is to sur- crushed by a heavy rock. by passersby who, to the horror of vive-and eventually triumph. *

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Letters to the Editor

Hemisphere welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be typed double-spaced, and are subject to editing for clarity and length.

Please address letters to: The Deputy Editor Hemisphere Latin American and Caribbean Center Florida International University University Park Miami, FL 33199 FAX (305) 554-3593

Hemisphere Summer 1989 R E P

Crisis and Carnival: Rio de Janeiro by Elizabeth Station

, any Borazilans woula argue that Rio de Janeiro has been slid- ing into financial, administrative, and moral decadence ever since Juscelino Kubitschek moved the national capital from Rio to Brasilia in 1960. Events in 1988-89 seem to have pushed the Cidade Maravilhosaeven further towards the abyss. In Sep- tember 1988, with Mayor Saturnino Braga struggling under a 60-billion cruzado deficit and a 142-billion cruzado debt, Rio was declared bankrupt. In the following weeks, municipal health and education workers protested shrinking salaries and 30% monthly inflation with a strike that paralyzed public schools and hospitals for 162 days. Empty city coffers and a lack of new investment have hastened the process of physical deterioration. Local residents are growing so used to the city's estimated 20,000 pot- holes that they baptize them with colorful names and signposts. The feeling of malaise seemed most apparent just before last November's municipal elections. Disillusionment with corruption and old-style politicians led many Cariocas to indicate "Macaco Tiao" a belligerent chim- panzee from the Rio zoo, as their preferred candidate for mayor. The people of Rio de Janeiro traditionally make a heroic effort to abandon their troubles during the holidays, but this year forgetfulness was harder to come by than usual. Just days before Christmas, the bru- tal assassination of rubber tapper

I Elizabeth Station is a free-lance © Jjournalist in Rio de- Janeiro.... --- ..

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 S

Chico Mendes in faraway Acre sent difficulties, to remain the tourist The Acadimicos do Salgueiro, a club shock waves through the local ecol- and media mecca of Brazil. In 1988 that traditionally treats racial ogy movement. Next, on New Year's Carnival was marred by heavy rains themes, delivered a not-too-angry Eve, 55 tourists drowned when an and landslides that left nearly 300 assessment of black Brazil 100 years overloaded and unseaworthy plea- dead around the state. This year the after abolition ("My samba takes away sure boat, the Bateau Mouche IV, dearth of funds for public-works pain and bringsjoy/Yes, I'm black/ sank at the entrance to Guanabara projects meant that shoring up the liberty andpoetry"). Sao Clemente, one Bay. Closer to the shore, the legen- city against a similar disaster would of the only samba schools of the dary girl from Ipanema had to think be impossible. The fear the rain white, middle-class Zona Sul, twice before taking a dip at the might return, coupled with the real- paraded to protest Brazil's obedient beach of the same name. According ization the public hospital shutdown payment of its foreign debt. Club to the weekly magazine Veja, 460 would deny emergency services to members dressed as coffee beans, tons of untreated sewage and hun- any accident victims, added to the bananas, and petroleum-all dreds more of toxic industrial verge-of-apocalypse feeling among national exports-intoned a bois- wastes are dumped into Rio oceans already melodramatic Cariocas. terous samba that decried the daily, rendering both the sand and The opening minutes of this declining terms of trade for Bra- the sea unsafe. year's parade provided television zilian products on the world market. viewers all over Brazil with high "I cry, I shout, and I speak because I Carnival Endures drama. Spectators gasped when in love my country," bumped and wig- the opening minutes of the specta- gled Sao Clemente. "The only thing Reeling from the punches, Rio de cle, a faultily-constructed float car- they can't export is the people's hope to be Janeiro raised its head in February rying 52-year-old beautician Neusa happy." to face the last Carnival celebration Monteiro collapsed and she plum- Just before eight in the morning of the decade. "Carnival is the only meted headfirst onto the pavement. on Fat Tuesday, when all but two of serious thing left in Brazil," a hard- In a typical show of Carioca excess, the escolas de samba had sung and core reveler told TV Globo on the Monteiro had planned to parade in danced their way to the end of the eve of the four days of festivities, full regalia with 15 different samba runway, a weary crowd blinked and and so it would seem. The top escolas clubs. She had rented a special bus stretched and waited for Beija-Flor de samba, or neighborhood samba to tote her costumes to the sam- of Nil6polis to appear. An expectant clubs, begin training for the pre- b6dromo and a motorcycle to ferry air hung over the concrete bleachers Lenten event as early as August. her between points of the parade. of the samb6dromo. For two nights Handsomely paid and highly profes- After Monteiro was rushed to one of fans had witnessed a lavish display sional carnavalescosdesign elaborate the city's few functioning hospitals, of glittery, ostentatious costumes costumes, sumptuous floats, and traumatized TV announcers pro- and towering, Disneyesque floats. catchy choreography to illustrate vided up-to-the-minute reports on Yet Beija-Flor the club that had the club's theme song (samba de her condition. (When she died of her sparked controversy when it in- enredo) for the annual parade. injuries two weeks later, her daugh- troduced such luxury into the Neighborhood entrepreneurs, poli- ters promised not to sue the spectacle over a decade before, had ticians, and bicheiros (who run the builders of the float.) announced a puzzling title for its numbers racket) put up the capital The rest of the marathon contin- 1989 theme. In "Rats and Vultures, to underwrite each club's entry in ued without further incident and, Let Go of My Costume," carnavalesco the pageant. Meanwhile, two or arguably, without a great deal of Joaozinho Trinta promised to three thousand club members emogao, or biting political commen- "let the grande confusao between scrape together the money for their tary. One club, Unidos da Ponte, per- luxury and poverty shine." Months costumes, calledfantasias, and steel functorily performed an before he had announced plans to themselves for endless rehearsals. environmental samba that lamented unleash the"common people of the The spectacular two-day parade urban air pollution, the burning of street today-beggars, alcoholics, by the 18 biggest and wealthiest the Amazonian forests, vanishing street kids, lunatics, and the un- samba clubs helps Rio, despite its wildlife, and destruction-for-profit. employed," as the protagonists of

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Reports: Culture

Beija-Flor'sentry in the parade. opening parade of the miserable enredo made the song inaccessible to The result was a cleverly calcu- showed the country as it is. Then the audience. Skeptics remarked lated blend of popular art, excellent came opulence, which demonstrates that the club's second-place finish music, and stinging social criticism. the reason for the misery." was no coincidence. Uninvited, Hundreds of convincingly shabby Such comments linking luxo Trinta had brought a giant mirror sambistas, dressed in tatters and gar- (luxury) and lixo (garbage) have to the samb6dromo, inspiring the bage, opened the parade singing won Trinta notoriety. In 1976, angrily magazine Isto E Senhor to declare "In life I'm a beggar/But I'm king of defending Beija-Flor'sunprece- "Brazil is afraid of its own reflection." carnival."A mob of toothless bag dented use of expensive, flashy cos- Instead of embracing Carnival as a ladies gleefully danced around a tumes and floats in that year's time to forget, Trinta used the festi- float crowned by a gigantic Christ Carnival parade, Trinta snapped val to put poverty, corruption, figure swabbed in black plastic. Evok- "the people like luxury; misery opportunism, and waste on center ing the famous Corcovado statue is for intellectuals." The statement stage. that symbolizes Rio de Janeiro, the helped earn him the enmity of the monument's outstretched arms Brazilian left, who accused Trinta of Now What? protected a horde of ragged street designing sambas that exalted the When the party was over, Brazil boys and afavela school. Next came dictatorship. Trinta refused to keep woke up to a reality both better and deranged, Dickensian madmen, his controversial opinions to him- worse than the one Trinta had followed by fat, decadent popes self. "Those who know the samba painted. Rio had not flooded or and bishops and politicians on clubs also know, for example, how fallen into the sea, the ailing hospi- the take. hard it is to get a black man to dress tals had functioned well enough to Further along, atop a float up like a slave," he remarked. meet demand, and, despite the city's depicting a "beggar's banquet," the "That's what he is all year long, of international reputation for vio- rich savored tempting delicacies course. For Carnival he wants to lence, crime was down 20% from the while the poor pulled decomposing come out as Louis XV, a Dutchman, previous Carnival. Yet during the scraps of food out of trash cans at a king." four days of revelry, Brazil offered the bottom. Later, a scantily-clad This year's performance forced exile to Paraguayan dictator Alfredo mulata gyrated on the highest tier of the intellectuals to forget their feud Stroessner and 18 inmates died a towering fountain, while barefoot with Trinta, and left and right began when a sadistic Sao Paulo prison street urchins romped in the spray to heap superlatives upon him warden stuffed 50 men into a tiny of water below. An enormous, tat- before the last sambista stepped off cell meant for one. Inflation crept tered banner invited the crowd to the stadium floor. "Beija-Florcom- upward despite a government freeze join the march of the disenfran- pletely changed the aesthetic of on prices and wages, and Brazil chised: "People of the street: Pull Carnival," glowed the conservative adopted its third currency revision the remains of luxury from the gar- O Globo. Fernando Gabeira, a 1970s in three years. bage of this immense country.... guerrilla who now leads the Bra- Politically some bright spots Make your costumes and come zilian Green Party, praised Trinta dotted the horizon. A pugnacious along to the grand masked ball." The for possessing "a more practical, former housewife named Regina spectacle was moved along by a personal sense of justice than the Gordilho led an anticorruption throng of men and women wearing Socialists ... and a broader ecologi- crusade in the Rio de Janeiro city the orange cotton smocks of Rio cal intuition than many ecologists." council. Just after Carnival, Coun- garis, or garbage collectors and Others claimed the history of Carni- cilwoman Gordilho found and fired street sweepers. val would be divided, henceforth, 388 "ghost employees," beneficiaries Joaozinho Trinta, the cherubic, into two periods-before and after of old-time patronage practices that grey-haired genius responsible for it Beija-Flo. enabled them to collect city pay- all, triumphantly brought up the Two days later the revelation that checks without working a single day rear. Celebrating his own humble Beija-Florhad not won the samba in the chambers. Organized labor in origins as a northeastern migrant club contest came as a great shock. Rio showed new combativeness dur- and shop clerk as much as the every- First-place honors went to Imperatriz ing a two-day, nationwide general day heroism of the underpaid public Leopoldinense, a three-time cham- strike to negotiate salary hikes in servant, Trinta wore a gari smock as pion who had performed an elegant, March. Brazilians will directly elect he sprayed the bleachers with water noncontroversial samba depicting a president in November for the first from a street sweeper's hose. He the history of Brazil from independ- time in nearly 30 years. The favorite later explained that the hose sym- ence to the declaration of the repub- candidate among Cariocas is veteran bolized the need to wash away decay lic. Imperatriz edged out Beija-Flor populist and former governor and corruption in Brazil. "I made an by a single point, allegedly because Leonel Brizola. His claim to fame in invitation for this country to one of the judges felt Beija-Flor'suse Rio de Janeiro? He built the change;' said Trinta. "The huge of an African dialect in its samba de samb6dromo. *

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Hemisphere * Summer 1989 Reports: Culture

War, Peace, and Music: The Guianas by Kenneth Bilby

usic must change life Like many young Maroons in in a big way:' says Saint-Laurent, Django grew up Django. "I'm learn- alongside Alukus, Paramakas, and ing music to call Saramakas, as well as his own attention to our Ndjuka people. He belongs to the grievances by singing first generation of town dwellers, about them. Then whose parents migrated from the others will realize what's really Maroon villages that line the inte- happening." rior rivers of Suriname and French Django is a young Ndjuka Guiana. These urban and semi- Maroon, a member of one of the six urban Maroons have been busy Guianese tribes descended from evolving a musical subculture much African slaves who escaped from like those that thrive in many parts Surinamese plantations during the of contemporary urban Africa. 17th and 18th centuries. Now in his Starting in the 1970s the young early twenties, he has lived in the Maroons of Saint-Laurent adopted a coastal French Guianese border new drumming style called Aleke and town of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni began to form volunteer associa- since the age of two. Django is one tions. These drumming groups of several hundred Maroons inhab- could almost have been lifted from iting the shantytowns scattered the pages of an anthropological across the outskirts of this overseas monograph on life in a modern West French municipality with a popula- African city. Sporting imaginative tion of roughly 9,000. In late 1986 he names and hierarchies of officers, watched from across the river as the the Aleke bands of Saint-Laurent Surinamese town of Albina was were at first composed of young reduced to cinders, another casualty Maroons from the same tribe, and in the bitter struggle pitting the often the same clan. More recently Maroon guerrillas led by Ronnie bands with an interethnic member- Brunswijk against the military gov- ship have emerged, as young ernment headed by Lieutenant Ndjukas, Paramakas, and Alukus Colonel Desi Bouterse. Since then come together to make music Django has been paying close atten- expressing the experiences they tion to the plight of the more than share. 10,000 Maroon refugees who fled their homes in Suriname after gov- Political Rhythms ernment forces began their massa- cres of Maroon civilians. Many of Maroons have always used song as a these refugees, including some of vehicle for social commentary and Django's own relatives, are still liv- criticism. When the civil war in ing in temporary camps in French Suriname broke out in 1986, and Guiana. thousands of refugees came stream- ing into Saint-Laurent, the Aleke Kenneth Bilby, an anthropologist bands were quick to set the traumatic at The Johns Hopkins University, events to music. One popular song, worked with Maroons in French delivered by a leader and chorus in Guiana between 1983 and 1987, the Ndjuka language and usually and during 1987 played keyboards interspersed with biting improvisa- with Local Song. tions, went as follows: "Our Suriname

Hemisphere Summer 1989 L

funeral ceremonies and African- dance bands added their voices to based religious cults coexist with the the protests of the Aleke singers. new sounds of dance bands using Django, a veteran of several Aleke amplifiers, imported electric gui- groups, helped to form a mixed tars, keyboards, and drum kits. Ndjuku/Aluku dance band called Young Ndjuka, Aluku, Paramaka, Local Song in 1986. The band's and Saramaka musicians are trying name expresses its members' desire their hands at everything from to counter the tendency in French kaseko, the contemporary dance Guiana to glorify anything that music of Paramaribo, to reggae, comes from afar, especially from French Antillean zouk, African France, while devaluing everything soukous, and various combinations local. Although there are several popular Maroon dance bands in Saint-Laurent, with engaging names such as Switi Skin, Ennymo Stars, Lifemo Stars, and Music Explosion, Local Song seems to be the most 0 vociferous about the war next door. Among their songs are "Feti Taanga" ("Struggle Hard") and ' ungle Com- mando"' a blistering militant-style reggae recounting the attempts of Brunswijk's guerrillas to defend Maroon civilians from persecution by Bouterse's troops. Both songs are in the Ndjuka language, which itself is an act of cultural resistance. But it was "Revolution ina Saanan," also must have freedom/peace/Boutersehas sung in Ndjuka, that became a local ruined Suriname." protest anthem for Maroons suf- By early 1987 the refugees themselves-who were now swelling the Maroon population of Saint- Laurent and bringing with them tales of atrocities committed against family and friends-were forming their own Aleke bands. The names of these bands made powerful statements of protest: A Gi Tjali (It Grieves Us), Mi No Be Wani (I Didn't Want This), and Fii Lon (Flight to Freedom). As the carnage across the river continued, the Maroon of these sounds. On weekends the enclaves of Saint-Laurent vibrated nightspots frequented by with the defiant performances of Maroons-makeshift nightclubs, these bands. The targeting of rented dance halls, and spruced-up Maroon civilians by Surinamese yards-throb with life. The crowds army patrols was provoking an are large and almost exclusively upsurge in ethnic consciousness. Maroon. Not surprisingly most of Young Aleke performers came the French civil servants and the together in a ritualistic dance, don- Creole majority in Saint-Laurent ning the abandoned loincloths and remain oblivious to the robust sub- wraparound skirts of their parents terranean culture that lives and as symbols of resistance. breathes in their back yards. The The Aleke phenomenon is one two worlds, one dominant and the facet of a buzzing Maroon musical other powerless, seldom come into subculture in Saint-Laurent. The meaningful contact. age-old rhythms of traditional It was not long before the electric

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Reports: Culture

*t CI IN OF T DITI L MAOONITERTRE

fering the effects of war in 1987 (see ing from the sentiments expressed Maroon civilians and the massive box, p. 10). by the Aleke singers and Maroon destruction of property that have Although Local Song has never dance bands of Saint-Laurent, the taken place since 1986. There are been inside a recording studio, cas- political coalition that won could indications, however, that this situa- settes of live performances have not have counted on much support tion may be changing, as the desire been informally copied and circu- from these people had they been for a nonmilitary solution continues lated within the Maroon community. able to vote. to grow in Paramaribo (The Miami By late 1987 even Ndjuka and Aluku Although Bouterse's own party, Herald,July 23, 1989). children could be heard singing the Nationale DemocratischePartij, Django and his companions be- "Revolution ina Saanan" as they was soundly defeated in the elec- long to a great Afro-American tradi- played in shantytown alleyways. tions, many, if not most, Maroons tion of musical protest. They and Django, it seems, was succeeding in suspect the new government still thousands like them in other parts of his goal: his musical message was takes orders from the military. Their this hemisphere are the anonymous getting across. suspicions are supported by allega- counterparts of famous social critics tions, widely reported in Dutch such as Bob Marley, The Mighty Bouterse and the Maroons newspapers such as De Volkskrant Sparrow, and Stevie Wonder. They The music of Django and others like and Het Parool,that the civilian share with these artists a common him gives voice to the indignation authorities have been unable to act creative urge, a cultural penchant and frustration of a victimized and against the wishes of Bouterse. that runs as deep as the long drums disenfranchised people. Those in Brunswijk, the rebel leader, has of Aleke. Their political critique is power have yet to persuade most made repeated overtures to the driven by a musical impulse that has Maroons that the long history of dis- new government, but until recently time and again proven its remark- crimination against them is ending. Bouterse has vetoed all attempts to able capacity to endure. As long as The vast majority of Surinamese begin serious negotiations. It has Django and the Maroon people he Maroons were not represented in been alleged that the civilian govern- represents have legitimate griev- the November 1987 elections that ment is "powerless to defy Bouterse" ances, their anger will not be took place in their country, since (The Washington Post, January 4, 1989). silenced. Any government in Suri- they were either cut off from the Little wonder then the Bouterse name interested in restoring har- coastal region or stranded in refu- government has failed to make mony would be well advised to lend gee camps in French Guiana. Judg- amends for the slaughtering of them an ear. a

Hemisphere . Summer 1989 --- ~--~ Reports: Economy

Two Plans, No Solution by Edgar Ortiz

Mexican Reactions parties like the Popular Socialist treasury secretary Nicholas Party and the Mexican Socialist Brady is a palliative to two Mexico is one of several debtor Party. They object to the Brady kinds of Latin American countries that have proposed simi- plan's emphasis on loan condi- threats: widespread debt lar measures in recent years. Since tionality, debt payment, and debt repudiation and political 1985, when the price of oil plum- swaps. They also object to its vague instability. Mass uprisings meted, Mexican officials have main- handling of debt-market exchange and the electoral victories of popu- tained that lenders should share and, even as modified by the July lists Carlos Andres Perez in Ven- with borrowers the responsibility for accord, its inadequate debt reduc- ezuela and Carlos Menem in the debt crisis. President Carlos tions and incentives to private Argentina underscore such threats. Salinas de Gortari stresses that eco- lenders. The specter of such challenges in nomic recovery should be based on On the subject of conditionality, neighboring Mexico is particularly domestic savings, but that without a critics observe the Brady plan troubling to US policymakers. substantially reduced debt load, his diverges almost imperceptibly from In many ways the Brady proposal programs of economic readjustment previous US policy. It requires breaks new ground. First, it urges cannot succeed. These two supposi- debtor countries, under close super- private banks to reduce their debt tions underlie not only his team's vision by the World Bank and the portfolios, ease the interest burden international debt policy but its IMF, to continue opening their bor- of debtor countries, and absorb domestic "Economic Growth and ders to free trade and foreign invest- much of the cost of both. Second, it Stability Pact":' which Mexican busi- ment, while imposing wage and calls for active efforts by the World ness, labor, and peasant representa- salary discipline and trimming their Bank and the International Mone- tives have pledged to support. public sectors. Detractors of the tary Fund (IMF) to promote debt Hence the lenders should ease debt Brady plan point out that these relief. Third, it recognizes the debt payments as a catalyst to Mexican, requirements, along with the crisis as a politicalissue by linking and by extension Latin American, emphasis on debt payments, com- US national security to sociopolitical economic recovery. promise the sovereignty of Mexico conditions in the debtor countries. Mexican officials and leaders of and other Latin American nations This recognition potentially opens the private sector thus look kindly and divert both financial and the way to negotiations between on the fundamentals of the Brady human resources from the task of lender banks and debtor countries plan. Their responses to its specific national development. that integrate criteria of economic measures, however, have ranged Perhaps more widely opposed growth and social welfare. from cautious optimism to hostile by Mexicans is the Brady plan's Yet the Brady proposal-even as criticism. On the optimistic side are emphasis on debt swaps. Their modified by the July accord between the Treasury Ministry, the National opposition revolves around several Mexico and its foreign creditors-is Association of Manufacturers, and factors: the negative impact of debt fundamentally flawed. As its Mexi- the Coordinating Council of Entre- swaps on foreign reserves and infla- can critics point out, no such plan preneurs. The unknown ingredient, tion (based on the conversion of can be successful unless it focuses they maintain, is whether private dollars to pesos); the relative success on the structural causes of the hemi- lenders and multilateral institutions of the government's heterodox sphere's debt crisis. will support the plan. The July "new adjustment program that (partly plan" only marginally addresses this because of the large accumulation doubt, as the extent and form of of foreign reserves) has lowered support by private banks is unclear. Mexico's rate of inflation; and the Expressing criticism are ele- fact that since 1986 debt swaps in Edgar Ortiz is professor offinance ments of the public sector, labor Mexico have amounted to $6.9 and economics at the Universidad groups such as the National Federa- billion, or about 56% of total for- Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico and tion of Labor Syndicates, the Car- eign investment. the Centro de Investigaci6ny denista wing of the Institutional The high volume of debt swaps DocenciaEcon6mica. Revolutionary Party, and opposition has contributed to the decline of

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Reports: Economy

Mexico's foreign reserves from $15 foreign debt, would bring little ben- grams, which have simply added billion in 1988 to, according to some efit to Mexico or any other debtor more wood to the fire. estimates, as low as $3.5 billion in nation. As things stand, we can expect 1989. This volume indicates, more- Although the new plan proposes either debt repudiation in the short over, that the debt-swap alternative the lowering of interest rates, doing run or a more profound debt crisis in Mexico is nearing exhaustion. In so is at the option of the banks, and in the long run. Future generations any case recent experience suggests eventual rises in interest rates would will pay for the mistakes of today, that Mexico's stabilization plans erase the gains of debt reduction. such as substituting runaway bor- should aim for high volumes of for- Further, Mexico and other debtors rowing for sound taxation in Latin eign reserves and limited debt would need financial resources America and postponing reductions swaps. beyond those resulting from debt in US domestic and foreign deficits. The question of market reductions. Yet the Brady initiative There are alternatives, however. exchange is also crucial, since does not mention specific tax incen- The Brady plan could play a signifi- debtor nations seek to exchange tives or regulatory changes that cant role if it were revised to call for their debt at current market prices. would lead private banks to make greater reductions in the debt bur- This would lead to a major debt available such resources. The July den of Mexico and Latin America. reduction of 67% for Mexico. As for accord, insofar as it provides for Yet even the increased reduction Brazil and Argentina, the two other new loans at lower interest rates, proposed in the new plan is not mammoths of Latin American debt, essentially piles new loans on top enough, especially because of the it would mean a reduction of 73% of old ones. weak incentives for banks to support and 82%, respectively. the reduction. North Atlantic politi- Mexico's program of economic cal leaders and bankers must recog- readjustment requires that its yearly Will Things Get Better or Worse? nize the need for structural reforms. debt outlays be slashed by at least Although leading business sectors What we need is a comprehensive 50%. This reduction, however, and high government officials in approach to the debt crisis, which would not guarantee economic Mexico consider the Brady plan a stresses equitable terms of interna- recovery in Mexico or elsewhere fair, if vague, proposal for debt tional trade and technology transfer. without complementary renegotia- relief, the critics must be taken seri- Such an approach could serve as tions of the terms of international ously. At best the plan's initial and the basis for establishing broader trade and technology transfer. The revised versions would ease Mexico's accords for international develop- Brady plan's original goal of 20% debt burden, and probably that of ment and social welfare. From the debt reductions, and even the new other Latin American countries, for standpoint of Mexico and Latin plan's goal of a 35% reduction in just a few years. As such they can do America, anything less is doomed principle on Mexico's privately held little more than recent bailout pro- to fail. .

PUBLICACIONES EL COLEGIO DE MEXICO

Pilar Gonzalbo Soledad Loaeza y Rafael Segovia (comps) Las mujeres en la Nueva Espaia. Educaci6n La vida politica mexicana en la crisis y vida cotidiana Takabatake Micbhitosbi, Lotbar Knauth y Daniel Cosfo Villegas (coord) Michiko Tanaka (comps) Historia general de Mexico (2 tomos) Politica y pensamiento politico en Jap6n, 1926-1982 Varios Historia minima de Mexico Joseph Hodara Prebisch y la Cepal. Sustancia, trayectoria y (versi6n en ingles) contexto institucional A Compact History of Mexico Carmen Ramos (comp) Ana Pizarro (coord) Presencia y transparencia: la mujer en la Hacia una historia de la literatura historia de Mexico latinoamericana Varios Gerardo M. Bueno (comp) Hacia una renovaci6n del crecimiento Mexico-Estados Unidos, 1986 econ6mico en America Latina

Para mayores informes: Departamento de Publicaciones de El Colegio de Mexico, A.C. Pedidos por correo: Camino al Ajusco 20, 01000 Mexico, D.F. Pedidos por telefono: 568 6033 Exts. 388 y 297

Hemisphere Summer 1989 ~

Argentine Prospects by Enrique Loncan

within the opposition Radical Party. and union demands will be Argentina's GDP has plum- The electoral loss by the Radical addressed through concessions in meted from 6.7% to 0.4%, Party and the divergent views social services. and its rate of poverty has between ex-president Alfonsin and * Financial pressure on agriculture leaped from 76% to an esti- defeated presidential candidate will be eased, yet the sector will mated 30% of the nation's Eduardo Angeloz have resulted in continue to subsidize the rest of 1979 annual growth in Sincepopulation. Can Carlos intraparty divisions, which widen the economy. Menem's administration reverse the Menem's margin for political economy's decline and forestall mass initiative. A Call for Realism unrest and political instability? The Economy: Is There Hope? This scenario does not promise In asserting his leadership quick recovery, though the initial Menem named to his cabinet a com- After selecting the non-Peronist, signs give reason for qualified opti- bination of moderates from within orthodox Roig as economic minister, mism. Menem's most urgent chal- and outside the Peronist ranks. One Menem declared that Roig's pro- lenge is to implement the unpopular of Menem's shrewdest moves was gram would be based on a neo- measures that, while necessary to to appoint as minister of economy Keynesian econometric model devel- stop Argentina's hyperinflation, Miguel Roig, former vice president oped by American Nobel laureate could quickly erode his political cap- of Bunge y Born, an Argentine mul- Lawrence Klein. This and other ital. Menem's early policies indicate tinational that is traditionally a points of inconsistency raise funda- he is prepared to take the political scapegoat for Peronist resentment. mental questions. Will the Menem risk. Following Roig's death on July 14, administration pursue an economic On the political side, then, the Menem appointed in his place Nes- policy of traditional Peronism? Or following policies can be anticipated: tor Rapanelli, a former chief execu- will it pursue a modified policy, at * Assertion of presidential authority tive of Bunge y Born. These two least during the current economic over union bosses and the leader- appointments allayed the wide- emergency? Can either approach ship of the Justicialista Party. spread fears within the business sec- gain the confidence of investors and * Improvement of Menem's relations tor of a resurgence of traditional reactivate the economy? with the military as a safeguard Peronism. So did the appointment Menem has surprised doubters against the possible resurgence of of Domingo Cavallo, an economist and supporters alike by embarking subversive activity. inclined to the promotion of export on a disciplined course of austerity. * Promotion of a constitutional trade and improved relations with Among the likely economic policies amendment to reduce the presi- the US, as minister of foreign are these: dential term of office from six to affairs. Still another key appoint- * Foreign investment will be favored, four years, but allowing reelection ment was that of Italo Luder, a particularly in the export sectors. and incorporating Peronist social Peronist, as minister of defense. As * Existing industries will receive sub- rights. interim president in 1975, Luder stantial protection. * A foreign policy that seeks played a key role in mobilizing the * The public sector will be reduced improved dialogue with the US. armed forces against domestic sub- only marginally, and limited priva- In the midst of crisis Argentina's versive activity. His credibility with tization of public enterprises will electorate found in Menem an alter- the armed forces promises to ease take place. native to its feelings of frustration tensions between the government's * Fiscal reform will be introduced. and resignation. The new govern- civilian and military wings. * The foreign debt will be a source ment took office with a vote of con- Not to be overlooked is that of friction, but not rupture, in fidence as large as the hopes of the Menem's overtures to business and international relations. populace. The greatest risk is not the military have taken place in a * Interest rates will remain high, but failure, but that achievements will be context of political splintering flexible, subsidized credit lines will measured with a yardstick of unre- be created to support small and alistic expectations. . Enrique Loncan is a lawyer and medium enterprises. economist in Buenos Aires. * Wage measures will be restrictive, (Translatedby Hemisphere stafJ)

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Reports: Education

Stories of Foreign Language by John V Lombardi

n the beginning there was for- In a dangerous world, it is a defense. began competing for funds with eign language and culture. It permits us to understand our other worthy priorities, such as stu- "Foreign language and cul- friends and our enemies. It is there- dent loans and science education. In ture," we educators said, "will fore vital to national defense. Based addition we lost the crisp precision save the US. They will bring the on this essentially correct set of pos- of our original story. The new, less US to the world and maintain tulates, we proposed the US govern- convincing story goes something like the American dream." ment create a program to bolster this: study foreign language to learn Our patrons looked upon our the nation's language capabilities. about the world, to become disci- words and found them persuasive. We watched as our elected officials plined, and to reassert US compet- Ford Foundation largess rained lined up to salute the flag and sup- itiveness in the world market. down on a favored cohort of US uni- port the program, appropriately With rare exceptions, however, versities and developed expertise in called the National Defense Foreign studying foreign language as we do international studies. Funding Language Act. in US universities teaches less about through the National Defense Edu- the world than a one-semester cation Act Title VI built programs in course on Latin America. Likewise it the less commonly taught languages. requires a minimum of two to four The international education constit- years of study before our students uency thrived from the late 1950s achieve the requisite facility to through the glorious 1960s, and on appreciate foreign literature. A into a less bountiful 1970s. By the decent course on great works in 1980s, however, the constituency translation would do a better job of had fallen on hard times. educating our students. As for What happened to our dreams? teaching discipline, a semester of Did we teach badly? Did we fail to ROTC would do it much more produce expertise? Or did we just quickly and effectively. fail? Perhaps the greatest fraud of all is the notion that learning foreign ATwo-Story Perspective languages can make the US more competitive. True, we would It is not obvious, at first glance, that improve our access to the Japanese there are problems in the teaching market if we learned more about the of foreign languages. Enrollment is Japanese and employed some people up, classes are full, requirements are in our firms who spoke passable tougher, and everybody is talking Japanese. So why were we so compet- about foreign languages. Why then itive in the fifties and sixties? Why are we worried? The answer is easy. The program was a winner. So did US cars, radios, electronics, and Let's first look at the story we used what happened? We learned that heavy equipment set the interna- to tell, one that worked. That story some officials had used programs tional standard? Did more people at went like this: foreign language lets for unsavory purposes and that our General Motors speak Spanish? Did US citizens understand other colleagues overseas looked askance IBM officials discuss the virtues of people-what they are talking at our close connection to the their technology in fluent Japanese? about, what they are doing, and why defense establishment. No longer Of course not. Competitiveness is a they are doing it. Knowledge of for- could we tolerate the association of function of quality and price. Lan- eign languages is a utilitarian tool. language and defense. guage allows us to talk about com- Thus we shifted the rationale for petitive products, but it does not teaching foreign languages from make the products more John V Lombardi is provost and defense to education. There was competitive. vice president of Academic Affairs nothing inherently wrong in doing All of this would be more toler- at The Johns Hopkins University. so. Nevertheless, language programs able if we actually taught students

Hemisphere * Summer 1989 who are not language majors to Because competency testing throws What should educators do? We speak another language. The truth is a scare into most literature estab- can begin by recognizing that lan- we rarely do so. We give our stu- lishments. After all, it is based on guage requirements mean nothing dents a little grammar, a little vocab- the academically unpopular notion without exit-proficiency require- ulary, and some inadequate training that language is a relatively straight- ments. We must also recognize that in the language laboratory. We then forward skill. The results of such a proficiency requirements cannot be send the fortunate few to a good test might lead us to reallocate fulfilled without budgets and with- program abroad. If they work hard money away from the four- out rewards-pay, promotion, and and avoid other Americans, they hundredth rectification of the prestige-commensurate with the return speaking passable German, meaning of the "Quijotesque" in task. Neither the federal government French, Spanish, or whatever as a Cervantes's minor novellas. nor private foundations should give result of their immersion in the cul- Deans and other sensitive a dime to any international program ture, not as a result of our university administrators have not given up, that lacks serious commitment to curriculum. however. They have called for the language teaching and competency We the educators are to blame. use of competency testing and the testing. A benchmark of such com- We know how to teach foreign lan- creation of think tanks for the devel- mitment, and thus a high priority guage, but we refuse to do it right. opment of language instruction. for funding, are yearlong programs Why not? Because doing so would One such think tank operates at The of overseas study that incorporate Johns Hopkins School for Advanced before-and-after testing. International Studies. Its dedicated Educators must listen to the instructors of language are busy public. When people do not buy with subversive investigations of new goods there is usually a reason: the teaching methods. Complemented product is too expensive, it does not by demonstration projects at partici- work, or both. The public does not pating universities, this approach buy our foreign-language story offers a test environment that may because it's too expensive, it does show us the way to improved lan- not teach people how to speak the

guage teaching. language," " and it wastes their time. m

H. McKennie Goodpasture VOICES CROSS AND SWORD FROM An Eyewitness History of Christianity in Latin America Ra6l G6mez Treto LATIN THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM IN CUBA

AMERICA Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer WAR AGAINST THE POOR Low-Intensity Conflict and ChristianFaith

Guilio Girardi ate an autonomous department of FAITH AND REVOLUTION IN NICARAGUA language instruction brings down Convergence and Contradictions the combined wrath of literary aca- ORBIS BOOKS demia. The James Brocnnan response often takes the ROMERO form of a collaborative attack by the A Life chairs of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German depart- Donna Whitson Brett/Edward T. Brett MURDERED IN CENTRAL AMERICA ments-characters whose previous The Stories of Eleven U.S. Missionaries relations resembled those of Arab and Israeli leaders. Emilio F. Mignone WITNESS TO THE TRUTH The Complicity of Church and Dictatorship in Argentina

Writing a New Story Andrew Reding Why don't we put CHRISTIANITY AND REVOLUTION the graduates of Tombs Borge's Theology of Life our language classes through a competency test to discover whether they speak the language or not?

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Reports: Education

Stories of Foreign Language by John V. Lombardi

ATwo-Story Perspective It is not obvious, at first glance, that there are problems in the teaching of foreign languages. Enrollment is a -- r ------, -- v up, classes are full, requirements are in our firms who spoke passable tougher, and everybody is talking Japanese. So why were we so compet- about foreign languages. Why then itive in the fifties and sixties? Why are we worried? The answer is easy. The program was a winner. So did US cars, radios, electronics, and Let's first look at the story we used what happened? We learned that heavy equipment set the interna- to tell, one that worked. That story some officials had used programs tional standard? Did more people at went like this: foreign language lets for unsavory purposes and that our General Motors speak Spanish? Did US citizens understand other colleagues overseas looked askance IBM officials discuss the virtues of people-what they are talking at our close connection to the their technology in fluent Japanese? about, what they are doing, and why defense establishment. No longer Of course not. Competitiveness is a they are doing it. Knowledge of for- could we tolerate the association of function of quality and price. Lan- eign languages is a utilitarian tool. language and defense. guage allows us to talk about com- Thus we shifted the rationale for petitive products, but it does not teaching foreign languages from make the products more John V Lombardi is provost and defense to education. There was competitive. vice president of Academic Affairs nothing inherently wrong in doing All of this would be more toler- at The Johns Hopkins University. so. Nevertheless, language programs able if we actually taught students

Hemisphere Summer 1989 who are not language majors to Because competency testing throws What should educators do? We speak another language. The truth is a scare into most literature estab- can begin by recognizing that lan- we rarely do so. We give our stu- lishments. After all, it is based on guage requirements mean nothing dents a little grammar, a little vocab- the academically unpopular notion without exit-proficiency require- ulary, and some inadequate training that language is a relatively straight- ments. We must also recognize that in the language laboratory. We then forward skill. The results of such a proficiency requirements cannot be send the fortunate few to a good test might lead us to reallocate fulfilled without budgets and with- program abroad. If they work hard money away from the four- out rewards-pay, promotion, and and avoid other Americans, they hundredth rectification of the prestige-commensurate with the return speaking passable German, meaning of the "Quijotesque" in task. Neither the federal government French, Spanish, or whatever as a Cervantes's minor novellas. nor private foundations should give result of their immersion in the cul- Deans and other sensitive a dime to any international program ture, not as a result of our university administrators have not given up, that lacks serious commitment to curriculum. however. They have called for the language teaching and competency We the educators are to blame. use of competency testing and the testing. A benchmark of such com- We know how to teach foreign lan- creation of think tanks for the devel- mitment, and thus a high priority guage, but we refuse to do it right. opment of language instruction. for funding, are yearlong programs Why not? Because doing so would One such think tank operates at The of overseas study that incorporate mean breaking the hammer lock Johns Hopkins School for Advanced before-and-after testing. that literature has on teaching lan- International Studies. Its dedicated Educators must listen to the guage in most US universities. Liter- instructors of language are busy public. When people do not buy ature, which should be the greatest with subversive investigations of new goods there is usually a reason: the incentive for language acquisition, teaching methods. Complemented product is too expensive, it does not has become the most powerful by demonstration projects at partici- work, or both. The public does not inhibitor of language learning. pating universities, this approach buy our foreign-language story Literature professors do not like offers a test environment that may because it's too expensive, it does to teach language, which they show us the way to improved lan- not teach people how to speak the regard as the work of academic guage teaching. language, and it wastes their time. . untouchables. Yet they will not give up language teaching because it pays for literature studies. So they hire a few dedicated language professionals, saddle them with hostile H. McKennie Goodpasture and disinterested graduate-student VOICES CROSS AND SWORD instructors, pay them a miserable FROM An Eyewitness History of Christianity in Latin America wage, and deny them tenure. When Raul G6mez Treto effective language teaching does not LATIN THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM IN CUBA result, literature professors com- AMERICA Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer plain about the quality of the lan- WAR AGAINST THE POOR guage professionals. Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith The mere suggestion that we create an autonomous Guillo Girardi department of FAITH AND REVOLUTION IN NICARAGUA language instruction brings down Convergence and Contradictions the combined wrath of literary aca- ORBIS BOOKS demia. The response James Brockman often takes the ROMERO form of a collaborative attack by the A Life chairs of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German depart- Donna Whitson Brett/Edward T. Brett MURDERED IN CENTRAL AMERICA ments-characters whose previous The Stories of Eleven U.S. Missionaries relations resembled those of Arab and Israeli leaders. Emilio F. Mignone WITNESS TO THE TRUTH The Complicity of Church and Dictatorshipin Argentina

Writing a New Story Andrew Reding Why don't we put the graduates of CHRISTIANITY AND REVOLUTION Tomds Borge's Theology of Life our language classes through a competency test to discover whether they speak the language or not?

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Insider briefs on people and institutions shaping Latin American and Caribbean affairs

El Compadre Wins Big For Your Calendar Economy by Fax inBolivian Elections The annual Miami Conference on Expreso, a Peruvian newspaper, Carlos Palenque, popularly known the Caribbean will be held Novem- reports ex-economy adviser Daniel as "El Compadre," led CONDEPA ber 28-December 1. Billed as a Carbonetto sends advice on manag- (Concienciade Patria)to victory in "town meeting on the Caribbean":' ing Peru's economy from Buenos the department of La Paz and to a the gathering features leading Aires to President Alan Garcia. fourth-place finish nationwide in Caribbean, US, and Canadian offi- According to one report, Car- the May 1989 presidential election. cials involved in bilateral and multi- bonetto follows lengthy phone con- His victory in La Paz was remark- lateral trade. Last year, Caribbean/ versations by faxing outlines of able considering CONDEPA's many Central American Action, the con- policy measures. Although Garcia is handicaps. The party was founded ference's sponsor, made a special desperate for advice on managing only eight months before the elec- effort to involve Far Eastern trade the economy, Carbonetto's ideas may tion. Its candidate, Palenque, was representatives. An even higher pro- be part of the problem, not the solu- accused of having close ties to file can be expected at this year's tion. He was among the handful of cocaine king Roberto SuArez, and meeting for Japanese and Taiwanese advisers who played a role in Gar- his widely watched television station officials, who may be looking for cia's abortive measure to nationalize was closed down by the government. new investment outlets. banks-regarded by many as the CONDEPA's showing was enough to major policy error of the president's elect Remedios Loza, popularly economic management efforts. known as "La Comadre," as deputy of Heir Apparent? La Paz. For the first time an Indian woman, who still dresses in tradi- Edward Seaga, whose Jamaica tional garb, will sit in the national Labour Party was defeated in the congress. general election of February 1989, has relinquished his shadow cabi- Lima-by Night net's finance portfolio. Replacing Black humor is now helping Peru- The Feeling Is Mutual Seaga is Bruce Golding, who served vians to cope with the nation's deep- as construction minister during the ening economic and social crisis. In the last episode of the Elliott Seaga years. Golding may be the One example is a five-page "Begin- Abrams-Jim Wright story, former heir apparent to lead JLP into the ners Guide to Peru" circulating in assistant secretary of state Abrams 21st century. Lima: "The population is about 17 called the (now ex-) Speaker of the million, of whom about 16.9 million House ".impossible." In an exit inter- live in the capital Lima, where they view with the Washington Post (June are employed selling each other 4), Wright gives his own version. Technology Makes It Possible things in the street. The main prod- According to the Post, Wright was Radio Havana Cuba is sending a ucts of Peru are blank cassettes, car- "pleased" his peace efforts on Cen- friendly letter throughout the US to rings [piston rings] and snacks (sea- tral America won him the "enmity" market its services. According to the food [sic]). Lima must once have of the Reagan administration. missive, "at the touch of a button" been a very fine town-indeed every Wright even cited a date, November shortwave listeners can now tune in traveler who has visited Lima in the 13, 1987, when his diplomacy got on "moderately-priced digital last four hundred years has com- "under the skin" of Abrams. On that radios." "Immediate, responsible" mented on the fact. Research is day Wright opened his office to coverage with a "fresh look at the under way to find a traveler so early Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega world [is] available:' Thrown into [in Peruvian history] that he com- as well as to contra leaders. the deal are a Radio Havana Cuba ments on how fine a city Lima is, but pocket calendar and a listener's so far he has not been found. The card. The address is Box 7026, capital of Lima is Miraflores [the Edited by Mark B. Rosenberg Havana. affluent suburb]."

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 I L E

Neither Rain nor Sleet... Southern Cone Competition On the Move Nor Tropical Heat... One of the best-kept secrets about Margaret Daly Hayes is now with the You can now send express mail pack- the British is that they consume a lot Inter-American Development Bank ages to 14 Latin American countries of wine-50 million cases a year. as director of public affairs. For- for $10.75 through the US Postal When the Malvinas conflict rup- merly a staffer on the Senate For- Service's international express mail. tured Anglo-Argentine trade in eign Relations Committee and One to three-day service is pro- 1982, thirsty Brits lost 2 million liters director of the Washington office of vided. Federal Express still offers per year of imported Argentine the Council of the Americas, Hayes's the best service to the Caribbean: at wine. Chile is gradually replacing primary responsibility is to develop a almost twice the cost. Argentina as Latin America's lead- stronger constituency base for the ing exporter of wines to Britain. In bank's president, Enrique Iglesias. 1989 150,000 cases of Chile's finest Making the Case for Puerto Rico will be sold in Britain. The March- April 1989 US embargo on Chilean Stephen A. Quick, of the Congres- "Without sustained media coverage fruit has encouraged Chilean sional Joint Economic Committee, in the US, Puerto Rico has some- growers to convert their orchards has written "Mexico's Macro- times remained in the shadows. We and fruit yards into vineyards. But economic Gamble." Available believe it's time US opinionmakers looming on the horizon is the EEC through the Columbia-New York saw Puerto Rico in a new light." So of 1992, which may exclude the University Consortium on Latin states the Council for Puerto Rico- import of non-EEC wines. American Studies, the paper exam- US Affairs, which has opened ines Mexico's new approach to eco- offices in New York as a non-profit nomic stabilization and the odds of organization. The council's board of Try It,You'll Like It its success. The author suggests directors consists of notables from there are "few precedents" for suc- Beleza Tropical: Brazil Classics the island and the US, including Fer- I cess in the country's efforts. (Fly/Sire Records, nando Agrait and Peter V. Ueber- 1989) is getting hot reviews in the US. roth. A council official, Roberto M. The pop music collection Soto, writes "Puerto Rico is well features some of Jeanne Robinson is the executive Brazil's best musicians, positioned to increase respect and including director ofJamaica's new private- Gilberto understanding between the US Gil, Chico Buarque, and sector initiative on education, the Maria Bethania. and Latin America...and is well ICWI Group Foundation. A former equipped to reinforce the struggle science educator, Robinson directs for democracy and development in the foundation's efforts to develop the Caribbean." SELA Via educational programs on business applications of science and technol- SELA (Sistema Econ6mico Latino- ogy. The ICWI Group is a consor- americano)permanent secre- tium of insurance and finance tary Carlos Perez del Castillo A Democratizing District? companies from throughout the announced in June a proposal to Caribbean. According to Mexican policy analyst reduce the nominal value of Latin Luis Rubio, the Federal District of America's external debt by 50%. Two Mexico is an anomaly in the nation's hundred billion dollars in commer- Aaron Williams is the new director constitutional structure. Although cial and official debt would be con- of AID for the Eastern Caribbean. the district comprises 25% of Mex- verted into long-term, low-interest Headquartered in Barbados, Wil- ico's population, its administrators bonds, thus reducing annual debt- liams is in charge of operations that are not elected officials. Rubio sug- service transfers by up to 75%. extend to Trinidad, Guyana, and gests a phased transition to the SELA called for a ceiling of 5% on Suriname. His experience with AID direct election of the district's debt-related international interest in Costa Rica and Haiti should serve mayor, or regente. rates. him well.

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 F E A T

Brazil: Fire in the Forest by Anthony W.Pereira

uch has been said Brazil's state leadership, agro-export and 1979 oil shocks, a skyrocketing about the dimensions elites, and nascent industrialists foreign debt exacerbated Brazil's and consequences of forged an alliance that promoted agrarian problems by intensifying the rapid deforesta- the restricted unionization of indus- the state's commitment to large- tion of the Brazilian trial workers but favored the power- scale export agriculture. Amazon, but little ful rural oligarchy by excluding During most of the military discussion has rural workers. This arrangement period (1964-85) the value of agri- addressed its fundamental causes. went unchallenged until the late cultural production grew, albeit at a Rarely mentioned are the origins of 1950s, when rural labor organiza- pace much below that of the rest of the problem in Brazil's agrarian poli- tions and a supporting cast of the economy. Agricultural growth, cies of the last 50 years. Understand- priests, students, lawyers, politi- which centered on exports such as ing the policy origins of Amazonia's cians, and communists began to cocoa, oranges, soybeans, and deforestation is crucial to the demand land and labor reforms. But sugar, was based on the commercial- search, in Brazil and worldwide, for the military regime installed in 1964 ization of large estates, or latificn- ways of harmonizing demands on silenced these demands by imprison- dios. This process involved vigorous the environment with the need to ing, torturing, and killing peasant state intervention in all phases of implement programs of sustainable leaders, and by replacing the offi- production and marketing, includ- development. The matter of agrar- cials of rural trade unions with qui- ing research on seeds and planting ian policy is equally important in escent substitutes. After the 1973-74 techniques, the expansion of road drawing attention to another overlooked issue: the role of conflict over -I t II UIll land reform in Brazil's continuing transition from authoritarian to democratic governance.

Policy Origins of Agrarian Crisis Contemporary agrarian policy in Brazil emerged during the country's Estado Novo (1937-45), a period of authoritarian rule and state central- ization. During the EstadoNovo,

Anthony W. Pereirais a doctoral candidate in government at Harvard University.

Hemisphere * Summer 1989 U R E S

and utilities networks, and the sub- poor was a prime consequence of tion of migration. As indicated by vention of exports through favor- agrarian commercialization. As ten- satellite photos of rain-forest fires, able exchange rates and guaranteed ants, sharecroppers, and small the cities were not the only destina- prices. Particularly important was farmers lost land, the ranks of the tion for rural migrants. Beginning the provision of cheap capital agrarian proletariat grew. Yet, in the in the 1970s landless peasants began through a network of state banks; absence of adequate job oppor- to stream into Amazonia. Although from 1968 to 1978 rural credit tunities on the modernized estates, the Instituto Nacionalde Coloniza(,do increased fivefold in real terms. the rural poor tended not to stay in e Reforma Agrdria (INCRA) began As the owners of latifitndios the countryside but to seek employ- granting titles to Amazonian land, purchased machinery, fertilizer, ment in urban zones. For this rea- millions of people-encouraged by pesticides, and other inputs, the son, between 1970 and 1980 the government slogans and traveling on academic debate over whether the number of rural poor increased by government-built roads-arrived to latifcndio was capitalist or feudal no more than 4.3%: some 30 million clear rain-forest land without offi- died out. Clearly the latificndio was people exited the countryside for cial sanction. Eighty percent of set- capitalist, and large landowners urban shantytowns in Sao Paulo, tler farms fail because of the poor severed "feudal," patriarchal ties Rio de Janeiro, and other cities. rain-forest soil. Nevertheless the with the peasantry as if to prove it. Given the export focus of com- migration continues, especially to Among the landowners involved mercialization, another negative western Amazonia. The reason is were cattle ranchers, whose consequence was that Brazil's food simple: 10 to 12 million peasants expanded holdings included vast production for the domestic market are landless. tracts cleared purely for speculative decreased. Small farmers producing Clearly the settlers cannot be purposes. As a result, in the staples such as beans, rice, manioc, blamed for wanting to eat. Moreover mid-1980s an estimated 737 million and corn lost either their land or they are only one of many causes of acres of arable land lay unculti- government resources. Thus from deforestation. There are, for exam- vated. Peasants, who were often 1977 to 1984 food production for ple, the hydroelectric dams, such as unable to obtain credit or other the domestic market fell by 10%, Xingu, Tucurui, Altamira, and forms of state assistance, became even as agricultural exports scores of others in the planning displaced as land was concentrated increased. stages. The Grande Carajas pig-iron in the hands of a few. Still another negative conse- furnaces, which burn charcoal The displacement of the rural quence brings us back to the ques- made from local wood, cause the annual loss of 73,000 acres of forest. A VI* SIm III Extensive additional damage is allI1 caused by lumber operations and mining projects, as well as by export agriculture and the expansion of cattle ranches. The "development" policies of the Brazilian state, from economic planning and the provision of infrastructure to fiscal subsidies and the maintenance of law and order, stand at the center of this agrarian transformation. Because these policies predate the economic crisis of the 1980s, Brazil's foreign debt of $124 billion can share only part of the blame for their existence. For the rural poor the upshot is that such policies push them into a desperate quest for survival.

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Features: Brazil

Worsening rural inequality has 1964 land statute. In May 1985 he the shift as a political blow to land not gone unprotested. In 1983 a proposed the granting of land to redistribution. national campaign for land reform 71 million people by the year 2000, The GuardianWeekly (Manches- was initiated, spearheaded by the based on the expropriation of 1 bil- ter,January 29, 1989) reports that by 9.7 million-member Confederagao lion acres of unused and under- the end of 1988 Sarney's program Nacional dos Trabalhadoresna Agri- utilized land from latificndios. had redistributed just 7% of the cultura (CONTAG), the Comissdo Congressional representatives of the projected acreage of land, and just Pastoralde Terra of the Catholic Partidodos Trabalhadores,the Partido 4% of the projected number of fam- Church, and the Confederagao Nacio- Democrdtico Trabalhista,and, to a ilies had received land. In January nal dos Bispos do Brasil. But relations much lesser degree, the ruling Par- 1989 the Sarney administration, in a deteriorated between CONTAG and tido do Movimento Democrdtico cost-cutting measure induced by the Church groups, and the cam- Brasileirobacked the proposal. Brazil's $70-billion internal debt, for- paign made little headway with But Sarney's announcement pro- mally abolished MIRAD. The agrar- potential urban allies, such as labor voked countermeasures. In July ian reform was dead, revealing this unions and leftist parties. A rural- 1985 large landowners formed the irony in Brazil's political transition urban alliance is politically crucial Uniao Democrttica Ruralista(UDR) to civilian rule: the last military gov- because Brazil is 70% urban and to oppose any program that ernment, that of General Joao most of the migration to cities is threatens private landholdings. Figuereido (1979-85), redistributed probably irreversible. Reports by the Brazilian press and more land than has the civilian gov- Lower and middle-class city the reformist wing of the Catholic ernment ofJose Sarney. dwellers would benefit from agrar- Church link UDR to 458 assassina- ian reform, since it promises to tions of peasants, rural workers, The 1989 Presidential Election increase the number of farms pro- indigenous people, and their sup- ducing for the internal market and porters that took place between Jan- A presidential election is sched- to reduce the cost of food. Nonethe- uary 1985 and June 1987 UDR has uled for November 15, 1989, exactly less, despite the high volume of worked as a lobbying group as well. a century after the birth of the Bra- migration from the countryside, Joining forces with traditional land- zilian republic. The first direct pres- there is faint urban recognition of owner associations, it pressured the idential election since 1960, it this linkage, and awareness of it congressional drafters of the new involves a dozen candidates and could not possibly compete with constitution to prohibit the expro- promises to be a watershed in Bra- political concern over urgent prob- priation of land from "productive" zilian politics. Its potential impact lems such as employment, housing, estates. This constitutional measure on policies of agrarian reform and crime, and public services. Another crippled the reform plan, since Amazonian conservation, however, is potential urban benefit is that agrar- landlords can classify any tract of unclear. ian reform could lessen the influx land with a few head of cattle or A number of leftist and centrist of rural migrants into the painfully some machinery as "productive" parties support land reform, at least swollen cities. But again, like the Mounting congressional, mili- rhetorically. The position of the gov- cities themselves, the political tary, and executive opposition to erning centrist Partidodo Movimento agenda of urban residents is already land redistribution confirmed suspi- Democrdtico Brasileiro (PMDB), crowded. The political rift between cions regarding official commitment whose candidate is Ulysses town and country has proved to be to the program. For instance, by Guimaries, is ambivalent. As an the Achilles' heel of the agrarian devolving decisions on land expro- opposition party in the 1970s it was reform movement. priation to state governments, the clearly reformist. But in the 1980s, administration further exposed the as PMDB gained a majority in con- reform to the opposition of estate gress, its reformist commitment The 1985 Reform Proposal owners. At almost every step the weakened as many politicians from Following the March 1985 death of owners could block the process of the pro-military party, the Aliana President-elect Tancredo Neves, expropriating and retitling land. Renovadora Nacional (ARENA), and shortly after he won the electoral- Moreover the provision of com- its successor, the PartidoDemocrdtico college vote in Brazil's first election pensation to landlords was both Social (PDS),joined its ranks. For of a civilian in 25 years, Vice Presi- expensive and bureaucratically instance, of the two PMDB senators dent Jose Sarney, a long-time sup- cumbersome. In October 1987 the elected in 1986 in the state of Per- porter of the outgoing military Sarney administration transferred nambuco, one was a large land- regime, assumed the presidency. Try- authority over the program from holder and sugar-mill owner who ing to establish his credibility as a INCRA to the Ministdrio da Reforma had previously belonged to ARENA democratic reformer, Sarney soon Agrdria e Desenvolvimento (MIRAD). and PDS. Such politicians were announced a program of land This transfer led to unsuccessful among the large segment of the reform patterned after an aborted protests by CONTAG, which viewed PMDB that voted against the consti-

Hemisphere * Summer 1989 _L

tutional measure to permit the credits, and other subsidies, which conservation organizations to help expropriation of "productive" clearly favor agro-export enter- run national parks. In the late 1970s estate lands. prises. Because latifindios are Collor was appointed by the military To PMDB's left, both the Partido highly dependent on this system, to serve as mayor of Macei6, capital dos Trabalhadores(PT), whose candi- such changes could simultaneously of the small northeastern state of date is Luis Ignacio da Silva (known decrease the acreage of large land- Alagoas, currently Brazil's third as "Lula"), and the PartidoDemo- holdings and increase the incentives largest sugar producer. As a mem- crdtico Trabalhista(PDT), whose to smallholders producing for the ber of congress in 1985, Collor cast candidate is Leonel Brizola, have domestic market. In recent years the his electoral-college vote for the pledged-if elected-to enact pro- government, in another cost-cutting right-wing presidential candidate, grams of agrarian reform. The Par- measure, raised its cost of rural Paulo Maluf. As governor of tido Social Democrdtico Brasileiro credit, which flows dispropor- Alagoas, his land-reform record is (PSDB), led by Mario Covas, has tionately to latifindios. It also pro- among the nation's worst. Collor's pledged the same. The candidates of posed the privatization of sugar- ascent in the opinion polls is fueled these parties consider the vast tracts export transactions. A reformist by his image as an opponent of polit- of unused land in latifindios as the administration could take further ical corruption and an enemy of chief agrarian problem and promise initiative along these lines to lessen Sarney. Whether or not he can sus- to redistribute those lands to small Brazilian agriculture's glaring tain this image, his pledge to farmers. inequalities and export bias. reduce inflation to 3% per month What differentiates Lula, As for the Amazon Basin, the has struck a clear chord among Brizola, and Covas is not their electoral platforms of PT's Lula, the electorate. analyses and promises, but rather PDT's Brizola, PSDB's Covas, and the chance that, if elected, they will PMDB's Guimaraes include conser- ANew Political Course? fulfill their promises. Of the three, vationist agendas. Typical of these PT candidate Lula has the clearest agendas is Brizola's promise to Collor's popularity demonstrates commitment to the rural poor. More establish a ministry of the Amazon. that issues of land reform and rain- than half of PT's 450,000 members, Yet, unless the Brazilian economy forest protection will not be decisive many of whom are tied to the pro- rebounds, no package of vigorous in November's election. There is rea- gressive sector of the Catholic reforms will prove sufficient. Espe- son, nonetheless, for long-term opti- Church, reside in the countryside. cially if the economy enters into mism regarding agrarian issues. An In addition the party has made hyperinflation, land will continue as honest election in November and a recent inroads into the rural trade- one of the few safe investments. Sim- peaceful presidential succession union movement, where it serves as ilarly a stagnant economy will con- would reestablish the right of the a rallying point for unofficial, reform- tinue pushing settlers into the rain Brazilians to elect their president. ist opposition to CONTAG leader- forest in search of subsistence. This right, in turn, would lay the ship. Finally, PT is linked to the rub- Most important, the unremitting groundwork for permitting the citi- ber tappers and indigenous people pressure of the foreign debt will zenry to play an active role in shap- who seek rain-forest conservation. reinforce the economy's export ori- ing the nation's political agenda. Lula reinforced this link by attend- entation. This pressure, moreover, Achievement of the latter should be ing the funeral of party member will continue stimulating the build- the true measure of Brazil's transi- Chico Mendes, the assassinated ing of Amazonian dams that could tion from authoritarian to demo- rubber tapper and environmentalist. flood an area of rain forest as large cratic rule. It is doubtful, nevertheless, that as Great Britain (The Miami Herald, The political power of the rural even a PT presidency would accom- July 24, 1989). In sum, conservation oligarchy has frequently blocked the plish significant agrarian reform. of the Amazon Basin requires not path to democracy in Brazil. The Under the constitution promulgated only serious agrarian and environ- oligarchy defeated the 1985 land in October 1988, all expropriated mental reforms but also debt relief reform and is substantially respon- land must be paid for in cash and and a sound, domestically oriented sible for the environmental destruc- bonds-a formidable restriction economy. tion of Amazonia. Yet Brazil has given the government's fiscal crisis. Agrarian reform does not become overwhelmingly urban and Although a two-thirds vote in con- appear on the platform of the Par- increasingly industrial. If, in this gress could undo this restriction, tido da ReconstruCio Nacional's candi- setting, electoral mechanisms can such a vote is improbable in light of date, Fernando Collor de Mello, who be consolidated, then large land- the strong congressional representa- in the spring 1989 opinion polls shot owners will eventually find themselves tion of estate owners. past the leftist candidates Brizola politically isolated. It is much too A more likely scenario is that an and Lula. As for environmentalism, early to say good-bye to the Amazon, incoming president would restruc- his platform merely seeks interna- or to the idea of agrarian justice ture the granting of licenses, tional aid to enable private Brazilian in Brazil. .

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Features: Brazil

Colonizing the Amazon by Anna Luiza Ozorio de Almeida

cultural frontier has been AURAL POg ATO3 GW 970-8* expanding into Amazonia. Migrants from the poverty- stricken northeast, who in the 1940s and '50s moved the 1960s Brazil's agri- Sincesouthward to the Parand coffee belt, shifted their destination in the 1960s to the Amazonian territory of central Brazil. During that decade the focus of resettlement was the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Goids. In the 1970s the migration moved deeper into Amazonia via the states of Mato Grosso, Maranhao, and Parr. In the 1980s the migratory flow penetrated deeper into the region, reaching westernmost states such as Rond6nia, Acre, and Roraima. Not until the completion of the 1990 population census will we know the true magnitude of this decade's demographic growth in the Brazilian Amazon. In the 1970s Pard led the way in the zone's demographic expansion, distantly followed by Rond6nia, Mato Grosso, Acre, and Roraima. Between 1960 and 1980 the most explosive population growth occurred not in the rural areas but in the urban areas of Amazonia. Urbanization in the Amazon Basin occurs for two reasons. First, agricultural commercialization, which has given impetus to the development of large landholdings, has expelled many Brazilians from their rural places of origin and from the rural economy itself. In fact the POPIRn L I cnOn A nn Z I 1 n90on I- I1O~~~A1O ~ Mllions) 0 A flA4tO agricultural frontier of the 1960s, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goids,

Anna Luiza Ozorio de Almeida is pro- Urban 784 1,887 2,671 fessor of economics and business admin- istrationat the Universidade Federaldo Rio de Janeiro. *Acre, Amazonas, Roraima, Rond6nia, Mato Grosso, Para, Amap.

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 became a zone of rural exodus in is related to the low yield, land- income of small farmers. Farmers the 1970s. Second, many of the dis- extensive nature of their agricul- who purchase the inexpensive lands placed small farmers are attracted tural practices. Even in the colo- of the public projects fare signifi- to the Amazon's urban oppor- nization projects, farmers deforest cantly better (as measured by indices tunities in activities such as govern- their land and abandon it after only such as income per worker, indebt- ment services, transportation, two or three years of harvests, and edness, and investment/yield ratio) retailing, and lodging, which cater then repeat the cycle on other land than do those who purchase the to the region's booming population. within the same project or else- more expensive lands of the private Yet the growth of the Amazon's where. Rarely do the farmers prac- projects. In both cases, though, rural population has also been tice techniques of land conserva- average earnings in the Amazon's explosive. Hundreds of thousands tion, such as crop and land rotation. colonization projects are 60% of small farmers have entered terri- Low yield, land-extensive agricul- higher than those of Brazil's urban tories whose economies formerly ture is slow to die on the frontier, workers. centered on low-density forest where cheap, uncultivated land This difference in average earn- extraction. Many of the farmers har- is plentiful. ings indicates that massive migra- vest staple crops (e.g., beans, corn, This economic logic becomes tion into the Amazon region is not manioc, bananas, and coffee) and apparent in comparing public and likely to diminish in the near future. raise one or two head of cattle for a private colonization projects. In the As long as Brazil's economic crisis few years, deforesting the land in the public projects where, especially in persists, rural migrants will con- process. Newly arriving entrepre- Para, land is cheap and plentiful, tinue to extend the agricultural neurs then purchase the small plots 60-70% of the deforested land lies frontier. The alternative, after all, is or expel the farmers at gun point, not fallow but abandoned. In the to try their luck among the swelling eventually consolidating the col- private projects where, especially in ranks of the urban un- and under- lected holdings into speculative Mato Grosso, land is three times employed. In an economy charac- properties, large cattle ranches, or, more expensive, only 30% of the terized by chronic inflation, the rarely, productive agribusinesses. deforested land lies abandoned. The profitability of land speculation will The displaced farmers move on to relationship between the real price continue to pull into Amazonia the new agricultural frontiers or to the of land and yield per hectare sug- small farmers who are expelled from local townships that are sprouting gests that the rate of deforestation other zones by the economically and throughout the region. would decrease, and the rate of con- politically powerful large land- The small farmers who are push- servation correspondingly increase, owners. Insofar as small and large ing-or being pushed-into Ama- if the real price of land were sharply farmers alike regard land as plenti- zonia comprise the same segment of raised. ful, conservationist practices will not Brazil's population that previously The problem is not that simple, be implemented and land-extensive moved from place to place, both however, because access to cheap agriculture will continue to feed in the Amazon Basin and in other land substantially improves the deforestation. u areas. In the 1970s, for instance, public and private colonization projects in Amazonia resettled 100,000 small farmers. By the end of the LQUE PASA EN AMERICA LATINA? decade, however, more than one- Let the third of them had left their plots, as the concentration of landownership JOURNAL OF occurred almost as rapidly within the colonization projects as outside INTERAMERICAN them. This pattern continues. Curi- STUDIES ously the most successful settlers in AND WORDAFFAIRS the projects are often the most trav- eled ones, having bought and sold Keep you informed several parcels of land-commonly at a profit-as they moved with the shifting agricultural frontier. Nei- ther landownership nor protection from expulsion, both of which A GLOBAL UNIVERSITY the projects provide, has proved sufficient to bind these farmers INSTITUTE OF INTERAMERICAN STUDIES to one locale. The North-South Center * P.O. Box 248134 * Coral Gables, FL 33124 The mobility of the small farmers

Hemisphere Summer 1989 ------: : - - : :::: : - Features: Brazil

A A A I*3 3

MAP DETAILzon t MAP DETAIL A

I OuioIe UI aILI UtLIUII I

1Dlacas IV I 3 I IOI I IyDU ---;-;- ;;;; ~

Mexican Academic ClearingHouse (MACH)

Materiales Acad6micos de Consulta Hispanoamericana/Mexican Academic Clearing House (MACH) has been exporting library materials worldwide since 1969.

* MACH sells single and multiple copies of Mexican books and serials, including government publications. * MACH handles selective blanket order services for academic libraries. * MACH gives free referral service and periodical book lists.

Write for further information to MACH, Apartado Postal 13-319, Delegaci6n Benito Jutrez, 03500, M6xico, D.F. Telephone numbers (915) 674-0567 and (915) 674-0779. Features: Brazil

Declarations on the Amazon

Speech on"Our Nature" allow the superpowers or interna- who suffer from the most damaging tional organizations to tell us how to of all forms of pollution-the pollu- defend what we already accept as tion of poverty. byJose Sarney, President of Brazil our duty to defend. We are prepared to prevent the Brasilia We are in the midst of a transi- ruination of the Amazon from wors- April 6, 1989 tion to democracy. It is ironic that, ening the global environment. We The sum of the actions we are set- during all the years of darkness, the are ready to discuss and find solu- ting in motion today demonstrates international community was silent tions as long as our right to manage the intensity of our commitment to about the environmental problem. our territory and to make decisions solving the ecological problem, in And now, with everything else, they is respected. But the developed the face of both our limited blame Brazil for polluting the world must recognize its obligation resources and the campaign of sci- atmosphere. to take similar measures-to pre- entific falsehoods and disinforma- We, who are developing, who are vent acid rain and other forms of tion about what is going on in our underdeveloped or poor, don't have atmospheric pollution, to avoid territory. the forces to destroy the Earth. damaging the ozone layer, to end Brazil has resisted colonial Sadly this tragic and infernal capac- nuclear peril, and to preserve exploitation, the exploitation of its ity does exist: it lies in the hands of national forests throughout the foreign debt and its mineral those who hold unbelievable atomic world. resources, and the virulent criticism arsenals of destruction. They are the If the world wants to help us to meant to silence its rightful voice in ones who are putting ozone into the preserve the Amazon, then it should world affairs. The international atmosphere and opening "holes" for help us to reforest the damaged press has been denouncing, in ultraviolet penetration. It is they areas without charging for scientific alarmist fashion, the deforestation who, through millions of tons of assistance. It should transfer the of Amazonia. It is not my adminis- industrial waste, heat up the technology without cost. It should tration that is being judged, but atmosphere. not try to turn ecology into a busi- rather the very process of Brazilian We cannot accept the developed ness through either the foreign debt nation-building. Our just indigna- world's manipulation of the ecology or commercialization. Let us gather tion comes not from the president issue to restrict Latin America's up the stones being hurled at us and but from the Brazilian nation. The autonomy and progress. While we use them to pave a path of sincerity only thing we may be guilty of is our invite international assistance, we and cooperation. . insistence on being free. The inter- cannot accept conditions that national community would like us to exploit both nature and the people (Translatedby Alan Kobrin)

Press Conference of Indian life-is fast disappearing. Needless to say, the fishing on which What has happened to the so many Indians depend will also be by PaiakanKayap6, Spokesperson Indian? As an Indian I worry about eliminated. As for the Carajits for the Kayap6 Indians my people. I worry, too, about the Indians, whose villages have already Washington, DC fate of the rain forest and the land. been flooded, there was no one left ask. They had lost their land, and February 3, 1988 Without these vital resources the to Indians of the Amazon will cease to thus lost everything. exist. We Indians are unanimously The Amazon region is being I went to speak with the Tucurui opposed to the building of dams in destroyed. Its lands and people are Indians, whose lands are threatened the Amazon region. We must pre- being lost. The forest-the very basis by government-built dams. To those serve our forest, and we must pre- about to lose their homes to the res- serve our cultures. Without our Editor'sNote: Each declarationis ervoirs, the reaction is universally forest our culture cannot survive. based on edited excerpts of original hostile. The best agricultural land is And without out culture there is no statements. near the river. So is the best hunting. reason to live. .

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Open Letter to Ecological Plea to President Sarney President Sarney by Homero Aridjis (Mexico), nations, whereby the latter annually The Group of 100 President of the Group of 100 export $6 billion of raw timber and April 3, 1989 June 5, 1989 board and import $10 billion of processed wood products. Projects must be avoided that benefit only We, artists and writers of Latin There is not a writer or artist among those few who enjoy political and America, believe the historic respon- us who is not concerned about the economic power and that tend to sibility for the destruction of the fate of the trees in his or her own convert traditional inhabitants into Amazon jungle is great, and future country. We also understand that to pariahs. Conservation and sustain- generations of Latin Americans will facilitate forest survival, our com- able development must be emphasized. not forgive you for not doing all in patriots must reduce their voracious For these reasons we, artists and your power to avoid it. Our coun- appetite for tropical hardwoods and writers from four continents, back tries, and yours in particular, cannot hamburger meat. the April 3 declaration by 28 Latin be absent from the decisions being The issue is not to prevent devel- American intellectuals. taken in the world to protect the nat- opment in your country, but to put Signed by more than 200 intellec- ural patrimony of humanity. an end to the skewed relationship tualsfrom Africa, Asia, Europe, and We Latin Americans would like between developed and Third World the Americas. a to see you, for your love of national sovereignty, defend the Amazon from local and foreign pillages, as well as from those who, in exchange for an irredeemable foreign debt, Brazilian Campaign for the Defense are willing to transform the lungs of and Development of the Amazon the world into a wasteland-without even fully paying the debt! Mr. President, we believe it is by Orlando Valverde, President ing Brazil and the world. But the regrettable that member countries March 1989 Brazilian Amazon is the rightful of the Treaty of Amazon Coopera- possession of the Brazilian people. tion support Brazil in its eco- and The Amazon's deforestation is pri- The sovereignty of the Brazilian ethnocidal politics. If our govern- marily the responsibility of those state over the lands within its ments are individually incompetent groups-mainly Brazilians but for- boundaries cannot legitimately be to defend and conserve their ethnic eigners as well-that have benefited called into question. It is up to us, riches and the animals and vegeta- most from government incentives. the people of Brazil, to repudiate tion of our tropical forests, then the At the center of such destruction is outside interference. Yet Brazil must UN should take charge of them, and the government itself, which seems recognize the validity of the criti- an international court should review to consider the criminal destruction cism. In fact such criticism origi- and punish these crimes against of the forest as an "improvement" nally came from Brazilian scientists ecological integrity. of the region. Likewise standing at in Brazilian research institutes. We Signed by: Adolfo Bioy Casares, the center are cattle and farming Brazilians must demand from our Olga Orozco, Manuel Puig,Ernesto projects, lumber and mining com- government a stop to the crimes Sdbato (Argentina);Isabel Allende, panies, poachers of valuable skins being committed against the Ama- Jose Donoso, Nicanor Parra(Chile); and furs, gold prospectors, drug zon and its people, as well as against FernandoBotero, Gabriel Garcia traffickers, and others who care only the entire nation. M6rquez (Colombia); Guillermo about earning a profit. Brazilian policy must implement CabreraInfante (Cuba);Luis Cardoza Amazonia's hydroelectric poten- the 1978 Treaty of Amazon Cooper- y Arag6n, Augusto Monterroso tial sparks enthusiasm among those ation, signed by all the countries of (Guatemala);Manuel Alvarez Bravo, responsible for Brazil's energy sup- continental Amazonia. Nevertheless, Homero Aridjis, FelicianoBijar, ply, who are rarely disposed to envi- policy for the defense and develop- Fernando Cisarman, Gabriel Figueroa, ronmentalism. And not to be ment of our Amazon must be for- CarlosFuentes, Mathias Goeritz, overlooked are those groups that mulatedfor Brazilians and by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Ofelia seek to turn the Indians into a sub- Brazilians. Our Amazon is an inte- Medina, Carlos Monsivdis, Elena missive, cheap labor force. gral part of the indivisible Brazilian Poniatowska, Ivdn Restrepo, Rufino There is no doubting the legit- homeland. . Tamayo (Mexico);Mario Vargas Llosa imacy of international concern over (Peru);JuanCarlos Onetti (Uruguay); the catastrophic consequences the Arturo UslarPietri (Venezuela). . deforestation of Amazonia is caus-~-caus- (Translatedby Alan Kobrin)

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Features: Superpowers and Latin America

Redefining Soviet Foreign Policy by Alexei Izyumov and Andrei Kortunov

hat role does the It is now claimed not only in the undergirded the country's growing USSR play in the West but in the USSR as well that international prestige. This eco- modern world? Has the nation is becoming a second- nomic dynamism was dramatic in its foreign policy rate power, a "developing country view of the Great Depression in the contributed to ful- with an A-bomb." Self-criticism is West. After World War II the West, filling its mission? turning into self-castigation, and the impressed by the pace of Soviet eco- These questions recognition of mistakes is turning nomic and scientific progress, began are involved in the intense discus- into a total negation of Soviet to seriously ponder the possibility of sions of sociopolitical problems achievements. a socialist victory in the economic within the USSR, as well as in the This nihilistic attitude is no less competition with capitalism. elaboration of its domestic and inter- dangerous than the mindless opti- Nevertheless, economic dyna- national strategies for the future. mism of the past. Thus it is urgent mism alone does not provide a satis- The emergence of glasnost and self- to undertake an objective and com- factory explanation for the rapid criticism made Soviet citizens realize prehensive analysis of the USSR's consolidation of the USSR's global that the international image of the role in the world, and to appraise influence in the postwar years. The USSR was declining. The technology the strong and weak points in our USSR was not the only country forg- gap between the USSR and other foreign-policy potential. In addition ing ahead. In fact Japan and many industrial countries was widening, it is important to realize the inher- western European countries out- and we began to recognize a lack of ent limits of Soviet influence in the paced the USSR's economic develop- realism in traditional domestic world and their relationship to the ment in the 1950s and '60s. appraisals of our policies in the eco- nation's economic development. The success of Soviet foreign nomic and social spheres. These policy in developing countries in the problems, which the world public Foreign Policy and Economy 1960s and '70s was only in part due was well aware of, came as a shock to to the rapid growth of its economy. people who had long regarded the It is no secret the foreign-policy dif- Much more important was the surge USSR as a symbol and model of ficulties of socialist countries in the of national liberation movements in socialism. 1980s, including those of the USSR, the Third World, the attractiveness As has happened more than are intimately linked to the slowing of Marxist-Leninist ideology to such once in the country's history, some impetus of their economic develop- movements, and Soviet military aid of the most ardent optimists ment. The West's attempts to erode to the fighting peoples. Thus the plunged into desperate pessimism. the socialist bloc's military, political, success of Soviet foreign policy and ideological influence are largely revolved around the nation's military based on this fact. The interplay of power-including its budgetary Alexei Izyumov is senior researcherat domestic economy and foreign pol- emphasis on military development the Institute of the United States and icy has long been ignored in the and foreign relations-and to its Canada of the USSR Academy of Sci- USSR. Yet a brief review of Soviet social goals and catchy slogans for ences. Andrei Kortunov is head of the history underscores its importance. the masses. For a long time, then, Sectionfor InternationalSecurity The dynamic development of the the USSR carried out a vigorous for- Studies at the Institute of the United Soviet economy in the 1920s and eign policy based on powerful mili- States and Canada of the USSR Acad- '30s, when its rate of industrial tary and ideological resources but emy of Sciences. expansion reached 20-30% per year, on a somewhat limited foundation.

Hemisphere * Summer 1989 This situation could not last unprofitable. Neither is Soviet times less per year than did the USSR forever. Since the mid-1970s the military and economic assistance to on military operations in Afghan- rate of Soviet economic growth has the developing world always profit- istan. Western estimates indicate that decreased. The USSR has been fall- able from a political standpoint. approximately the same ratio of ing further behind the US in the In the 1980s staunch Soviet allies American and Soviet expenditures efficient use of primary materials such as Angola, Mozambique, and occurs in conflicts involving and energy resources. The most tell- Ethiopia began actively seeking Nicaragua, Kampuchea, ing Ethiopia, fact, however, is the widening political and economic support from and Angola. US-USSR gap in science and tech- the West. The West not only shifted Consequently the USSR bears a nology, which translates into lagging the main burden of sustaining much heavier burden of military aid Soviet standards of living. "political stability" in these countries than does the US. According to Soviet stagnation in production, onto the USSR but managed to international statistics, in the science, and technology has weak- derive economic benefits from this mid-1980s the volume of economic ened the country's military capacity, stability. Sometimes the situation and military aid to developing coun- as frequently mentioned by the the has been ridiculous: in Angola, tries (Vietnam and Cuba included) Soviet military establishment. NATO for example, Cuban troops often amounted to 1.4% of Soviet GNP, experts-who are hardly inclined to defended installations of American while the corresponding US figure underestimate Soviet military might oil corporations from attacks by was less than 0.3%. -observe that as of the mid-1980s UNITA gangs financed by the Meanwhile, the US is campaign- the USSR was on par with the US in US itself. ing to discredit Soviet aid by only five of 20 sectors on military The intended outcomes of Soviet pointing to its military focus, its technology. Equally obvious is the economic and military assistance political "strings"' and its minimal negative impact of Soviet economic to developing countries are often scientific and technical content. US problems on the international pres- restricted to the period of the estimates show economic aid tige of Marxist ideology, as well as on struggle for power and to the first accounts for less than 10% of the the political orientation and influ- years of the progressive new state's volume of the Soviet aid to develop- ence of communist and national existence. During the subsequent ing countries, while for the US this democratic movements worldwide. period of economic development, figure stands at about 40%. Thus, with perestroika in Soviet young states increasingly turn to the Thus it has become increasingly economy and society under way, the West, with the expected political difficult for the USSR to compete Western strategy of economically consequences. Experience shows with the Western countries in the wearing down the USSR acquires this trend can be reversed only if the Third World. Direct or indirect particular significance. The Western USSR renders large-scale aid, Soviet involvement in "low-intensity strategy is to impede and, if possi- tantamount to the gratuitous conflicts," as well as more general ble, reverse the process of peres- subsidy of the economic formu- attempts to deploy the Soviet armed troika, thereby frustrating Soviet lations of such countries. forces in the Third World can only attempts to fortify the domestic These problems were less exacerbate the difficulties. underpinnings of its international pressing in the 1960s and '70s when power. the USSR primarily supported left- wing opposition forces in developing The Soviet Response Who Gains from countries and the US was the main The current shape of international "Neo-Globalism"? guarantor of the status quo. In the politics demands the USSR look for 1980s the roles have changed, with new ways to repulse the global Western, and above all US, attempts the USSR supporting the ruling imperialist offensive. Two options to intensify geopolitical rivalry with national-democratic regimes and the are apparent. the USSR are another facet of the US attempting to undermine them. The first option is that the USSR strategy to undermine Soviet inter- The US skillfully exploits the fact compensate for its weakening national power. The US does so by that in "low-intensity conflicts" it is economy by increasing its budgetary relying on its impressive techno- much cheaper to support guerrillas allocations to foreign policy and to logical, commercial, and financial than the government. Not surpris- the military, which implies "holding advantages, as well as on its unequal ingly, then, the concepts of "new glo- the position at any cost until the economic relations with developing balism" and "low-intensity conflicts" reinforcements arrive." The second countries. have become popular among US lead- option is that of rejuvenating the In providing aid to progressive ers. The conflict in Afghanistan is a economy and thereby buttressing regimes in the developing world the graphic illustration of the "economic the economic foundations of foreign USSR cannot count on recouping efficiency" of the US approach. The policy, that is, "retreating to the its expenditures. From an eco- US spent, in supporting the Afghan earlier position in order to cut losses nomic standpoint, such aid is simply antigovernment forces, six to eight and gather strength."

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Features: Superpowers and Latin America

Until the replacement of the thereby saddling the USSR with nation's leadership in 1985, the first additional commitments and further Turnabout approach characterized Soviet scattering its resources. The USSR foreign relations. It attempted to needs to adopt a doctrine that allows is fair play compensate for domestic stagnation it the room to step back from poten- by implementing a vigorous foreign tial new Third World commitments policy. Inevitably this approach in the interests of restructuring its produced stagnation in the Soviet economy and making more attrac- economy, society, and politics, and it tive the socialist path of develop- restricted the success of Soviet ment. Along the same lines the foreign policy. Since 1985, however, USSR needs to become more cau- the second, and more realistic, tious and pragmatic in identifying approach has been coming to the its geopolitical interests and goals fore. The final choice, nevertheless, throughout the world, the purpose has yet to be made. In this respect it being to harmonize its actions with is advisable to examine the possible the country's economic potential consequences of these alternatives. and international priorities. First, it is hardly possible to Fourth, not only Marxist- revert from the current "opening" Leninist theory but also recent his- of Soviet society to the previous tory contradicts the notion that the mode of "Iron Curtain" secrecy. USSR must deploy its armed forces Further, the USSR is at a decided to "counteract imperialist expan- economic disadvantage relative to sionism"' In the 1960s-the period of RUN-OF-MILLmaps place the U.S. above. Since the US, Western Europe, and Japan. most rapid development of national *upper' is equated with "superior.' this has bred misconceptions and mischief. The Turnabout Map NATO's economic indices are 2.5 liberation movements and socialist of the Americas offers a corrective perspective. better than those of the Warsaw ideology in the Third World-the For students, office, gift giving. In art colors. 17x23' English,Spanish or Portuguese. $7.00at book and Treaty Organization, while the Soviet armed forces did not perform map stores. Or by mail $8.50 pp; (addli maps $7.00). indices of NATO and Japan this role. In contrast, by the Foreign $9.50 - Laguna Sales Dept. K 7040 Via Valverde, San Jose, CA 95135. In Calif. aad 6% s.t. combined are 3.2 times better. The mid-1970s, when the Soviet military West, moreover, has access to the did assume the role, the Third World growing economic reserve unequivocally swung towards cap- represented by the "new capitalist" italist development. CARIBBEAN countries emerging from the Socialism neither can nor should underdeveloped world. The USSR be a "guarantor" of those regimes in UPDATE has access to no such reserves. developing countries that do not Second, the economy's limita- enjoy widespread social support and Economic and business news tions require that the nation's leader- are unable to defend themselves. from the Caribbean and Attempting to be such a guarantor ship clearly define Soviet economic Central America, much of it interests abroad and examine the involves the wasting of scarce to obtain, are pub- pros and cons of international initia- resources and the discrediting of difficult tives. In other words, Soviet foreign the Third World regimes in ques- lished monthly in this 24- policy must introduce the criteria of tion. In the final count, moreover, page newsletter. Reliable. "cost-accounting" and "self-financ- the outcome of the competition Incisive. Unique. Praised by ing." In particular the gratuitous between socialism and capitalism top corporate and govern- subsidizing of some of our Third will be decided not in Nicaragua or ment officials, journalists, World allies should be replaced by Afghanistan but in the world's cen- aid linked to programs designed to ters of socialism and capitalism. scholars. US$120 per year make them more economically via- The USSR's mistakes in the (US$60 for academics). Free ble. Perhaps socialist countries underdeveloped world have been sample? Write: should establish an organization costly. Glasnost in foreign policy is similar in purpose to the IME the primary guarantee that the Kal Wagenheim, Editor Establishments of the Council for USSR will avoid such mistakes in Caribbean UPDATE Mutual Economic Assistance, for the future. . Dept. H instance, could be useful. 52 Maple Avenue, Third, Soviet foreign policy in Maplewood, NJ 07040 USA the underdeveloped world must sys- Editor'sNote: Edited version of an Telephone (201) 762-1565 tematically counter US attempts to articlepublished in the Soviet journal FAX (201) 762-9585 entangle the USSR in new conflicts, International Affairs, no. 8 (1988).

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Perestroika and Central America by Rafael Angel Calder6n

inclination to promote class struggle Gorbachev's statements, in his about increased contact and "revolutionary" violence. A book Perestroika,cause considerable between the USSR and principal obstacle to detente and anxiety among Central Americans. Latin America. Soviet for- peace in Central America and the For example, when he writes, "We eign minister Sched- Caribbean is the Cuban govern- sympathize with liberation move- vardnaze's tour through ment's Marxist orthodoxy. Cuba's ments ... ," is he referring to Soviet Latin America in the fall of orthodoxy rejects perestroikaand support for movements like El Sal- 1987 and the Moscow visits of Presi- considers the new era of detente an vador's Farabundo Marti Front for dents Raul Alfonsin of Argentina in opportunity to continue pursuing National Liberation? Similarly, when cnIIPr 1e hat "... what has hap- ragua demonstrates pected to happen in s is he pnrpsin rds the formation of as in Central America? ments, as well as Soviet Nicaragua and to the surgency, have led to Hemisphere arding the spread of ountries bordering .In The Grand Fail- and Death of Commu- entieth Century (1989), zinski writes, "In the ..... all ur LtlliN AIVItKIL AN AND CARIBBEAN AFFAI RS ommunism may have cts in Central America Provoking debate on the region'sproblems, initiatives Mexico than elsewhere. and achievements ists there can take the anti-American, Providingan intellectual bridge between the concernedpublics ofNorth America, d radical impulses of Latin America and the Caribbean. rtions both of the ntsia and peasantry" Uariboean. nmaeea, urle pouuca IIILIlll11n l., atn aa- In .o S. -, . zinski does not seem to actors of Central America and the the strategic Soviet-Cuban alliance believe in the expansionist will of the Caribbean continue to be immersed intact. If Gorbachev does so, then he Soviets, although he has reason to in the dialectics of the Cold War, and likely would bet on democratization acknowledge the revolutionary the Marxist governments of the area in the USSR and hard-line regimes adventurism of Cuban and are not yet employing the language in Cuba and Nicaragua. The Soviet Nicaraguan leaders. of perestroika. The peoples of Cen- bloc would employ a two-prong pol- Rodolfo Cerdas Cruz of Costa tral America are anxiously observing icy, with the USSR maintaining for- Rica points out, "Opportunist tar- the contradiction between Gor- mal state-to-state relations, while gets will continue to be a temptation bachev's "new thinking" and Fidel the Cuban and Nicaraguan govern- for the CPSU [Communist Party of Castro's "old thinking:' between the ments maintain informal relations the Soviet Union] leadership, but former's inclination to negotiate with insurgent movements in coun- they will probably tend to be much regional conflicts and the latter's tries like El Salvador, Guatemala, . more selective and to weigh up situ- and Honduras. In this scenario the ations more realistically" (Journalof Rafael Angel Calder6nis the presiden- USSR would tone down its relations Latin American Studies, February tial candidate of the PartidoUnidad with Nicaragua, providing military 1989, p. 12). Cerdas hints at some Social Cristianaof Costa Rica. aid indirectly through Cuba. kind of Soviet interference in the

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Features: Superpowers and Latin America

Until the replacement of the thereby saddling the USSR with nation's leadership in 1985, the first additional commitments and further approach characterized Soviet scattering its resources. The USSR Turnabout foreign relations. It attempted to needs to adopt a doctrine that allows is fair play compensate for domestic stagnation it the room to step back from poten- by implementing a vigorous foreign tial new Third World commitments policy. Inevitably this approach in the interests of restructuring its produced stagnation in the Soviet economy and making more attrac- economy, society, and politics, and it tive the socialist path of develop- restricted the success of Soviet ment. Along the same lines the foreign policy. Since 1985, however, USSR needs to become more cau- the second, and more realistic, tious and pragmatic in identifying approach has been coming to the its geopolitical interests and goals fore. The final choice, nevertheless, throughout the world, the purpose has yet to be made. In this respect it being to harmonize its actions with is advisable to examine the possible the country's economic potential consequences of these alternatives. and international priorities. First, it is hardly possible to Fourth, not only Marxist- revert from the current "o-'~" -" I n~"*;r -h~~ ln.,~cI: of Soviet society to the pri mode of "Iron Curtain" s, Further, the USSR is at a< Subscribe now! And get a year (3 issues) of Hemisphere. economic disadvantage re the US, Western Europe, [ $14 US, Canada, PR, USVI O $22 elsewhere NATO's economic indices better than those of the M Treaty Organization, whil indices of NATO and Jap combined are 3.2 times be West, moreover, has acces Address growing economic reserve City/State/Province/Zip represented by the "new c countries emerging from Country underdeveloped world. TI has access to no such rese Please make check or money order (US currency only) payable to: Second, the economy's Hemisphere tions require that the nati, Latin American and Caribbean Center Florida International University ship clearly define Soviet ( Miami, FL 33199 interests abroad and exan Hemisphere is published three times a year (Fall, Winter and Summer). pros and cons of internati tives. In other words, Sovi policy must introduce the ...... novil. 111 Lln. nLla1 eVUmL, m1u1 CVVTl, page ,newstetLer. nenaDme. "cost-accounting" and "self-financ- the outcome of the competition Incisive. Unique. Praised by ing." In particular the gratuitous between socialism and capitalism top corporate and govern- subsidizing of some of our Third will be decided not in Nicaragua or ment World allies should be replaced by Afghanistan but in the world's cen- officials, journalists, aid linked to programs designed to ters of socialism and capitalism. scholars. US$120 per year make them more economically via- The USSR's mistakes in the (US$60 for academics). Free ble. Perhaps socialist countries underdeveloped world have been sample? Write: should establish an organization costly. Glasnost in foreign policy is similar in purpose to the IME the primary guarantee that the Kal Wagenheim, Editor Establishments of the Council for USSR will avoid such mistakes in Mutual Economic Assistance, for the future. a Caribbean UPDATE instance, could be useful. 52 Maple Avenue, Dept. H Third, Soviet foreign policy in Maplewood, NJ 07040 USA the underdeveloped world must sys- Editor'sNote: Edited version of an Telephone (201) 762-1565 tematically counter US attempts to articlepublished in the Soviet journal FAX (201) 762-9585 entangle the USSR in new conflicts, International Affairs, no. 8 (1988).

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Perestroika and Central America by Rafael Angel Calder6n

inclination to promote class struggle Gorbachev's statements, in his about increased contact and "revolutionary" violence. A book Perestroika,cause considerable between the USSR and principal obstacle to detente and anxiety among Central Americans. Latin America. Soviet for- peace in Central America and the For example, when he writes, "We eign minister Sched- Caribbean is the Cuban govern- sympathize with liberation move- vardnaze's tour through ment's Marxist orthodoxy. Cuba's ments ... "' is he referring to Soviet Latin America in the fall of orthodoxy rejects perestroika and support for movements like El Sal- 1987 and the Moscow visits of Presi- considers the new era of detente an vador's Farabundo Marti Front for dents Rail1 Alfonsin of Argentina in opportunity to continue pursuing National Liberation? Similarly, when October 1986, Julio Maria San- expansionism. he assures us that "... what has hap- guinetti of Uruguay in March 1988, pened in Nicaragua demonstrates and Jose Sarney of Brazil in October what can be expected to happen in 1988 have given rise to unprece- other countries;' is he expressing dented commercial, technological, sympathy towards the formation of and cultural accords. Simul- new Nicaraguas in Central America? taneously the Soviets have encour- Such statements, as well as Soviet aged democratization, Contadora military aid to Nicaragua and to the negotiations, and "independent" Salvadoran insurgency, have led to foreign policies, especially for Mex- skepticism regarding the spread of ico and Argentina. Nevertheless, the perestroikato countries bordering "positive" consequences of peres- Unfortunately the Nicaraguan the Caribbean. In The GrandFail- troika for the Soviet people, for Asia, government of Daniel Ortega has ure: The Birth and Death of Commu- Africa, and Europe, and even for displayed numerous signs of adher- nism in the Twentieth Century (1989), some Latin American states, stand ence to Cuban Stalinism. A Cuban- Zbigniew Brzezinski writes, "In the in sharp contrast to the conse- Nicaraguan equation has been near future, Communism may have quences of perestroikafor Central formed, clinging to the traditional better prospects in Central America America. dogmas of Marxism-Leninism, and and perhaps Mexico than elsewhere. anxious to bring about new military Marxist-Leninists there can take The Central American Challenge victories. Further, Gorbachev's visit advantage of the anti-American, to Havana in April 1989 revealed nationalist, and radical impulses of As in the 1970s, detente has not that Soviet leadership is disposed to significant portions both of the reached Central America and the tolerate Castro's revolutionary local intelligentsia and peasantry" Caribbean. Indeed, the political intransigence as a means of keeping (p. 222). Brzezinski does not seem to actors of Central America and the the strategic Soviet-Cuban alliance believe in the expansionist will of the Caribbean continue to be immersed intact. If Gorbachev does so, then he Soviets, although he has reason to in the dialectics of the Cold War, and likely would bet on democratization acknowledge the revolutionary the Marxist governments of the area in the USSR and hard-line regimes adventurism of Cuban and are not yet employing the language in Cuba and Nicaragua. The Soviet Nicaraguan leaders. of perestroika. The peoples of Cen- bloc would employ a two-prong pol- Rodolfo Cerdas Cruz of Costa tral America are anxiously observing icy, with the USSR maintaining for- Rica points out, "Opportunist tar- the contradiction between Gor- mal state-to-state relations, while gets will continue to be a temptation bachev's "new thinking" and Fidel the Cuban and Nicaraguan govern- for the CPSU [Communist Party of Castro's "old thinking," between the ments maintain informal relations the Soviet Union] leadership, but former's inclination to negotiate with insurgent movements in coun- they will probably tend to be much regional conflicts and the latter's tries like El Salvador, Guatemala, . more selective and to weigh up situ- and Honduras. In this scenario the ations more realistically" (Journalof Rafael Angel Calder6nis the presiden- USSR would tone down its relations Latin American Studies, February tial candidateof the PartidoUnidad with Nicaragua, providing military 1989, p. 12). Cerdas hints at some Social Cristianaof Costa Rica. aid indirectly through Cuba. kind of Soviet interference in the

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Features: Superpowers and Latin America

Panamanian crisis: "The Soviets appear to be preparing ... for a possible settlement in Central America, with the Panamanian situation ... Over ten years, Third World Quarterly now working in their favor." has established a reputation as the Along the same lines, US analyst leading journal in the field of TIDI Irving Louis Horowitz mentions international politics and current increased Cuban participation in affairs relating to the Third World. Latin American military activities following the Angolan accords, Subscribe to Third World Quarterly, and which call for the departure of you will receive thorough coverage of WORLD Cuban troops from that country. fundamental issues concerning the According to Horowitz, "Havana Asia/Pacific region, Latin America and also tends towards closer relations the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle with Noriega, the Panamanian East. strong man, and towards active intervention in the internal affairs of El Salvador, Honduras and, of course, Nicaragua" (El Nuevo Herald [Miami], April 29, 1989). annual subscription rates UK £20 / USS30 Grounds for Optimism? (Postage included) As Democrats and Christians, we free should cling to the hope that the impact of glasnost and perestroikain Central America and the Caribbean will foster an ambiance of peace, d6tente, democracy, and develop- gift ment. In this respect the extension of perestroikato Central America would initiate a number of pro- cesses: democratization and glasnost for new in Cuba and Nicaragua; a negoti- ated settlement of the regional conflict; the suspension of military aid subscribers to insurgents; the reincorporation of a reformed Cuba within the inter- American system; and the strengthening of economic, commercial, dip- lomatic, and cultural ties with the p 1 u s Soviet Union. In such a context of peace and cooperation, a substan- Subscribe using this form and you will receive a copy of 'Regional Integration: i Please send me I hnird World tial reduction in defense costs for )uarterly for one year, plus my free Cuba and Nicaragua would become The Latin American Experience' :opy of 'Regional Integration: The Latin viable. The latter would allow the (Published by the Third World lmerican Experience' Soviets to reduce their subsidies to Foundation, and edited by Altaf enclose a cheque for £ / US$ those countries, thereby bolstering Gauhar) free of charge. (Retail price nade payable to Third World Quarterly. plans to restructure the Soviet econ- £16 / $21) ] Please send me further information omy. Finally, the extension of peres- )nThird World Quarterly. troika to Central America would Name create a climate favorable to a send your order to: Address Social-Christian foreign policy, Circulation Dept., Third World which is dedicated to the defense of Quarterly, New Zealand House, 80 liberty, peace, justice, and Haymarket, London SW1 4TS. England. democracy. .

(Translatedby Ruth Gubler)

Hemisphere * Summer 1989 ANNOUNCING: THE CENTRAL AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN RESOURCE CENTER

Who are we? We are the Joint Center for Environmental and Urban Problems, an applied research and public service facility at Florida International University's North Miami campus.

What are our services? Our new Central American and Caribbean Resource Center houses a special lending library of more than 500 published and unpublished documents, and other materials. The focus is the economic, social, and political factors that may determine the success or failure of sustainable development and environmental conservation projects in the region. A computerized bibliography can be accessed by author, title, and subject on a for-fee basis.

How can you contact us? To learn more about the Resource Center and how you can use it, please contact M.J. Marvin, FIU Joint Center, ACI-370, North Miami, FL 33181, 305/940-5844.

Debt, Drugs, Democracy, Central America, and the Environment - 70 leaders speak out on the issues facing our Hemisphere The Americas in 1989: Consensus for Action A Report of the Inter-American Dialogue Under the auspices of The Aspen Institute

"An outstanding contribution to the policymaking process" Rep. Lee Hamilton, House Foreign Affairs Committee "The only sensible alternative" The Miami Herald

"[A] model approach for foreign policy anywhere" St. Louis Post Dispatch The Inter-American Dialogue provides a vital channel for communication between concerned citizens from the United States, Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean. Consensus for Action has been hailed byleaders of both U.S. political parties, and endorsed by newspapers throughout the United States. For policy-makers concerned with inter-American affairs, it is required reading. For students of Latin America, it provides a concise overview of the major hemispheric issues and concrete recommendations for tackling them.

$5 per copy paperback, $4 per copy bulk rate available for classroom use and organizations. Contact: The Inter-American Dialogue, Suite 1070, 1333 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 466-6410

Hemisphere Summer 1989 :::i::: --;: :-

0 ' n t-V k~4FAI rii:I~Iu I ~~JE I~!k~EiI 5ij ~I~!iL~ ImU W~ i~3AI dE*INbfhhN^"tin.E..p vr.,, w- .,a

Soviet Union

United States

:=~:::::c~::~rn::;::~:~: 3 ~,,~::gr~,l::~~~,:

9 ~~l~~~~~~a;~:xs,~::::~i::a:::::~~s::i~---~ ec R ipient Total I Soviet Union I United States IWestern Europe IEastern Europe I China Others

I E

_ossa MIca

nnmini. n Ron rn

I ~nc I __U

11N rAan

Adapted from Statistical Abstract of Latin America, Vol. 26 (1986). See graph above left. Features: Superpowers and Latin America

Bordering on Consensus: US Policy by Gilbert W. Merkx

human rights performance of coun- economic development. The contras its policy toward Latin tries, an end to US repatriation of should be resettled, refugees America? With the advent Central American refugees, and US assisted, and foreign aid provided to of the Bush administration, support for "genuine" land reform. rebuild economies. On economic several policy associations Its Caribbean proposals center on questions, debt relief is endorsed as in the WashingtonUS authored rethink pro- the reestablishment of US diplo- a first step by most of the partici- Shouldposals to change Washing- matic and trade relations with Cuba pants and a last resort by the others. ton's relations with its southern (An Alternative U.S. Policy toward Calls are made to increase capital neighbors. The surprising feature of Cuba, Washington, DC, 1988). flows, to stimulate economic growth these proposals is that, despite The political practicality and to the level of 5% a year, and for diverse political points of departure, strategic wisdom of many of these Latin American countries to adopt they substantially converge in their recommendations are questionable. "sound" economic policies. recommendations for a new US Some of PACCA's recommendations Regarding drugs the document agenda in Latin America. imply an expanded US role in emphasizes, first, the reduction of reshaping Central American soci- US demand, and second, technical PACCA eties and politics. Experience with assistance to Latin American gov- the Alliance for Progress and other ernments for drug control mea- Policy Alternatives for the Carib- assistance programs makes doubtful sures. It opposes sanctions against bean and Central America (PACCA) the feasibility and desirability of Latin America and supports col- is an association of left-to-liberal such US involvement. laboration. It does not spell out scholars and policymakers that what collaboration means in prac- seeks "democratic alternatives" to ATime for Choices tice, other than controlling demand US regional policy. The premise of and cooperating in eradication PACCA's recommendations is that A product of the Inter-American efforts. the US has brought neither peace Dialogue of the Aspen Institute, The Regarding migration the report nor development to the Caribbean Americas in 1988: A Time for Choices calls for improved mechanisms for and Central America. In taking (Washington, DC, 1988) combines the cooperative and joint formula- issue with the national security, moderation and urgency in address- tion of policies. It also calls for US anticommunist thrust of US action, ing the hemisphere's problems of cooperation in the restructuring of PACCA interprets the regional Central America, debt, drugs, Latin American civil-military rela- crisis in terms of "sharp inequal- migration, and democracy. The tions. Such cooperation would ities between poor majorities report's moderation is no surprise include US investment in efforts to and wealthy elites" (The Alterna- given that the Dialogue comprises a strengthen civilian institutions such tive in Brief,Washington, DC, panel of prominent US and Latin as parties, legislatures, and the 1988, p. 1). American public figures. What is courts, as well as to instill demo- PACCAs Central American pro- surprising is the report's urgency, as cratic values among Latin American posals seek not only an end to US well as the extent of consensus military officers. military intervention and military between the US and Latin American A Time for Choices is boldest and aid but support for national, negoti- participants. A Time for Choices most effective in its discussion of ated solutions in El Salvador and expresses a collective anxiety about policy approaches in Central Amer- Guatemala and for democratic elec- hemispheric affairs, as might be ica. Its attention to the military tions throughout the isthmus. found among the officers of a ship question is a refreshing addition to PACCA also seeks massive US-led lost in the fog. the policy agenda. The discussion of foreign aid contingent on the The document supports winding economic issues is also effective, down the Central American conflict although the proposals for debt Gilbert W. Merkx is professor of and favors intervention along the relief could be stronger. The sec- sociology and directorof the Latin lines of the Contadora and tions on drugs, migration, and the American Institute at the University Esquipulas initiatives, which seek security threat to democracy offer of New Mexico. peacemaking, democratization, and more diagnosis than prescription.

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Miami II Unfortunately Miami II avoids line of all the documents in this controversial political issues, such as review. They call for the new presi- Miami Report II: New Perspectives on Cuba, Central America, and military dent to unilaterally abrogate the Debt, Trade, and Investment-A Key to assistance. The report's most origi- 1962 Kennedy-Khrushchev US US.-Latin American Relations in the nal feature is its emphasis on "inter- agreement, which guarantees that 1990s (Coral Gables, Florida, 1988) national education," by which it does the US will not invade Cuba. The US expresses the views of Miami civic not mean the manipulation of opin- should repeatedly denounce Cuba leaders and academics assembled by ion through "public democracy,"' but in international forums, pressure the North-South Center of the rather a genuine elevation of US citi- Western banks to cease loans to Graduate School of International zens' understanding of Latin Cuba, stigmatize US companies that Studies at the University of Miami. America. trade with Cuba, establish TV Sidestepping security issues, Marti, and support the growth of Miami II focuses on the US's inabil- Cuban domestic opposition. ity to understand Latin America and The recommendations con- to provide hemispheric leadership. Mandate for Leadership III cerning Nicaragua are similar in The report points to Latin America's Authored by the Heritage Founda- tone: MandateIII calls for giving economy as the toughest challenge, tion, one of Washington's most con- Nicaragua three months to take followed by issues of immigration, servative think tanks, Mandatefor concrete steps to "dismantle the drug trafficking, and international LeadershipIII (1988) emphasizes a Marxist-Leninist structure" (p. 550). education. straightforward national security Failing this, the US should break Miami II does not clearly state position: "United States global strat- relations, obtain military assistance the causes of the US's failure to egy is based on a secure southern for the contras, and finance the provide leadership and consistent flank. Central America, the Carib- Nicaraguan internal opposition. policies. The document implies, bean, and Mexico, in which 131 mil- A contradiction between Man- however, that these causes lie less in lion people live, is [sic] the most date IIs indictment of Reagan's pol- the policy process than in the lack of crucial part of this flank" (p. 538). icy failures and the actions it public awareness. It attributes this Mandate III points to the strategic recommends is that the latter repre- lack of awareness to poor media cov- importance of the region's sea traffic sent a check list of the policies erage and to "the insularity of our lanes and its "vast economic poten- implemented by the Reagan admin- educational system at the primary tial" (p. 538). istration in one form or another. and secondary levels" (p. 37). The document praises the Insofar as the administration's Latin The broadest recommendations Reagan administration for blunting American failures resulted from fall mainly outside the policy arena: Soviet expansion, spurring the such policies, Mandate IIls recom- pressing politicians to define their spread of democratic institutions, mendations can only have similar positions on Latin America, improv- and in the case of Nicaragua, "pre- results. ing the public's understanding of venting the consolidation of another Latin America, and pushing the US communist regime in the hemi- Treasury Department and the Fed- sphere" (p. 539). It follows this cur- eral Reserve to think about Latin sory praise, however, with pointed Third Century America. The document's basic eco- criticisms of Reagan's policies in the The Third Century: US. Latin Ameri- nomic recommendation-that the Caribbean Basin. The analysis faults can Policy Choicesfor the 1990s (1988) US government foster an improved the Reagan-Wright peace plan for reflects the deliberations of experts investment climate in Latin America undercutting contra successes and convened by the Center for Strategic -is what might be expected from encouraging Central American and International Studies (CSIS), a a group involved in international presidents to pursue their own moderately conservative Washington business. peace initiatives. think tank. Third Century's premise Miami II argues for an immigra- Mandate III blames Latin Amer- is that the hemispheric problems of tion policy hospitable to political ica's economic stagnation on "social- US policy are rooted in the policy refugees and for larger Caribbean ist and statist economic policies" process itself rather than in global quotas. On drugs the report pro- (p. 542) and seeks to link economic or regional developments. Thus, poses avoiding recrimination, study- aid to policies that protect private "a policy stalemate in Washington" ing the impact in Latin America, property and reduce the state sec- (p. 2) has prevented effective and curbing US drug use. On inter- tor. It also seeks a reduction in the responses to challenges such as eco- national education it asks the US to debt burden and in trade and tariff nomic problems and the debt bur- promote international education barriers to Mexican and Caribbean den, immigration and refugee flows, and language training in the public products. and narcotics trafficking, as well as schools and for Congress to provide Mandate II's policy recommen- Soviet influence, regionalism, and Caribbean scholarship funds. dations on Cuba are the most hard- political instability.

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Features: Superpowers and Latin America

The report pins part of the temporary Cuba" (p. 38). Santa Fe II identifies several blame for policy stalemate on Latin Most likely to stir up controversy policy problems, including debt- American specialists and their "irre- isthe document's premise that the aggravated economic stagnation, sponsible attitude" (p. 2), claiming problem with US policy toward narcotics trafficking, immigration, "moderate Latin Americanists are Latin America lies in the policy pro- statism, and debilitated hemispheric few in number" (p. 3) and "hostile to cess itself. Many specialists would institutions. Underlying its analysis Latin American policy in practically argue that Latin American problems of Latin American politics is a any form" (p. 3). Third Century rec- like debt, drugs, and insurrection distinction between regime and ommends the creation of a "new stem from causes unrelated to the society. Democracy occurs when a generation of analysts and institu- conduct of US foreign policy. society holds its regime accountable. tions" (p. 4) to sustain the US's Latin When a society loses this control and American policy process. Yet few falls under the regime's sway, the Latin Americanists played even Santa Fe II result is "statism." Santa Fe II views minor roles in the formulation of US Santa Fe II: A Strategyfor Latin Latin American statism as a cultural foreign policy under Reagan. They America in the Nineties (The Commit- inheritance with affinities to Soviet can hardly be blamed for the prob- tee of Santa Fe, 1988) places Latin statism. Accordingly US strategy lems of a process in which they were American problems in the context should counter the statist threat not involved. of a "communist conflict strategy" culturally, such as through educa- Third Century tends to avoid pol- that seeks to involve "Western secu- tional initiatives that target icy recommendations. Yet it does rity forces in protracted operations bureaucrats and the military, and by call for easing the debt burden, simultaneously in several countries" strengthening private and public strengthening the international mili- (p. 3), with the strategic goal of institutional bulwarks against tary education program and the "reducing US forwarded commit- statism. Success in promoting National Endowment for Democ- ments on the Euro-Asian land mass democracy (i.e. reducing statism) racy, testing the antidrug capa- and thereby enhancing Soviet coer- will also reduce the Soviet threat. bilities of the Organization of cive ability" (p. 3). This argument produces American States (OAS), and facili- Nevertheless, Santa Fe II centers innovative policy recommendations. tating the flow of foreign invest- on Latin American problems that The section on economic strategy ment. The most decisive statements are of hemispheric rather than calls unequivocally for reducing the concern Cuba: "The next president Soviet origin. It treats the Soviet debt burden of Latin America as should resist the temptation to threat as an endemic disease: as the the first step in reviving economic break with long-standing policy health of the patient deteriorates, growth. It also calls for US help in towards Cuba by rescinding trade the disease-communist subver- establishing national capital markets sanctions.... The goal of regional sion-will do more damage. The in Latin America, privatizing state peace and prosperity is better document's recommendations are enterprises, revitalizing the achieved by a policy that highlights designed to nurse the patient back Caribbean Basin Initiative, and the antidemocratic character of con- to health. expanding reciprocal agricultural trade with Latin America. Other proposals, however, reflect LACC Studies on a traditional concern with national Latin America and the Caribbean security. The report proposes to expand military assistance to Latin in conjunction with Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. America to cope with low-intensity LACC Studies on LatinAmerica and the Caribbean conflict, to support Nicaraguan presents new perspectives on the contemporary and democratization, to educate the US media and public to the hemispheric historical forces--political, economic, social, and threat of communist cultural-that shape emerging realities in the region. subversion, and to develop bipartisan coopera- Forthcoming Volumes tion between Congress and the White House. Heraldo Mufioz and Carlos Portales, Elusive Friendship:A As for specific countries, the Survey of U.S.-Chilean Relations recommendations regarding Cuba Andrds Opazo Bernales, Social Crisis and Popular-Religious are the most striking: negotiate Movements in CentralAmerica directly with the Soviet Union on its military withdrawal from Cuba For information, contact Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., and open talks with Castro or his 1800 30th Street, Boulder, CO 80301, (303) 444-6684. successor. In short, "the US should signal its desire to rapidly normalize

Hemisphere * Summer 1989 relations with a de-Sovietized (i.e. Asian) trade and investment. policy, the proposals are compatible. Cuba-a normalization that would Santa Fe II stands more or less A mood of consensus on US- include the dropping of the trade alone in emphasizing communist Latin American relations has embargo" (p. 33). The only recom- subversion, Latin American statism, arrived. Has the failure of recent mendation at odds with this dra- and ecology. policy experiments meant the matic agenda is that of establishing If Santa Fe HII and PACCA's exhaustion of radical and reac- TV Marti. Alternative epitomize the conserva- tionary options? Has the link Santa Fe I's prescriptions raise tive and liberal perspectives, then between partisanship and policy operational questions. For example, convergence towards bipartisanship incoherence stimulated a how would the US inculcate is under way. Even on US-Cuban rela- reconsideration of US policy? Are democracy among Latin American tions Santa Fe H and PACCA's Alter- hemispheric events changing the bureaucrats? Would the US support native call for negotiations to lift historic parameters that have the banning of noncommunist the trade embargo and reestablish shaped policy, leading to greater "statist" parties on the grounds that full relations with Cuba. Whether agreement on the definition of they are antidemocratic? Moreover the objective is to detach Cuba from issues? In any case, this is clearly Santa Fe II glosses over complex the Soviet orbit or to terminate the a time of creative opportunities issues with allusions subject to counterrevolutionary bias of US in US-Latin American relations. . double meanings (e.g., "democracy" in Nicaragua, which could mean the installation of a counterrevolutionary regime or reforms under the revolutionary regime). Despite such caveats, Santa Fe II The Narrative is remarkably progressive. The of authors sum up their report as a proactive, rather than reactive, Liberation strategy for attacking Latin America's PERSPECTIVES ON problems. Proposals to negotiate with Castro, reopen trade relations AFRO-CARIBBEAN with Cuba, relieve debt burdens, save LITERATURE, POPULAR tropical rain forests, phase out sugar CULTURE, AND POLITICS protection, and revitalize the OAS, are forward-looking. Santa Fe II shows Patrick Taylor that traditional emphasis on national security and opposition to big gov- Patrick Taylor here explores the role of oral and ernment can give rise to an innova- written traditions in the Afro-Caribbean tive agenda. peoples' struggle for identity and self-determination. He ABipartisan Mood examines the works of Frantz Fanon, including his little-known psychiatric What is striking about these reports writings. is that, in spite of the fundamental "Taylor's book will become a landmark in differences in their political Caribbean and Third premises, they present remarkably World literary/cultural studies. similar agendas for US policy His work on Fanon clearly constitutes the best toward Latin America. They agree intellectual genealogy of Fanon's thought." on the inclusion of the issues of -Abdul R. JanMohamed debt, democracy, Central America, narcotics, and immigration. And University of California, Berkeley they agree on the need for a $29.95 bipartisan Latin American policy. The reports devote little or no attention, however, to the issues of CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS communist subversion, the Soviet 124 Roberts Place * Ithaca, NY 14850 military threat, border conflicts, population, urbanization, human rights, dictatorship, direct foreign investment, and nonhemispheric CD m"NEL

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 W Hemispheric Controversy

Partners in Conflict: The United rhetorically, by important segments a careful sorting-out of issues. States and Latin America of the US political and intellectual Finally, Lowenthal does not simply by Abraham Lowenthal. The Johns community. criticize but offers alternatives. Hopkins University Press, 1987 Precisely because Lowenthal and While I often find myself at variance 240 pp. Cloth. $24.50. I hold very different points of view, with his interpretations, or even his let me begin by singling out some of notion of the facts of the case, I am what I particularly like about Part- favorably impressed by the audacity Hard Choices ners in Conflict. First, though the and seriousness of the overall effort. book is a mere 240 pages, it is by Mark Falcoff remarkably comprehensive. Anyone As the World Turns A book on US-Latin American rela- who attempts to synthesize a large tions by Abraham Lowenthal is and complicated subject such as US- More than a decade ago, Lowenthal bound to be worthy of serious read- Latin American relations deserves wrote an important article in Foreign ing and discussion throughout the much praise and sympathy. Second, Affairs (October 1976) outlining a hemisphere. This is so not only the book is moderate in tone, spirit, new approach to US-Latin Ameri- because of the author's scholarly and purpose. Lowenthal deliberately can relations. The article urged us expertise, which is among the high- distances himself from dependency to abandon what Lowenthal called est in our profession, but also theory and the notion-still preva- the "hemispheric presumption." In because of his active engagement in lent in leftist academic circles at some ways this approach became the hemispheric affairs over many years. home and abroad-that what is informing spirit of the Carter Such engagement is exemplified by good for Latin America must always administration's policy, although in his role in establishing the Latin be bad for the US and vice versa. In other ways it merely stated certain American program at the Woodrow fact Lowenthal assumes the oppo- changes in the world that nobody Wilson Center of the Smithsonian site: that there are, or at least should had bothered to catalogue. Low- Institution, and more recently his be, common interests between the enthal said then what he repeats and US and Latin America. (Reading develops in Partnersin role in the Inter-American Dialogue, Conflict: there a panel of US, Caribbean, and Latin this book helped me to understand has been a qualitative and quantita- American personalities who peri- why, not at all to his discredit, Low- tive change in the position of Latin odically frame policy alternatives. enthal was recently defeated for the American nations towards the US. Partnersin Conflict reflects this par- presidency of the Latin American The US is no longer the sole or, in ticipation. The book is therefore a Studies Association.) some cases, even the principal valuable synthesis of a particular Third, the book is admirably source of capital, technology, and approach to US-Latin American detailed. While Lowenthal has a investments. Nor is it necessarily the relations, which is shared, at least broad philosophical approach, he single most important market. descends to the particular in chap- In Lowenthal's view the US, par- ters on Mexico, Brazil, and the ticularly the Reagan administration, Mark Falcoffis a resident scholar in Caribbean. He successfully moves has failed to grasp this change, and foreign policy at the American Enter- from the general to the specific with instead seeks to restore US hegem- prise Institute. fluency, authority, and in many cases ony, especially in the Caribbean

Hemisphere Summer 1989 M

Basin. The US clings to an outdated break its contract to provide sensi- former leverage with Washington. view of security interests and, to tive nuclear technology to Brazil. In the past the close (and in some cases some degree, economic interests, Then Washington aggravated rela- even suffocating) relationship pro- focusing our concern on the stabil- tions by heralding its human rights vided a climate in which successive US ity of the new Latin American policy in ways Brazil's government administrations felt a certain sense of democracies. This tendency pre- found offensive. These two specific responsibility for outcomes in the vents us from pursuing what for irritants were considerably allevi- Southern Hemisphere. The traditional Lowenthal should be our real inter- ated in the course of the Carter security rationale, which Lowenthal est in the region: the promotion of period, but the underlying economic discards as outdated and irrelevant, prosperous, developing, nonaligned conflicts continued, and the nuclear guided both the Good Neighbor neighbors. issue also remained divisive. The Policy and the Alliance for Progress. In theory, of course, the US United States and Brazil were still at To the extent Americans, partic- should favor all good things and odds at the end of the 1970s" (p. 129). ularly members of the US Congress, oppose all bad things. In the real become convinced there is no world, however, we must make serious security interest south of choices based on resources and on Mexico-or even north of it, for that the outcomes we are willing to pay matter-Latin America will simply for. We may no longer be hege- drop off the face of the Earth. monic, but we are still important. In According to the world map implicit fact, precisely because we no longer in the latest version of the US For- are hegemonic, we must allocate our eign Assistance Act, El Salvador is policy energies and our resources larger than Mexico and South Korea more selectively than in the past. is larger than Brazil. This is ridicu- Why then should we abandon the lous, but then so is much of the way pursuit of national self-interest in the world works. our relations with 20 or so other As I read this I found myself say- Lowenthal actually believes the nations, all of whom are not sur- ing, of course this is so, and what of US does not fully appreciate the way prisingly pursuing their self-interest it? I am not in the habit of recalling in which Latin America's prosperity in their relations with us? the Carter administration with nos- is tied to its own. He recites the This point lies at the heart of my talgia, but if, by its lights, nuclear usual statistics about US jobs lost differences with Partnersin Conflict. nonproliferation and human rights because of the inability of Latin For Lowenthal the US is pursuing its were high enough on its agenda, it American nations to purchase our national self-interest only when it is had every right to advance them in products, and more than once raises doing what the Latin American its bilateral relationship with Brazil. the guarded threat of unlimited nations, or rather, their leaders, To be sure, this might actually harm immigration if Latin America's basic want us to do. This stance leads him the long-term interests of the US, economic problems are not to deplore any and all differences but that would be an error of judg- resolved. It would be easy to take between Washington and the Latin ment, not an act of misconduct. The issue with both extrapolations. The American capitals; when we are fact of conflict is hardly worth deplor- crucial points, however, seem to be doing what the Latins want, that is ing in and of itself; what else are that most Latin American govern- "cooperation" (i.e. good); when we international relations made of? Dif- ments are organized to distribute are not, that is "confrontation" or ferences between sovereign nations resources rather than create wealth; "conflict" (i.e. bad). I found him fall- can be avoided altogether only if one most are undermining business con- ing into this trap even in his discus- side accepts the agenda of the other fidence and driving native capital sion of US relations with Brazil dur- -surely not a realistic proposal. abroad; most have public sectors ing the Carter years: "First the US Lowenthal also seems remarka- that consume ever larger shares of government attempted, without bly insensitive to the way in which a the budget; and most are essentially consulting the Brazilian govern- decline in US hegemony has deprived bankrupt welfare states seeking an ment, to persuade West Germany to the Latin American nations of their international bailout. These are

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Review Forum

realities that any US policy must ism" versus human rights, human face and perhaps accept before rights versus nonintervention, and Common Ground advancing to more ambitious promotion of democracy versus by Rosario Green agenda. respect for individual sovereignties. Lowenthal recognizes many of As Anthony Lake, a former Carter Abraham Lowenthal's Partnersin these things, but his analysis does administration official, has pointed Conflict emphasizes a point that not give them their proper weight. out, in the real world principles are commonly escapes US academics They are not merely aspects of a often as much in conflict with each and diplomats: Latin America is no complex situation but the centralfac- other as with pragmatism or real- longer a backward, agro-exporting, tors that broadly condition the inter- politik. In this sense Lowenthal's isolated area ruled by premodern national business environment and evaluation of Carter policy is caudillos in need of guidance by the investors' perception of Latin Amer- ungenerous and unfair. I do, how- Great Northern Power. As Low- ica. Lowenthal sees vast possibilities ever, applaud his willingness to enthal observes, contemporary in future US-Latin American eco- admit there are certain well- Latin America, despite its myriad nomic relations. That is his privilege. established parameters within problems, is well on the road to Most bankers, entrepreneurs, and which Latin American policy democracy, modernity, and maturity. not a few members of Congress, operates in the US regardless of With this point of departure, Part- however, look upon Latin America administrations. This is a refresh- ners in Conflict focuses on how Wash- as a kind of economic black hole. ing change from the notion, so ington has responded and how it The news that reaches us daily from, often retailed nowadays by certain should respond to its loss of hegem- say, Peru and Argentina, does little liberal Democratic academics, ony in Latin America. The answers to counteract this image. Lowenthal that all good things happen it provides make Partnersin Conflict fears the growth of radical populism under one party and all bad an indispensable book for scholars and nationalism, and he sees a need things under another. and policymakers alike. for the US to preempt both threats Given the unsatisfactory nature Lowenthal argues that Latin with a bold and imaginative new pol- of public life in most Latin Ameri- American challenges to US hegem- icy. But how seriously should we take can countries, there will always be ony-such as the Cuban and such an eventuality? Once the hege- plenty to complain about. And given Nicaraguan Revolutions, Vene- monic presumption has been aban- the continuing, though declining, zuelan leadership in formulating doned, even the worst-case scenario role of the US as a major external OPEC strategy, and the creation of loses its sting. power, there will always be a tempta- the Contadora Group-reflect not tion to assign more blame and more only the region's maturation. They responsibility to Washington than is also reflect its diminishing relative Choosing Carefully appropriate. But as we enter into the importance as a site of US invest- In selecting US relations with Mex- fullness of the post-hegemonic age, ment and as a trading partner. ico and Brazil, Lowenthal rightly the importance of Latin America to How then has Washington points out that the operative princi- the US seems to be in danger of responded? Most basically, accord- ples are pragmatism and a prefer- becoming purely negative. ing to Lowenthal, by alternating ence for settling issues on a case-by- Much of Congress's enthusiasm between policies of "positive" inter- case basis. Admittedly the results for "nonintervention" (or for "diplo- vention, "negative" intervention, are not always exciting and, of macy'," as it is sometimes called) in and indifference. Kennedy's Alliance course, anything can be improved Nicaragua is a result of the impulse for Progress and Carter's human upon. But to suggest, as he does, towards neglect of, and disinterest rights diplomacy fall under the first that somehow the best way to deal in, the region as a whole. Mexico, category. Reagan's obsession with with such countries is to subsume because it shares a long frontier the Caribbean Basin falls under the our bilateral relations within a with the US, will always get special second, and the Johnson and Nixon- larger Third World framework is consideration. The rest of the Ford approaches fall under the intolerably ambitious. Isn't the pol- region, however, may find itself third. Lowenthal contends that icy process in the US fragmented in a curious limbo. It has wandered none of the three orientations and disorganized enough without too far from the US to exert much acknowledged the loss of US hegem- folding more countries and issues claim upon the latter's time, energy, ony, and that the traditional concep- into a larger envelope? and resources, but remains farther tion of US hemispheric interests is in Moreover, Lowenthal often over- still from anywhere else. This need of profound revision. simplifies policy choices, as if they is not a happy outcome for most were entirely discrete. Examples countries, but something more than include economic equity versus pri- the admirable, controlled idealism Rosario Green is a politicalscientist vate investment, military aid versus of Partnersin Conflict will be needed at the Instituto Matias Romero, in civilian control, "ideological plural- to avoid it. . Mexico City.

Hemisphere Summer 1989 ______

New Challenges, New Solutions that it is no longer simply the eco- would be no panacea for the region's nomic power of South America, but debt problems. No matter how com- Lowenthal builds his case by mar- rather one of the ten largest econ- prehensive and well-intentioned, a shalling evidence against US omies in the world. US policymakers program of financial assistance analysts and policymakers who con- must therefore recognize that Bra- would not be enough. What the sider Latin America a region of zil's economic and geopolitical inter- crisis demands are a debt-relief pro- diminishing strategic relevance. To ests are becoming more diversified gram (even more aggressive than the begin with, Latin America is exert- and independent, and that it pos- "second" Brady plan) and a large- ing growing influence on the US sesses increasing leverage in its rela- scale reform of the international economy, especially in terms of US tions with the US. financial system that incorporates exports and banking. Further, mas- The Caribbean Basin, in Low- the premises of the "New Interna- sive migration, particularly from enthal's view, consists of two zones, tional Economic Order," that is, an Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central the Caribbean islands and Central overhaul of the terms of North- America, is significantly changing America. Nevertheless, the US, he South economic relations. daily life in the US. Drug trafficking, says, has rooted its policy in the As for the Nicaraguan Revolu- terrorism, environmental degrada- notion that both zones constitute its tion, Lowenthal insists on demon- tion, and nuclear proliferation in "third front." Consequently Wash- strating that it poses no threat to US Latin America pose escalating ington strategists have insisted on security. Nevertheless, he charac- threats, while the region's economic maintaining a high profile in the terizes the Sandinista regime as and political conditions jeopardize Caribbean Basin predicated on "authoritarian and repressive of the preservation of basic US values, a diffuse concept of "national political freedom" (p. 193). To this such as human rights (p. 55). security," which in fact manifests a characterization Lowenthal adds With this evidence in mind, the fundamental sense of "national unsubstantiated claims, such as the author turns to what he regards as insecurity" (p. 155). following: "Nicaragua under the the priorities of US policy toward From Lowenthal's standpoint, Sandinistas could harm the security Latin America: trade, finance, and the Caribbean Basin poses only min- of the Hemisphere. It has supported migration. Lowenthal's hypothesis is imal threats to US security. Hence revolutionary movements else- that regional economic problems, the appropriate US policy should be where.... The question is not rather than the internal conflicts of neither one of sustained or inter- whether Nicaragua represents a Central America, are the fundamen- mittent intervention, nor one of challenge but how best to respond tal threats to the hemisphere's complete withdrawal. Instead he to it" (p. 193). This analysis, includ- security and stability. US policy, recommends a policy of "commit- ing its policy implications, is clearly Lowenthal writes, should "respond ment to the economic and social in need of rethinking. to Latin America's needs" by focus- development of the nations of the The fact remains that the ing "much more on trade, finance Caribbean Basin without a corre- strengths of this book much out- and migration-and less on MIGs sponding attempt to exercise tight weigh its weaknesses. The US and and guerrillas" (p. 65). control of their internal affairs" Latin America face monumental, Lowenthal discusses these priori- (p. 165). He goes on to say that this interlocking challenges that demand ties in light of the varying circum- approach would permit the US to a combination of pragmatism and stances of the area's subregions and address its strategic interests in the imagination. As Lowenthal asserts, a nations. This discussion interweaves Caribbean Basin without losing deepening of Latin America's eco- rich description with Lowenthal's sight of its more serious concerns in nomic and social crisis, as well as own proposals for improving inter- Mexico and South America. heightened US protectionism and American relations. What stands out Partnersin Conflict deserves interventionism, would touch off in these proposals is their modera- praise for its moderate, pragmatic increased unrest, authoritarianism, tion and pragmatism, as well as the perspective on US policy toward and nationalism in Latin America. A ethical principles on which they Latin America. But one of the book's result would be an "era of deep hos- stand. proposals-its call for a strength- tility in United States-Latin Ameri- Regarding Mexico, for example, ened version of the Baker debt-relief can relations" (p. 181). It is time for this tone surfaces in the form of plan-and one aspect of the book's us to realize that the crisis in our sensitivity to the country's legacy of analysis-its contradictory discus- relations implies risks and oppor- antagonistic relations with the US. sion of the Nicaraguan Revolu- tunities, and to act accordingly. At Lowenthal writes that US policy tion-should not go unchallenged. issue is nothing less than hemi- must avoid not only unilateral mea- The Baker plan was a novel initia- spheric peace, justice, and prosper- sures but also an asphyxiating "spe- tive for resolving Latin America's ity. Lowenthal's Partnersin Conflict cial relationship"' both of which debt crisis. Since it failed, however, points us in the right direction. . could inflame Mexican nationalist to address the root causes of the sentiment. As for Brazil, he stresses crisis, a bolstered version of the plan (Translatedby Ruth Gubler)

Hemisphere Summer 1989 Perestroika and Latin America

by Marian Goslinga

ver since Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the concept in 1985, perestroikahas become the glamour word for Soviet economic policy-domestic as well as foreign. The Soviet leader's steadfast pursuit of economic reform not only has changed the course of East-West relations but has added a new dimension to Soviet-Latin Ameri- can relations-especially where Cuba is concerned. Although Fidel Castro has chosen to deal with Cuba's economic problems by way of "rectificacibn," the course of Soviet-Cuban relations has unequivocally been altered. This section lists publications in periodicals from 1988 to May 1989 on the impact of perestroikain Latin America. Since previous articles and information can be located in standard reference sources, this list refers only to the most recent literature and is not intended as a definitive bibliography.

The Beard Singed. The Economist, Cuba: Quarterly Situation Report. America Latina (USSR), no. 1 (1989), v. 309, no. 7581 (December 17, 1988), Prepared by the Office of Research pp. 4-9. [Soviet publication on p. 43. [Editorial on Fidel Castro's and Policy for the staff of the Radio Latin America.] attitude towards the new Soviet Marti Program. Washington, D.C.. reforms.] United States Information Agency, Horizontes de la cooperaci6n. Radio Marti Program. [A current Anatoli Bekarevich. Amrica Latina Castro's Cuba in Gorbachev's Era. summary of events in Cuba (social, (USSR), no. 4 (1989), pp. 38-44. Carlos Alberto Montaner. Society, economic, and political) published [Discusses Soviet-Latin American v. 25, no. 4 (May-June 1988), p. 27 four times a year since 1988.] relations after perestroikafrom a Soviet point of view.] Castro's Gorbachev Problem: Cuban Economic Slowdown Cuban Foreign Policy in the Threatens Living Standards. Carib- Minority Report. Christopher Hemisphere. Carla Anne Robbins. bean Insight, v. 12, no. 4 (April 1989), Hitchens. The Nation, v. 246, no. 3 US. News and World Report, v. 106, pp. 3-4. [Editorial.] (January 1988), p. 79. [Analyzes no. 1 (January 9, 1989), p. 40. Cuba's reaction to glasnost and perestroika.] The Cuban Economy: Too Poor for Castro: Dilemmas of the Last Ideal- Perestroika.Caribbean Insight, v. 12, ist. Tad Szulc. New Perspectives Quar- no. 4 (April 1989), pp. 3-4. Moscow Scales Back: Gorbachev terly, v. 5, no. 4 (Winter 1988), p. 50. [Editorial.] Spurs Shifts Here, There-But Not [Deals with Castro's reactions to the Everywhere. Christopher Ogden. new Soviet reforms.] Gorbachev Yields No Ground Yet. Time, v. 133, no. 16 (April 17, 1989), John Felton. Congressional Quarterly p. 32. [Since 1985 Time has given Cuba, the Revolution: Toward Weekly Report, v. 47, no. 14 (April 8, abundant coverage to perestroika. Victory Always, but When? George 1989), p. 768. [About the domestic Here, Ogden discusses the Soviet Black. The Nation, v. 247, no. 11, and foreign opposition to Union's relations with its allies, such (October 24, 1988), p. 373. perestroika.] as Cuba.]

The Moscow Summit May Scale Cuba-URSS en beneficio mfituo. Gorbachev's Greatest Challenge: More Than One Peak. Bill Javetski, Rail Lazo. Bohemia, no. 11 (March Perestroikaand the National Peter Galuszka. Business Week, no. 11, 1988), pp. 48-51. [Discusses the Question. Graham Smith. Political 3040 (February 29, 1988), p. 42. economic interdependence between Geography Quarterly, v. 8, no. 1 the two countries and the effect of (January 1989), pp. 7-21. y la perestroikaon this relationship.] El movimiento de la solaridad perestroika:notas sobre la reuni6n Hacia la eficacia econ6mica: plenaria del Comite Sovietico de Marian Goslinga is the Latin Ameri- entrevista con Laureano Le6n, Solaridad con los Pueblos de Ame- can and Caribbean librarianat Florida presidente de la Asociaci6n Nacio- rica Latina. America Latina (USSR), InternationalUniversity. nal de Economistas de Cuba. v. 9 (September 1988), pp. 80-82.

Hemisphere . Summer 1989 New Directions in Soviet Policy Perestroika and Problems of The Superpowers: Dance of the towards Latin America. Rodolfo Socialist Renewal: Compulsions, Dinosaurs. Marshall D. Shulman. Cerdas Cruz.Journalof Latin Ameri- Constraints, and Contradictions. ForeignAffairs (1988), p. 494. [Men- can Studies, v. 21, Pt. 1 (February A. Roy. Economic and PoliticalWeekly, tions Gorbachev's willingness to cut 1989), pp. 1-22. v. 23, no. 52-53 (December 1988), military aid to Nicaragua under pp. 2745-54. certain conditions.] Nueva etapa de cooperaci6n Reading between the Lines in econ6mica. Vadim Teperman. America Havana. US. News and World Report, Whose Man in Havana? The Nation, Latina (USSR), no. 1 (1989), pp. 9-12. v. 106, no. 15 (April 17, 1989), p. 494. v. 248, no. 16 (April 24, 1989), p. 541. [About a new dawn in relations [What was said, and left unsaid, [Editorial about Castro's reactions between the countries of Eastern during the conversation between to Gorbachev's new ideas.] Europe (CAME) and Latin Mikhail Gorbachev and Fidel Castro America.] the week before.]

Recent Books on the Region

Anthropology and Sociology Guinea's Other Suns: Essays on the La iglesia costarricense entre Dios y African Dynamic in Trinidad Cul- el Cesar. Miguel Picado. San Jose: Academic Rebels in Chile: The Role ture. Maureen Warner-Lewis. Dover, Departamento Ecumenico de of Philosophy in Higher Education Mass.. Majority Press, 1989. 250 pp. Investigaciones, 1988. 160 pp. and Philosophy. IvanJaksic. State $9.95. University of New York Press, 1989. 200 pp. $39.50; $12.95. A igreja no Brasil. Eugenio Dirceu Hispanic Lands and Peoples: Keller Sao Paulo: FTD, 1989. 103 pp. Derecho indigena y derechos Selected Writings ofJames Parsons. humanos en America Latina. William M. Denevan, ed. Westview Press, 1989. 478 pp. $29.00. Rodolfo Stavenhagen. El Colegio de Incarnations of the Aztec M6xico, 1988. 383 pp. $13.00. Supernatural: The Image of Huitzilopochtli in Mexico and The Housing Lark. Samuel Selvon. El Salvador: iglesia prof6tica y cam- Europe. Elizabeth H. Boone. Ameri- Three Continents Press, 1989. bio social. PedroHenriquez. can Philosophical Society, 1989. San 155 pp. $1700. [About West Indians Jose: Departamento Ecum6nico de in Great Britain.] Investigaciones, 1988. 272 pp. Kilowatts and Crisis: A Study of Development and Social Change The Flocks of the Wamani: A Study The Human Ecology of Tropical in Panama. Alaka Wall. Westview of Llama Herders on the Punas of Land Settlement in Latin America. Press, 1989. 250 pp. $26.50. [Dis- Ayacucho, Peru. Kent V Flannery, Debra A. Schumann, William L. cusses the impact of the Bayano Joyce Marcus, Robert G. Reynolds. Partridge,eds. Westview Press, 1989. Dam on indigenous groups.] Academic Press, 1989. 230 pp. 385 pp. $29.95.

From Mafalda to Los Supermachos: Livelihood and Resistance: A Study Latin American Graphic Humor as Ibo: Yorubas en tierras cubanas. of Peasants and the Politics of Land Popular Culture. David William Fos- Rosalia de la Soledad, MariaJ. in Peru. Gavin Smith. University of ter Boulder, Colo.. Lynne Rienner, Sanjuan de Novas. Miami: Ediciones California Press, 1989. 250 pp. 1989. 119 pp. $20.95. Universal, 1989. 284 pp. $19.95. $3750.

Hemisphere. Summer 1989 Publications Update

The Mexicans: A Personal Portrait Tramo ancla: ensayos puertorri- Tiburcio Carias Andino, el fun- of a People. Patrick Oster. New York: quefios de hoy. Kalman Barsy, et al. dador de la paz. Rafael Bardales. W Morrow, 1989. 334 pp. $19.45. Ana Lydia Vega, ed. Rio Piedras: San Pedro Sula, Honduras: Central Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1988. Impresora, 1989. 600 pp. $10.00. Migrants in the Mexican North: 305 pp. Mobility, Economy, and Society in a Economics Colonial World. Michael M. Swann. With All and for the Good of All: Westview Press, 1989. 220 pp. $26.50. The Emergence of Popular Nation- Capital-Intensive Industries in alism in the Cuban Communities of Newly Industrializing Countries: The Case of the Brazilian Auto- Migrants to Amaz6nia: Sponta- the United States, 1848-1898. Gerald mobile and Steel Industries. neous Colonization in the Brazilian Eugene Poyo. Duke University Press, Bernhard Fischer et al. Westview Frontier.Judith 1989. 200 pp. $28.95. Lisansky. Westview Press, 1989. 328 pp. $50.00. Press, 1989. 180 pp. $14.95. Central America: The Future of Mujeres latinoamericanas: diez Biography Economic Integration. George Irvin, ensayos y una historia colectiva. The Admiral and His Lady: Colum- Stuart Holland, eds. Westview Press, Maria del Carmen Feijo6, et al. Lima: bus and Filipa of Portugal. Maria 1989. 200 pp. $2750. E TristAn, 1988. 308 pp. $12.95. De Freitas Treen. New York: R. Debt, Adjustment Speller, 1989. $1795. [Emphasizes and Recovery: Latin America's Prospects for Panama: la Iglesia y la lucha de los Columbus's association with Portu- Growth and Development. Sebastian pobres. Andres Opazo Bernales. San gal and his marriage to a young Edwards, Felipe Larrain,eds. New Jose: Departamento Ecumenico de woman of Porto Santo.] York: B. Blackwell, 1989. Investigaciones, 1988 214 pp. 300 pp. $45.00. The Diario of Christopher Colum- Politica habitacional brasileira: bus's First Voyage to America, Deindustrialization in Chile.Jaime verso e reverso. Maria Ozanira da 1492-1493. Fray Bartolomb de las Gatica Barrios. Westview Press, 1989. Silva e Silva. Sao Paulo: Edit6ra Casas. Oliver Dunn, James E. Kelley, 200 pp. $28.50. [Discusses the Cortez, 1989. 199 pp. Jr,eds. and trans. University of Okla- decline in the manufacturing sector homa Press, 1989. 491 pp. $49.95. due to economic measures taken Potaje y otro mazote de estampas during 1974-82 and the characteris- cubanas.Jose Sdnchez-Boudy. Miami: Jose Antonio Saco: su influencia en tics of the industrial recovery during Ediciones Universal, 1989. 148 pp. la cultura y en las ideas politicas de 1983-86.] Cuba. Anita Arroyo. Miami: Distorted Development: Mexico in Si te quieres por el poco divertir...: Ediciones Universal, 1989. 157 pp. the World Economy. David Barkin. historia del preg6n musical latino- $12.00. [Biography of the 19th- Westview Press, 1989. 175 americano. Crist6balDiaz Ayala. San century Cuban politician.] pp. $25.00. Juan: Editorial Cubanacan, 1989. 371 pp. $25.00. King of the Night: Juan Jose Flores Haiti in the World Economy: Class, and Ecuador, 1824-1864. MarkJ. Van Race, and Underdevelopment since 1700. Alex Dupuy. Westview Press, Los silencios de la revoluci6n: Aken. University of California Press, 1988. 245 pp. $42.50. Chile, la otra cara de la moderniza- 1989. 328 pp. $40.00. ci6n. Eugenio Tironi Barrios. San- The Honduran Crisis and U.S. tiago: Editorial Puerta El le6n de Santa Rita: el general Abierta, Economic Assistance. Philip L. 1988. 135 pp. $740. Vicente Garcia y la Guerra de los Shepherd. Westview Press, 1989. Diez Afios; Cuba 1868-1878. Floren- 200 pp. $32.50. Social Change in Brazil, 1945-1985: cio Garcia Cisneros. Miami: Ediciones The Incomplete Transition. Edmar Universal, 1989. 231 pp. $15.00. Mexico's Trade Policy: The U.S., L. Bacha, Herbert S. Stein, eds. Uni- GATT, and the Future of Economic versity of New Mexico Press, 1989. Marti y el Uruguay: cr6nicas y Relations. Pamela Falk, Blanca 360 pp. $22.50. correspondencia. Ram6n de Armas, Torres, eds. Westview Press, 1989. ed. Montevideo: Universidad de la 200 pp. $28.00. State, Capital, and Rural Society: Repi~blica, 1988. 107 pp. $9.00. Anthropological Perspectives on The State, Industrial Relations and Political Economy in Mexico and Self-portrait of the Other. Heberto the Labour Movement in Latin the Andes. Benjamin S. Orlove, Padilla.Alexander Coleman, trans. America.Jean Carriere,Nigel Michael W. Foley, Thomas F Love, eds. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989. $1895. Haworth,Jacqueline Roddick, eds. St. Westview Press, 1989. 350 pp. $34.50. [TranslationTranslatio of.....r.et..to.of Autorretrato de..del . otro.]l . Martin's Press, 1989. 280 pp. $45.00.

Hemisphere Summer 1989

Unit Pk 3,,I M i, F 6imi Flrd 39 emN. 675