Subsidizing Pinochet:
Hakim, Peter
tions, the hierarchy of the Catholic church was slow and iar Declaration Nostra Aetate"); or "We must also accept our cautious in reacting to what the Nazis did to the Jews. It was ...
...Those without jobs are concentrated years since, the availability of commercial credit for Chile has among the country's lowest paid workers...
...If, to the con- scheduled for final review this fall...
...On the other What is conspicuously missing from these statements, howhand, I doubt whether Jewish demands for ever new con- ever, is any mention of the problem of human survival - the fessions of guilt by the Christian churches are useful today...
...If the U.S...
...facing another passing storm of criticism, it must be made The time for flexibility has passed...
...Would it help move Chile toward elections and essential for economic growth...
...So far, ernment and to the Chilean people...
...The unemployment rate is economy following the emergence of the debt crisis in 1982...
...It was responsibility to prepare the world for the coming of the likewise slow and cautious in expressing its regrets once the Messiah by working together for social justice, respect for the ordeal was over...
...Pantex...
...But more age greater than all but for two Latin American countries...
...Mojtabai found, is "an ever-deepening despair of Stopping Place, and Autumn - she was just starting to write a human possibilities...
...business and financial community, the last stronghold of What the United States says and does with regard to Chile is civilian support for Pinochet...
...Loans from the World Bank and the Inter-American the labor force were enrolled in government make-work progDevelopment Bank (IDB) assumed a key role in the country's rams that pay $20 to $40 per month...
...But even that loyalty would be tested by growing impatience with the lack of any progress toward a sustained U.S...
...A particularly ugly manifestation of Chilean government PETER HAKIM is the staff director of the Inter-American Dialogue, brutality occurred this past July...
...In the shanty towns plummeted...
...by United States - for the first time since 1981 - not only halting plans for the construction of an emergency landing endorsed, but initiated a United Nations resolution condemn- strip for shuttle flights on Chile's Easter Island...
...In fact, country's yearly interest bill is nearly $2 billion, equal to since 1975 every loan on which the United States either approximately 50 percent of its export earnings - a percen- abstained or voted against was eventually approved...
...The government's reaction was swift - and doubtless sufficient to produce such a postponement...
...On This is high prairie, windy, big sky country, virtually off the August 23, 1982, Bishop Leroy Theodore Matthiesen of U.S...
...that we consider, as did Franz Finally, we should welcome certain statements by church Rosenzweig, Christianity and Judaism as two forms of salvaauthorities: "The people of God of the Old and the New tion history...
...The official unemployment rate Multilateral bank loans are critically important to Chile's reached nearly 20 percent in 1983 - and another 11 percent of economy...
...year, but particularly on August 6 and during Lent, however, the city is invaded by anti-nuclear activists who climb over T OOLAN: When you say early on in the introduction to Pantex's barbed wire and netted steel fences to protest, pray, Blessed Assurance, "I am a Jew," and "the prospect of a and get arrested...
...In the four years of the Carter administration, only Chile's imports were only 40 percent of what they had been in eight loans to Chile (totaling $211 million) came to a vote...
...pressure for change, reinforced by the real democratic transition...
...they are Pinochet...
...But the U.S...
...Lest he or his backers assume they are merely stand, above all else, for democracy in Chile...
...There is no question that, Pinochet has been able to count on the unquestioned fealty of in the past year, the White House has distanced itself from the the army - the branch of the armed forces that ultimately will Pinochet regime...
...By 1985, Chile could secure only $750 million in similar larly the poor - have little hope for real economic improvecommercial loans, and this year the amount will drop to less ment for themselves, their families, or their children...
...International loans are a particularly seri- The message would also be heard by key members of the ous matter...
...Ambassador Harry Barnes, who replaced a U.S...
...armed forces...
...now about 15 percent, with another 7 percent or so in the Before that, Chile's external financial needs were met almost make-work programs...
...map in the western Texas Panhandle...
...MULTILATERAL LOANS & U.S...
...negative consequences of technological "progress...
...In the past year alone, both the whose governments "engage in a pattern of gross violations of Organization of American States and the United Nations have internationally-recognized human rights...
...Certainly, us is aware today that the hubris of one race caused the the fact that a great many diaspora-Jews closed their eyes to the genocide of gypsies and Jews, as well as the suffering and treatment of Palestinians at the hands, of Israeli authorities deaths of unknown numbers of dissenters...
...and other governments to promote the Pinochet regime since it took power in 1973 is well known...
...When Congress enacted £ _N1___ this legislation, it was with the Pinochet dictatorship specifiI T'S THE law...
...Without its $1.1 billion in multilateral bank loans in in President Reagan's first term, seventeen loans for $1.7 1985, Chile would have had to slash imports by another third billion were approved...
...opposition to Multilateral bank loans are thus critical to Chile: they allow multilateral loans to Chile...
...There is an open and shut case for applying Section 701 to The fact is, however, the economic situation of the great Chile...
...State Department...
...Pinochet and his backers with real incentive for change...
...six a democratic transition, the United States will continue to use magazines and two news services were shut down: and its leverage to keep the loans on hold...
...I do not exclude the possibility that this rights of persons and nations, and for social and international attitude contributed to the decline in the church's prestige and reconciliation" ("Notes...
...depression since the 1930s...
...often than not, strong early U.S...
...would be to initiate UST DAYS before the thirteenth anniversary of the an effort to have consideration of all multilateral loans to Chile blondy coup that brought him to power, General Au- postponed for at least six months...
...economic development world-wide...
...bishop's statement...
...made it abundantly clear where he stands...
...These majority of Chileans...
...Washington's words and actions are given wide the way of new loans and that his continued intransigence attention by the Chilean media, and they do exert political threated their economic interests...
...For as long as such legislation remains unenforced, it took power, economic policy, in good times and bad, has conveys a weak U.S...
...influence within the gusto Pinochet became the target of a guerrilla attempt on international financial institutions, if we choose to use it, is his life...
...influence in a number of European countries...
...The In the coming months, decisions will be made on $800 to other, Carmen Gloria Quintana, remains in critical condition $900 million in new multilateral loans for Chile...
...unions are allowed freely to organize and represent workers, In the past year, Chile has begun slowly to emerge from its when Chileans can openly press their demands through voice worst economic...
...As one ranking federal officer at Pantex put it, the Boone Pickens of Mesa Oil to Sunday school teachers and overall reaction to the bishop's letter has been " a great None...
...A state of Washington should make clear to the Chilean government siege was reimposed on the country...
...would U.S...
...But she couldn't put the bishop's call out of her mind...
...What is most needed clear this time the U.S...
...than $400 million...
...Democracy is not a panacea...
...The U.S...
...about absolutely anything, `the more of the whole world I see First and foremost, Blessed Assurance addresses a severe in it.' " In some sense, "every American is host and hostage to communication problem...
...discriminated against workers and low-income groups generThere are two important questions to ask about the applica- ally...
...and they help keep Chile in democracy...
...Throughout every with Grace Mojtabai in New York City...
...From 1982 to and vote, and when they can once again participate in govern1985, the country's per capita income dropped by 10 percent, ment...
...by standing unambiguously for human rights, free elections, and democratic renewal in Chile...
...envoy The United States could send even stronger signals to the regarded by many Chileans as an apologist for Pinochet, has Chilean military by ending its participation in joint maneuvers...
...He has dealt 26 September 1986: 493 with four U.S...
...goods are already a major bottleneck to domestic production...
...opposition to these loans contribute to real politi- No country in Latin America has been plagued with higher cal change in Chile...
...Those that are brought forward would more likely be addresMultilateral bank loans have been crucial to the success of sed to basic human needs - which might at least benefit the Chile's continuing debt negotiations with private banks...
...at Rodrigo Rojas are brought to justice, unless human rights least twelve people have disappeared and five have been abuses are eliminated and concrete measures are taken toward killed, most likely by public security forces...
...representatives to those mul- official human rights agencies - including the annual reports tilateral lending agencies to oppose assistance to countries of the U.S...
...creased hardships for all Chileans - rich and poor alike...
...can buttress their efforts not be broken until democracy is restored to Chile...
...Both 26 September 1986: 491 were subsequently denied adequate treatment...
...Administration officials have expressed decide Chile's future...
...Shortages of im- If the United States made it clear that it intended to enforce ported spare parts, equipment, raw material, and intermediary Section 701, fewer loans would be proposed and processed...
...In the wages continue to fall...
...GRACE MOJTABAI' ON BOMBS & BIBLES IN AMARILLO Living with apoca1ypse DAVID TOOLAN third fence, "the barrier of incomprehension which continues to separate the demonstrators from the people working inside low E URGE individuals involved in the production and from the townspeople of Amarillo...
...varieties of American exceptionalism, one the pseudoShe kept going back to it, increasingly curious to discover how religious faith in steady technological progress, the other "the the bishop's summons was being heard - or "how people of conviction of blessed assurance, the promise, for true believconscience, loving parents, thoughtful neighbors, and devoted ers, of exemption and safety from the suffering that might churchgoers lived calmly with the prospect of nuclear destruc- befall others...
...Rodrigo Rojas de Negri of Washington, D.C., died...
...religious 'patrimony or...
...Mojtabai lets these people speak, lets them Ramos, father of seven, has responded by resigning from the have faces beyond stereotypical ones - from corporate-raider company...
...or the "Jewish and come the absolute rule of instrumental reason in' favor of a Christian tradition, founded on the Word of God, is aware of ratio enlightened by faith...
...The assassination attempt and the government's sub- U.S...
...to remain current on its debt obligations...
...But 1981...
...One of them, good standing with the international financial community...
...Shocking and outrageous, but not sur- are not approved, Chile's economy will suffer, causing inprising if one follows events in Chile...
...actually votes on the nearly $1 billion ment to the country's democratic opposition...
...Discord within the military has been muted so If the United States wants to make its influence felt, it must far, but there have been some dissenting voices - particularly...
...votes - unless the It would be heard most loudly by Chile's conservative White House begins now seriously to mobilize the opposition of other countries...
...Amarillo is both host and hostage to Pantex...
...And second, The minimum wage is 80 percent of what is was then...
...Furthermore, the aware of the possibility that the hubris of the industrialized part specific problems of theodicy and of the nature of sin and evil of the human race - represented by the ideologies of unlimwhich arose as a consequence of the Holocaust, should, I ited competition and search for success - may lead to the believe, be left to the theologians: to the Catholic ones who suicide of humankind as a whole...
...Chilean soldiers doused two Washington, D.C...
...Would it, at least, promote greater respect for Commonweal: 492 human rights in an authoritarian Chile...
...administrations, and has seen vacillations in waiver in our opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship, that we U.S...
...Statements from the understanding of the United States's position that a serious administration following the burning of Rodrigo Rojas have democratic transition must begin now...
...They will almost certainly lobbied against the loans, the message would be reinforced...
...Love of the same God Christians and Jews is not each other's religious tradition and must show itself in effective action for the good of mankind" belief but the hubris of the modern mind after its renunciation ("Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Council- of God...
...Chilean economy and for the Chilean people...
...and stockpiling of nuclear bombs to consider Who are these townspeople...
...tion, unemployment remains in excess of 50 percent...
...be approved - no matter how the U.S...
...Chile's outstanding foreign debt is now approximately $20 The United States does not exercise a veto power over billion, one of the two highest per capita in Latin America...
...opposition to a loan will After paying interest obligations, Chile is left with precious prevent it from being brought forward, or even requested in the little foreign exchange for imports...
...First, what is the economic skewed today than it was when the military took charge...
...Only 10 to 15 percent of the loans 'in the multilateral loans facilitated a major debt rescheduling pac- past five years fell into the human needs category...
...Since Pinochet tion...
...Disquieting, however, was his plea to vote in favor of critical bank loans...
...In the light of this possibilspeak of "God after Auschwitz," and to the Jewish ones who ity, is it enough that Christians and Jews recognize a common speak of the "hidden God" and of "holy secularity...
...The author of four critically acclaimed What keeps Amarilloans impervious to the nuclear arms novels - Mundome, The 400 Eels of Sigmund Freud, A race, Ms...
...Eventually it led to the But the reader, who does not live in Amarillo, is not left off making of a remarkable book, Blessed Assurance: At Home the hook...
...convey a clear and consistent message to the Pinochet gov- on the extension of Pinochet's rule beyond 1989...
...to help promote human rights and restore democracy denying Chileans their right freely to choose their leaders, to Chile...
...That despair is anesthetized by two fifth...
...President Reagan himself reducing military-to-military relations...
...A 1982 study of local attitudes toward the plant re- Two days before the centennial celebration of the Statue of vealed that " not one respondent pointed to a moral position as Lady Liberty last July, I conducted the following interview the cause for stress resulting from Pantex...
...and by sharply, ing human rights violations in Chile...
...Each of Suffering does not necessarily ennoble the victim...
...including torture, illegal executions, disappearances, mass If there is any government to which Section 701 is meant to arrests, and arbitrary imprisonment...
...policy...
...influence in Chile...
...The task of undoing the Pinochet regime Justify its continued repression...
...Pinochet has now held power for thirteen years...
...Respected leaders of and the Chilean people what it is doing and why...
...Exception is made issued extensive reports on human rights violations in Chile --only for assistance that serves basic human needs...
...kage in 1985 that was worth nearly $2 billion to Chile...
...commitment to human rights...
...The result, which Back in Cambridge, Massachusetts that August, however, fleshes out the pervasive influence of fundamentalist Grace Mojtabai clipped and filed a newspaper report of the apocalypticism, is both disturbing and illuminating...
...Today, economic economic welfare and social equity...
...danger of economic deterioration...
...AMARILLO, WE LIKE WHO WE what they are doing, to resign from such ac- ARE," says the Chamber of Commerce sign at the city limit...
...Amarillo's story is parable...
...This March, the by ceasing further sales of military equipment or supplies...
...Pantex is the It, I Believe It, That Ends It...
...In 1985, for example, first place...
...The adversary at this moment for the human person, the image of God...
...Is it not necessary that Christians and Jews, Testament are tending towards a like end in the future: the regardless of their unhappy relationship in the past or their coming or the return of the Messiah - even if they start from different religious conceptions, combine their efforts to overtwo different points of view" ("Notes...
...But whatever im- of State Elliot Abrams stated that if a vote on multilateral pact it may be having will surely be blunted if the United States loans to Chile were held, he would recommend that the United were to deny the applicability of Section 701 to Chile and were States oppose such loans...
...Mojtabai's book is concerned to cross a holocaust consuming millions of human beings can never be Commonweal: 494...
...Are we equally precludes any claim to moral superiority...
...But even as employment has improved, entirely by massive borrowing from commercial banks...
...It must be part of an overall strategy by Chile...
...It cannot guarantee to the level it was twenty years earlier...
...If these loans in a Chilean hospital...
...Section 701 of the Act, It has been documented in report after report by private and approved in 1976, requires U.S...
...Those loans are already in trary, the United States not only voted against but actively an advanced stage of negotiation...
...It's also Moral Amarillo, Texas, addressed that exhortation to workers at the Majority, Bible-belt territory, where "God Said It, Jesus Did Pantex nuclear assembly plant outside Amarillo...
...Nothing would reassure to Congress to allow the administration "flexibility" in decidthe Pinochet government more, or be of greater disappoint- ing how the U.S...
...It should also the democratic opposition, none of whom was remotely make clear that, unless those responsible for the killing of implicated in the assassination attempt, were jailed...
...By repressing legitimate and peaceful dissent, by the U.S...
...Since that time, only one person, Elroy synagogue...
...Mojtabai, "I find with the Bomb in Amarillo, Texas (Houghton Mifflin, $16.95, myself staring at the United States through Amarillo, indeed, 255 pp...
...Often, these days," writes Ms...
...Chile is now dependent on multilateral loans for of Santiago, which house about one-third of the city's populaneeded external financing...
...POLICY Subsidizing Pinochet PETER HAKIM apply, it is the government of Chile...
...means business, that we will not now is resolve and convincing action...
...The cycle of violence will belongs to the Chileans...
...Her curiosity became insistent...
...There must be no mishas criticized ":entrenched military rule...
...been strong in their condemnation of the Pinochet regime and in their calls for a return to democratic rule...
...The title comes from an old Protestant hymn, "Bles- the longer I look at this city, as Flannery O'Connor liked to say sed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine...
...Under the Pinochet regime, the Chilean people - particuIn 1981, Chile borrowed $3.3 billion from private banks...
...tivities, and to seek employment in peaceful pursuits...
...teenage protestors with gasoline and set them on fire...
...D.T...
...preachers Charles Jones and Royce Elms...
...characteristically brutal and indiscriminate...
...Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, that were The pattern of human rights abuses that has characterized established by the U.S...
...is the only hope for a better life...
...cannot and should not determine the course the dictatorship calls forth the violence that it then uses to of Chilean politics...
...significance of multilateral development bank loans for the Average wage levels are lower today than they were in 1970...
...Would it hasten the fall of the country to maintain imports vital to its economy...
...Amarillo has more than two final assembly plant of all nuclear weapons manufactured in hundred churches - 191 Protestant, 10 Catholic, 1 the United States...
...But for most Chileans, it recovery in Chile requires multilateral loans...
...or "We must also accept our cautious in reacting to what the Nazis did to the Jews...
...The distribution of income and wealth in Chile is far more tion of Section 701 to Chile...
...This would provide soldiers invaded several slum areas of the capital city...
...What would be the political effect of U.S...
...In contrast, multilateral bank loans to Economic progress for the mass of Chilean people will remain Chile, which totaled only $130 million in 1981, soared to $1.1 foreclosed until the return of democratic rule - when labor billion by 1985...
...opposition to further multilateral loans to Chile cannot sequent crackdown, have not changed the basic reality of be an isolated gesture...
...TESTIFYING before Congress on July 30, Assistant Secretary The message should be getting through...
...The multilateral loans - to Chile or to any other country...
...The International Financial Institutions Act cally in mind...
...Despite years of protest in Chile, and earlier this (Public Law 95-118), governs United States participation month a serious attempt on General Pinochet's life, that dicin seven international organizations, including the World tatorship appears still firmly entrenched...
...government fails to do so, Section 701 is majority of Chileans is already bleak, and is likely to remain so clearly ineffective, an example of counter-productive legisla- until there is a change of regime in the country...
...levels of unemployment...
...Pinochet simply could not main-, taken extremely seriously by Chileans - inside and outside of tain the backing of these groups if it were clear that he stood in government...
...The best immediate strategy for the U.S...
Vol. 113 • September 1986 • No. 16
