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University Daily Kansan Friday, April 19, 1963
Kansan Focus
Latin America-Our Troubled Neighbor Alliance For Progress Church Strength Declining Faces Big Problems
By Terry Murphy
The destructiveness of nuclear weapons rules out their use as a tool of foreign policy that aims at political domination. Even allowing for degrees of relative "winning", it is known that no country would serve its interests by swapping fiery destruction with another.
But this does not produce a stalemate. The battle to determine which ideology is not slowed by nuclear deterrence. The weapons left for use in the nuclear age are limited to guerrilla warfare or economic warfare.
The alliance has three major objectives:
THE POLITICAL temperament of the United States is not attuned to fighting long, drawn-out guerrilla war; such wars produce little progress and submarine the political stability required for democratic government.
The U.S. battle plan for economic warfare in Latin America is the Alliance for Progress. It was formed March 13, 1961, with 20 Latin American republics joining.
With these considerations in mind, the United States has, since World War II, spent billions in underdeveloped countries to establish economic security and corresponding political stability.
First, to aid Latin American nations in economic development; second, to encourage changes in Latin American economic and social institutions, and third, to move against all totalitarian regimes, whether left or right, and support establishment and consolidation of political democracies in the Western Hemisphere.
THE PROJECTED cost of the 10-year program is $100 billion. Despite cries of "giveaway," and uncertain hopes for success, responsible U.S. leaders consider $100 billion cheap enough to prevent another Soviet take-over, as in Cuba. Just as important, there is no other way to prevent revolution except through fulfilling the wants and needs of the potential Communists.
Since it is necessary to work with political leaders of institutions which have the discipline and force to assure the base-required degree of stability, the United States more often than not is forced to work through military leaders.
Generally, this is distasteful to U.S. citizens. Some argue that it
serves merely to perpetuate the abuses which the program hopes to change. But no alternative short of fomenting revolution to establish U.S. colonies is available.
THE RECENT guerrilla-band strikes by communists in Venezuela oil fields, and growing unrest in northeast Brazil, have alerted Latin American leaders to the dangers of not instituting the economic and social reforms which are the heart of the Alliance for Progress. U.S. leaders have made it clear; no reforms, no aid.
The problems are often emphasized (as they must be) at the expense of overlooking gains and potential. On the plus side, for the first time in history, a development plan backed with money is taking form in Latin America. When it is realized that anything added to zero is improvement, the efforts gain new perspective.
Recalcitrant politicians are not the only problem. Unlike Western Europe, where the Marshall Plan produced a meteorite economic redevelopment, Latin America does not have a population of highly literate, industrial people. The alliance must build from the ground up, and with this in mind, success in 10 years seems highly optimistic.
There can be little realistic hope that, in the foreseeable future, the standard of living in Latin America will approach that in the United States or Western Europe. But hopes for success need not rest on such high standards.
IT IS clear that a short-range aid program and emergency reforms will not do the job. To provide coordination and careful planning, governments seeking aid must submit reports to the Economic and Social Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The barriers to success are stark. Less than 50 per cent of the population is adequately housed; 90 million adults (total population 210 million) are illiterate and have no marketable skills, and 1.5 per cent of the population controls nearly 50 per cent of all land under cultivation.
REGARDLESS OF how faint it may be, a glimmer of hope to the peasants should add in geometric fashion to the long-range hope that decent living conditions will be the rule instead of the exception.
The Roman Catholic Church came to Latin America about four centuries ago with the Spanish explorers. The missionaries converted the natives to Catholicism and the area has remained basically Catholic to the present time.
But the people are in revolt against the church. The natives have become aware of the 20th century and the better life it offers them. But the threat is not only to the church, but to the Latin American governments and the United States.
THE PEOPLE rebel, not in the strict sense of the word, but in the spirit. They no longer look upon the church as a necessity for them. They realize that the church has not helped and possibly will not help attain this better life in this world. So they leave the church.
Although Latin America is considered to be Roman Catholic, it is Catholic in name only, not in fact. The open refusal to accept the church is of recent origin, but the air of indifference has existed for many years.
The Latin American Catholic does not know his religion. He is not acquainted with church doctrine. One diocese in Argentina has about 2,500,000 Catholics, but estimates say that only about 13 per cent are practicing Catholics.
IN PERU. contraceptives are sold openly in the streets. The people just do not realize that the use of these as a means of birth control is against church doctrine.
One Latin American proudly asserts that he is a "good, practicing Catholic." But he has four wives in four different cities. He does not know that it is against church law
The reasons for this revolt against the Church are manifold and it is hard to put a finger on one overriding reason for the sense of dissatisfaction that exists. The people want to better their life and do not believe that the church can do it.
THE REASON which probably has been around longer than any other is the attitude the church has taken toward the native. It has not concerned itself with the people's life in this world, but has concentrated on the salvation of souls. The church has not adopted a program of social responsibility. It has continued to let the people live in squalor.
One contributing cause for the lack of knowledge about their religion is the extreme shortage of priests in Latin America. Sources
estimate that there is one priest for every 450 American Catholics and only one priest for every 5,000 plus Latin American Catholics.
Also, the priests tend to be oriented toward the upper classes, mainly because most of the priests are from the upper class. They also favor the upper class for an intellectual reason. Whenever a priest wants conversation with an educated man, he goes to the hacienda, not to the hovel of the uneducated peasant.
THE THIRD reason for the church's close relations with the upper class is its dependency on the wealthy landowners for revenue.
The church in Latin America is not the wealthy institution that most people suppose it to be. The priests rely upon the wealthy Latinus for their living allowance, but the land owned by the church produces very little revenue which can be used to pay the costs of teaching the people. Most of the schools are oriented toward the upper class because of the necessity to charge tuition to keep the school going.
A priest who tried to organize the peasants to exert pressure on the landowners to increase wages and improve living conditions was forced to abandon his plans by the landowners. The priest depended upon the Sunday collection to buy his food, and the landowners contributed most of the money to the collection. They simply ceased to contribute on Sunday mornings.
THE BASIC nature of the Latin American makes reform difficult. They are overly generous when asked to donate money for a charitable purpose, but they cannot see a situation which should be changed. They have no sense of social responsibility.
One American tourist was taken to a hacienda by a Catholic priest. The priest showed him some neat white houses on a hillside, noting that they housed the horses while the shacks further up on the hill belonged to the peasants who worked the land.
The landowners fight reform whenever they get the chance. A bishop which spoke out in favor of labor unions was denounced as a "black Communist" by members of his own church. There has to be reform within as well as without the church to attain any good in Latin America.
THE LATIN also is politically unreliable. He looks for the man
who resembles a Messiah, because such a man promises him salvation from his harsh existence. He cares not whether the man is a competent administrator as long as he promises reform.
This is the aspect of the Latin American nature which is frightening. If the church refuses to reform and urge the governments into instituting reforms, the Latin American may adopt a new religion—reform-promising Communism.
The Roman Catholic Church is one of the best assets the West has in Latin America to counter the Communist threat. The church, through a program of self-reform and pressure on the governments could become a viable organization against communism.
THE POPULATION is basically illiterate and superstitious. The natives have believed in the church for four centuries and will believe again if the church will help the people move into the 20th century and the life it promises.
The church in some countries already is doing something along this line. In Brazil, Chile and Peru, elements of the Catholic hierarchy are openly pressing the Latin oligarchy to raise wages, partition lands and enact reforms.
The church has started getting rid of its land by distributing it to land reform agencies to distribute to the peasants. In Northeast Brazil, the church helped form rural syndicates to help peasants fight the landowners who have supported the church for centuries.
THERE HAS been discussion of church reform — substitution of vernacular for Latin in church services, elimination of the cassock for more modern dress (the cassock is not allowed in Mexico and Uruguay now), restructuring of church schools so they do not favor the wealthy, and the introduction of married clergy to overcome the severe shortage. Estimates are that 200,000 priests, five times more than the number now in Latin America, are needed.
The program of reform should spread throughout Latin America. The church is becoming conscious of the threat to itself and to all of Latin America. The problem facing the Latin Church was one of the main concerns of the Ecumenical Council in Rome last year.
If the reforms are carried out in Latin America and the people are assured of more than mere subsistence, another Cuba is not an inevitability.
U.S. Unpopular in Brazil
By Byron Klanner
Signs of growing friction between the United States and Brazil came to the surface a few weeks ago. Congressmen hurled charges of Communist infiltration in government, labor, and student groups. They called for a halt of American aid to the largest nation in Latin America. Come back after you have "cleaned house" of Red influence, Brazilian diplomats were told in Washington.
Although Brazilian officials expressed regret over this new attitude from Washington, they were unable to deny the accusations.
IS BRAZIL going the way of Castro's Cuba? The answer to this question could have serious implications throughout the free world. It is believed that if Brazil goes Communist, all of Latin America will follow. Unlike the tiny island 90 miles off Miami, a nation the size of Brazil could not be isolated by blockades or quarantines. With a base of operations in Brazil for Russia to spread communism in the Western hemisphere through infiltration, espirage, and psychological warfare, the United States would be unable to contain the Red threat short of war.
American-Brazilian tensions seem to have developed almost overnight. One would hardly have expected that difficulties were brewing between the two countries. Letters exchanged five months ago between President Kennedy and Brazil's President Goulart gave the appearance of solid friendship between the heads of state.
"The number of Communists in Brazil is small but their influence is much larger than those numbers would suggest. The principal field of infiltration and influence is in the labor unions.
SINCE THEN Congress has rejected a multi-billion dollar ad request by Francisco San Tigo Dantas, Brazilian finance minister.
A formal statement was issued about March 14 by a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee based on a report from Lincoln Gordon, U.S. ambassador to Brazil. The statement said:
"In the government itself there
has been infiltration. The student movement is another major area of penetration, with the National Student Union now being dominated by Communists."
IN HIS argument to reject aid to Brazil, U.S. Rep. William H. Harsba Jr., R-Ohio; said:
time when we are using (Continued on page 3)
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U.S. Control of Canal Irks Proud Panama
The Panama Canal and the Republic of Panama were conceived at the same time.
By Rose Ellen Osborne
Each could say it owes its birth to the other. The United States encouraged Panamanians to revolt from Colombia and prevented Colombian troops from entering Panama so that the U.S. could lease the canal.
Raising the flag over the Panama Canal is not Panama's only goal. In June of 1962 Panama's President Roberto Chiari flew to Washington for talks with Kennedy. As a result of the talks the United States agreed to fly 6 to 12 flags-
THE DATE was 1903, and Panama welcomed the aid of her American amigos. Today the American amigo has become the Yankee gringo. In the Canal Zone, a five-mile strip which lies on each side of the canal, the American flag flies beside the Panamanian flag, a constant reminder of gringo presence in the land of the Latins.
the zone. Panamanian postage with Canal Zone cancellations was to be used in the zone. A withholding tax deducted from the wages of United States workers was to affect the take-home pay of all Panamanian and non-U.S. members.
THEN TENSION eased and Americans in the zone began to work among the people to regain U.S. popularity.
In 1962 Panama's Foreign Minister Galileo Solis told the United Nations General Assembly that the canal treaty was "humilitating, injurious, unjust and inequitable."
Panamanians want a voice in operation of the canal. They want the toll increased and they want a cut in the profits. Each ship now pays about $4,700 to go through the 51 mile-long isthmus.
The U.S. pays Panama a $1.9 million annuity for lease of the canal. Another $5 million is spent improving and repairing the canal.
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