SPAIN, THE U.S., AND LATIN AMERICA
Martin, Benjamin
Since taking office last December, Spain's new Socialist government has accorded foreign policy a central role. This signifies quite a turnabout. For, ever since the beginning of this...
...Among other things, the Spaniards urge the inclusion of Nicaragua and Cuba in regional peace talks rather than treating them as pariahs...
...Consequently, as the Administration becomes more deeply bogged down in Central America, and with every sign that this will become a major issue in the coming American presidential election campaign, Gonzalez's peacemaking efforts are going to become increasingly uncomfortable for the beleaguered policy-makers in Washington...
...But with the more hard-nosed approach that now dominates U.S...
...Hence, what to do about Gonzalez's increasingly vexatious involvement in Central America when the United States is embarked on a diametrically opposite course...
...During his many visits to the area in recent years he has developed close relations with such leading political figures as the 417 presidents of the Dominican Republic and Colombia and with the former presidents of Venezuela and Panama...
...For, ever since the beginning of this century—excepting the Civil War of the 1930s—Spain has been rather a passive witness than a participant on the international scene...
...WIIAT or -HIE RISKS a small country like Spain runs in opposing the North American colossus...
...It has, however, never amounted to much, because Spain's society was in decline, incapable of furnishing the needed economic and technological assistance...
...Spain now also has become a major haven for Latin Americans of a democratic persuasion...
...An Administration that has given only lip service to the negotiating part of its "two-track" policy, and that is increasingly committed to military solutions, could not be further removed from what Prime Minister Gonzalez has in mind...
...So far, the Socialist government remains opposed to full integration and is pledged to conduct a popular referendum on whether to remain in the Alliance...
...Gonzalez acts the part of leader of a friendly country that wants to help reach a peaceful resolution of the El Salvador civil war...
...Preparations now are under way for the launching of joint French-Spanish initiatives in Latin America, one of which—the international situation permitting—involves receiving Castro as an official guest in Paris, Madrid, and Stockholm sometime this fall...
...He has thus far emerged as the champion of the Contadora formula, to which will soon be added the rallying of European support behind Spain's efforts...
...Gonzalez was particularly close to Omar Torrijos of Panama, and he is also on good terms with Fidel Castro and the Nicaraguan Sandinists (a Sandinist emissary met with him during his visit to the Dominican Republic...
...Both Secretary of State George Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger have visited Madrid since the Socialists took office...
...policy in Latin America...
...The Venezuelan Democratic Alliance party is an affiliate of the Socialist International and expected to win the presidential election to be held later this year...
...in behalf of a negotiated solution to the Salvadoran conflict...
...Before becoming prime minister, in the years 1980-81, as the Socialist International's policy-directing vice-chair, he spent considerable time searching for a formula to end the civil war in El Salvador, and since then has been on cordial terms with most Central American and Caribbean political leaders...
...Much of the new Spanish activism is sparked by Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, who has a thorough and exceptional grounding in foreign-policy matters...
...At each stopover he publicly deplored the "negative" aspects of the present U.S...
...at least 100,000, many of them refugees, now reside in Spain...
...But his role is bound to become ever more unnerving as the Americanization of the conflict proceeds...
...The disrepute of the Franco dictatorship consigned the country to still greater, enforced international isolation, which was partly alleviated in the '50s, when it submitted to a client-state relationship with the United States...
...Spain's prospect of gaining early entry into the Common Market seems to be slim...
...Now the Socialist government of a democratic Spain seeks to strengthen the traditional ties by support for democratic development, human rights, and the struggle for social justice...
...He is, after all, also the Socialist International's principal speaker on Latin American questions...
...The State Department has seen the wisdom of meeting with Gonzalez periodically...
...So far, it was rarely more than a self-serving doctrine charged with ethnocentric arrogance...
...Coming home to Madrid from his last South American tour, he was pessimistic about the possibility of an early end to the violence in Central America...
...WASIIINGTON POLICY-MAKERS view Spain's increas ing involvement with the countries south of our border with some concern...
...For this reason Spain's role in Latin America is receiving redoubled attention...
...The Spaniards feel they must assume a leading role in negotiations and peace-making efforts, and Gonzalez's background for this task indeed is most helpful...
...A related matter, what sort of conditional collaboration in the Western defense system the government should institute, is now under study...
...2) A recasting of the relationship with the 416 United States, with Spain taking a more assertive position in the context of relatively friendly relations...
...The best that can be expected is a lengthy, piecemeal accession that may start in 1984 and will progress through '85 and '86...
...Madrid hoped thereby to serve as a valid interlocutor with the U.S...
...The nebulous concept of "hispanismo"—exalting the spiritual and cultural links of Spanish America to the patria madre—has been touted periodically by writers and intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic...
...Shortly before his arrival in Washington, Gonzalez undertook barnstorming visits to the Dominican Republic, and to Columbia, Venezuela, Panama, and Mexico to align Spain with the efforts of the Contadora countries (his visit included all four), which propose to bring an end to the fighting in Central America through negotiations...
...More recently, the center-right government of Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, which preceded the present Socialist administration, purposely kept the Spanish presence in Latin America low key in order to avoid clashes with the Reagan administration...
...Over the past four years, "Felipe" has been serving as vice-chair of the Socialist International, charged with the direction of its activities in Latin America...
...And Latin American writers, painters, and political leaders are frequent visitors to Madrid and Barcelona...
...Gonzalez's bid for a role in finding a way out of the Central American morass cannot be easily fobbed off by the United States...
...Gonzalez, however, has no illusions...
...The reestablishment of links with Spanish-speaking America is obviously motivated, first of all, by a desire to expand Spain's economic influence in that region—but also by an old sense of ethnic, cultural, and political solidarity...
...Latin America, it should be recalled, contains thousands of Spanish nationals, and countless local nationals with family ties to Spain...
...policy on Central America, it is uncertain whether Gonzalez will continue to be treated with such deference...
...The Franco regime used hispanismo to break out of its international isolation: it established close ties with such Latin-American leaders as the PerOns, Somoza, Trujillo, and Perez Jimenez...
...Prime Minister Gonzalez's official visit to Washington this June was seen in Madrid as a crucial element in legitimizing Spain's role in Central American peace-making efforts...
...Last December the Socialists, upon taking office, "froze" efforts in this direction that had begun the preceding May...
...The two governments have put forward drastically different solutions for dealing with the violence that is engulfing Central America...
...The government's Institute for I bero-American Cooperation, headed by Luis Variez, a prominent colleague of Gonzalez, recently had its budget doubled...
...Surely, this is not the best of times to attempt to persuade the Reagan administration of the error of its ways in Central America...
...More recently, in the years of post-Franco democratization, I 976– 82, an overwhelming preoccupation with the new parliamentary structure and domestic problems— together with the fact that for the last two of those years an increasingly indecisive center-right government held office—resulted in further neglect of most foreign-policy issues...
...But since then Gonzalez's public endorsement of NATO's decision to install Pershing missiles in Europe (though not in Spain) has served to bring the two countries closer together...
...Thomas Enders, then assistant secretary of state for Latin America, journeyed to Madrid not so long ago in an effort to sell Gonzalez on the Administration's "two-track" policy...
...On the surface, relations between Madrid and Washington remain cordial and correct...
...However irksome the Spanish censure of American policies, the presence of American military bases in Spain and Spain's increasingly conciliatory attitude toward the Atlantic Alliance necessarily impose a posture of benevolent tolerance—especially since our Defense Department is eager for Spain's full integration into NATO...
...Shortly after returning from Stockholm where he had received the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez headed for Madrid to congratulate Felipe Gonzalez upon being elected prime minister...
...3) A concerted strengthening of the ties with Latin America...
...SPAIN'S NI,W 10121:ION-POI APPROACH has a threepronged thrust: ( I ) To gain recognition as a full-fledged participant in European affairs through entry in the Common Market...
Vol. 30 • September 1983 • No. 4
