STAFF NOTES: LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS

Created: 9/10/1975

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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Latin American Trends

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With and without the OS 4

Pegionollsm: With and Without tho u&

Increasing involvement in internationalhas given the Latin Americanroader context in which to examine and sharpen the focus of their own special interests.

Thexperiences in various UN activities and especially their connnectior. with the Group ofnd the nonaligned movement have convinced them of the value of solidarity with other blocs with similar problems and aspirations. At the same time, the Latins have become more conscious of themselvesegion andlearer sense of how they can meet certain needsegional basis. Despite the poor results of most regional and subregional experiments of the past, the Latin Americana areew look at thebenefits of the OAS and the proposed Latin American Economic Systemhe former with and the latter without the US.

At broad, global forums, the Latins have seen their interests diluted in the flood of grievances from less developed areas and they have also seen the intensity of the Latin cases fade alongside the bitter determination of the participants in the Middle East and otherdivided areas. While the Latins value the conceptew international order and other third-worldand agree with the tactic of mass lobbying, they are also aware of specific economic and political goals that might be better served by efforts within the regional community.

Playing on this theme, the new and energeticgeneral of the OAS, Argentina's Alejandro Orfila, is winning converts to his conviction that the pan-American forum caney court for the presentation of Latin American positions, propositions, and complaints to

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Washington. Orfila stronglye-Latinization of the OAS procedures, which after years of juridical disputation have become mired in minutiae.

Orfila evidently has sold his practical approach to Mexican President Echeverria, one of the OAS' strongest critics. Echeverria has instructed his delegates to back Orfila fully in the effort to revitalize the OAS and take the lead in bringing grerter decisiveness and rationality into the organization. Echeverria has also contacted his rival for Latin leadership, Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, to ask for Venezuela's cooperation with Orfila. Both Mexico and Venezuela seem ready to increase their financial support of the OAS as well.

Working committees have begun assembling in Panr-ma to labor over the statutes and principles of SELA, which will be the subjectull Latin and Caribbeanthere beginning brainchild of Echeverria endslowly developingin the rest of the hemisphereorum in which the Latins can marshal their assets in practical business schemes. In SELA, they can cope with differences in size and development among the countries by means of special privileges for the poor. Gradually, SELA ia emerging as the vehicle by which the Latins can find the consensus with which they hope to challenge the US at the OAS.

The many Latin American barriers of culturalrivalries, and differing political andwill remain as formidable as they have beenpast. But Latin advocates cf regional cooperationconfident that the lessons of oldthe new momentum for altering internationalwill lift them over these hurdles.

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Original document.

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