Word: velascos
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AFTER a military coup brought Juan Velasco Alvarado to power in Peru 21 months ago, United States relations with that country almost degenerated into a cold war. Angered by what Peruvians called the "unjust enrichment" of the International Petroleum Co., Velasco seized the company's oilfields. Subsequently, Peru also took over U.S.-owned sugar lands. Only intervention by Richard Nixon stayed U.S. retaliation under the Hickenlooper Amendment, which would have imposed economic sanctions on Peru. Even so, the diplomatic climate was markedly frigid, and Peru went unabashedly seeking Russia's aid to play against its traditional ally...
...week later she was on her way. Arriving in Lima, Mrs. Nixon was greeted by Mrs. Consuelo Velasco and 6,000 people. The following morning, sitting beside the co-pilot in a chrome and plastic chair without a seat belt, she headed for the mountains in a C-130 transport plane. "It was the first time I'd ever taken off in a kitchen chair," she laughed. The nine tons of donated supplies included blankets, roofing, tools and even a custom-tailored dinner jacket. Some of these she saw already piled along the dirt airstrip when she landed...
...Nixon pledged that the United States "will continue to help until everything is rosy once again." Her trip perhaps could not alter the realties of Peru-U.S. relations, but her personal gesture contrasted with the Soviets' opportunistic bid for the good will of Peru. As President Velasco observed: "To have President Nixon send his wife here means more to me than if he had sent the whole American Air Force...
Full Jails. Because of the country's reeling disarray, most Ecuadorians greeted the dictatorship calmly. More than just a few regarded its tough stance with approval. Velasco shut the universities, dissolved Congress and promised a shake-up of the Supreme Court, which has sided with his opponents in the tax-collection disputes. Many Ecuadorians hoped that Velasco's attempts to tighten tax policies and end private speculation in foreign exchange might help loosen the oligarchy's stranglehold on the country's economic life. The military took advantage of the takeover to crack and shave student skulls...
...part, the new dictator-president was making no promises. Could he count on continued popular support? a reporter asked. "Look, sir," Velasco replied, "owner of the future I am not. What will happen? I don't know, but for the moment I have the multitudes behind me." So far, the net effect of Velasco's fifth presidency has only been to put more of South America's multitudes under authoritarian rule. Six South American countries, accounting for nearly 75% of the continent's 200 million people, are now governed by military or military-backed regimes...