Transatlantic Ties
There are thousands of international sports events each year, most of which pass unnoticed outside the sports pages. But, like the 1971 appearance of U.S. ping-pong players in China, the game...
...David Fig, "Chile Gets Full Treatment," The Guardian (London), June 17, 1981...
...Brazilians interested in Africa were divided into two groups...
...Brazil now emphasizes its African heritage in population and culture as enthusiastically as it once embraced the Portuguese...
...2122 NACLA Report Yet, at about this same time, journals linked to South American navies (Hoy in Argentina, Que Pasa in Chile and Jornal do Brasil) ran articles casting South Africa in a particularly favorable light...
...ping-pong players in China, the game between the South African Springboks and Argentina's national rugby team, on the same day as Argentina's occupation of the Malvinas/ Falkland islands, was more than just a sports story...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 110...
...Oppen- heimer arranged Ambras' purchase of a 49% share in a steel manufacturing company...
...Naval attaches were exchanged and joint naval exercises planned...
...Argentina's claim to three tiny islands in the Beagle Channel at the very tip of South America rests on this assertion...
...I, no...
...Excelsior(Mexico), May 21, 1975, cited in Waksman, "El Proyecto," p. 334...
...In Argentina, the by now infamous "dirty war" which the junta launched against all traces of civilian opposition-resulting in the death, torture and disappearance of thousands of Argentines-was accompanied by the flowering of the most virulent right-wing propaganda...
...2 (Winter 1978-79...
...Business Week...
...Waksman, "El Proyecto," pp...
...These Latin American investments are part of Anglo's strategy to diversify operations outside South Africa for political and economic reasons...
...South Africa opened a new embassy in Santiago and Chile reciprocated by opening a consulate in Pretoria in March 1976.17 South African Tango Years before the military coup of March 1976 the Argentine armed forces, as well as some business groups, had flirted with the apartheid regime...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," pp...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 112...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 104...
...See chart...
...Beginning with diplomatic relations with just five countries in 1966 (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay), South Africa increased the number to thirteen by 1974 (adding Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 102...
...When Vorster visited Uruguay in 1975 he commented: "Our cooperation can be developed at all levels, because we are the same kind of men...
...It reveals as much about the political character of certain Latin American regimes as it does about the exigencies that compelled South Africa to initiate the process...
...Barbara Rogers and Zdenek Cervenka, The Nuclear Axis (New York: Times Books, 1978), pp...
...3 (July-September 1977), p. 62...
...Anglo also has investments in Peru, Bolivia and Chile, through its mining operations subsidiary, Shaft Sinkers...
...The new approach facilitated Brazil's oil purchases from the Nigerian National Oil Company as well as its entry into African markets...
...Uruguayan Association Against Racism and Apartheid, "The Policy of Cooperation with the South African Regime in Uruguay," January 1982 report, Geneva, citing La Manana (Montevideo), 12...
...In Uruguay, the pro-military press has conducted a long propaganda campaign on behalf of the apartheid regime...
...100ff...
...3. United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, pp...
...While on the run for the 1976 assassination of Chilean exile leader Orlando Letelier and his U.S...
...Robert A. Manning, "A South Atlantic Pact in the Making," Southern Africa (April 1977), p. 5; Waksman, "El Proyecto," p. 339, citing Robert A. Manning, "Pretoria Plays the Latin American Card," Le Monde Diplomatique, March 1977...
...Following the coup cooperation between BOSS and its Chilean counterpart, DINA, blossomed...
...The Latin American Connection" (Part II), p. 61...
...And General Alfredo Stroessner retained his title as the region's longest ruling dictator, dating his power from 1954...
...But the Carter Administration moved quickly to distance itself from the repressive regimes on both sides of the South Atlantic...
...One, represented by Finance Minister Antonio Delfim Neto, sympathized with Portugal and South Africa, and while acknowledging the value of increasing trade relations with black African countries, wanted Brazil to remain close to the two white regimes...
...The presence of Argentine torture experts in Pretoria, combined with reports that South Africans (along with Salvadoreans) have received military training in Argentina, have led some observers to conclude that the recent- ly reported rise in the torture of South African and Namibian detainees bears an Argentine imprint.42 TRANSATLANTIC TIES 1. United Nations, Special Committee Against Apartheid, Subcommittee on the Implementation of the United Nations Resolutions and Collaboration with South Africa, Draft Report on the Relations Between South Africa and Latin America, p. 2; Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 95...
...337-38...
...And South Africa imposes its rule upon the African majority of Namibia, in flagrant violation of international law...
...March 17, 1980...
...General Hugo Banzer overthrew the progressive Bolivian government of Colonel Juan Jos6 Torres in 1971...
...Sanders, "Brazil's Foreign Policy," pp...
...Mineracao SA, in which Ambras had acquired a minority stake in 1975...
...o In October 1976 Uruguay was the only country in the world to send a representative to the fake "independence" ceremonies of the Transkei, a South African controlled "homeland" or bantustan...
...Forbes, July 7. 1980...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," pp...
...Latin America, Vol...
...Anglo frequently operates in Brazil in partnership with a Portuguese firm, Sofin, with which it worked on the massive Cabora Basa Dam in Mozambique...
...New York Times, December 2, 1981;Africa Now, May 1982...
...2. Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 93, citing Reynders Commission report, p. 166...
...3 Starting from negligible levels, trade between Latin America and South Africa increased fourfold between 1969 and 1973.4 Opening to Brazil The 1964 military coup in Brazil provided South Africa with its first significant opening on the continent...
...Anglo American is the world's largest gold mining firm, and its affiliate, De Beers Consolidated Mines, monopolizes the world's diamond trade...
...During the Puerto Belgrano conclave of U.S., Argentine and Brazilian admirals, an article by influential strategist and retired general Juan Enrique Guglialmelli appeared in the military journal Estrategia...
...Policy Shifts Shifts in U.S...
...Waksman, "El Proyecto," pp...
...In 1981 Phibro purchased the Wall Street investment house, Salomon Brothers...
...4. "The Latin American Connection," Sechaba (African National Congress), Vol...
...While political conditions for a formal military alliance were not present, South African-Southern Cone ties continued to multiply...
...Fearing total diplomatic isolation as well as an economic embargo, South Africa quickly launched a counterattack...
...Business-Military Partnership In general, the Southern Cone military regimes have been aligned with those business sectors most tied to the international economy as exporters, importers and suppliers, and as managers for subsidiaries of multinational corporations and banks...
...Figures for 1966-1975 excluding 1970, from David Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," Britain and Latin America, pp...
...Three years later, South African Airways opened direct flights between Capetown and Buenos Aires and South Africa became a favorite vacation spot for middle-and upper-class Argentines...
...On April 7 all four admirals gathered in Puerto Belgrano, where they reportedly discussed the impact of events in Angola on the security of the South Atlantic...
...XI, no...
...339-40...
...The Springboks' tour sparked protests in the United States, demonstrations in England and riots in New Zealand that threatened that country's government...
...But it is also involved in steel, chemicals, heavy engineering, construction, paper, textiles, insurance and merchant banking, along with activities related to mining such as explosives, drill- ing equipment and geological services...
...Figures for 1980 include both military items and petroleum products...
...Washington Post, August 9, 1980...
...Second, the collapse of Portuguese rule in Africa and the coming to power of what were perceived to be anti-Western, pro-Soviet liberation movements provided Pretoria and the Southern Cone regimes with a convenient rationale for their growing ties...
...And Minorco has indirect interest, through Consolidated Gold Fields of Britain, in Newmont Mining, one of the world's largest copper producers, and Peabody Coal, the United States' largest coal company...
...1 (January 1981...
...The consolidation of military rule in the Southern Cone altered the political coloration of the continent...
...On November 10, 1975, one day before the official proclamation of Angolan independence, the Brazilian foreign ministry announced its recognition of the MPLA government...
...Six months later, the steel company in turn bought the remaining shares of Brazil's oldest gold mining firm, Morro Velho Geo...
...Sunday Times (Johannesburg), October 18, 1981...
...Among them were Rear Admiral Rub& Chamorro, commander of the Escuela Mecfinica de la Armada, where as many as 4,000 Argentines may have been imprisoned and tortured before being killed...
...David Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," in Latin America Bureau, Brifain and Latin America...
...LatinAmerica, Vol...
...Santiago Chile Domestic Service, 1100GMT, October 10, 1981, as cited in FBIS, October 16, 1981, p. E3...
...8 The Southern Cone regimes and South Africa developed ties with other countries 20MaylJune 1982 which were ideologically compatible and/or isolated diplomatically, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Iran under the Shah and Israel...
...These operations allegedly included third party transfers of arms to South Africa through Para- guay and Brazil, in violation of the U.N...
...The Latin American Connection" (Part II), pp...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 111...
...see also Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 102...
...InJune 1972 an Argentine-South African Chamber of Commerce was established, becoming a center for pro-South African lobbying in business and military circles...
...In 1969 South African Airways inaugurated direct flights between Johannesburg and Rio de Janeiro...
...81 (May 1978), p. 65...
...The Same Kind of Men" Ideological affinity is one reason the new military regimes of the Southern Cone responded positively to South Africa's solicitations...
...Schneider, "Geostrategic Perspectives," p. 19...
...South African teams have been barred from most international competition, including the Olympic games...
...Neil Hopper, "Our Friends the Argentines," Sunday Times (Johannesburg), April 25, 1982...
...During an October 1979 trip to Brazil...
...South Africa in particular figured in Argentina's ideological call to arms in a World 18 NACLA ReportMayIJuno 1982 19 Prime Minister Vorster speaking at a 1975 state banquet given by General Stroessner...
...and Lieuten- ant Alfred0 Astiz, alleged to be personally responsible for the murders in Argentina of two French nuns, as well as the shooting and im- prisonment of a SwedisWArgentine national, in 1977.'' Astiz later turned up as the com- mander of the Argentine garrison on South Georgia island, where he was captured when the British retook the island...
...Even while it joined in rhetorical condemnations of apartheid, the regime welcomed South Africa' s efforts to expand bilateral trade...
...admirals George Ellis and James Sagerholm, respectively the incoming and outgoing heads of U.S...
...The Guardian (London), June 17, 1981...
...As this economic internationalization process went forward, South Africa offered both a new market for exports and a new source of investment and technology...
...The other, including an increasingly influential group within Itamarty (the Brazilian Foreign Ministry), felt that Brazil's real future would require abandoning the previous pattern of relations with Portugal and South Africa and supporting anticolonialism, antiracism and independence of the black Africans.' South African Advances in the Mid-Seventies Despite Brazil's incipient shift to Black Africa, South African efforts to forge links with Latin America won some major advances, particularly from 1974 to 1976...
...Anglo has also operated in partnership with the British firm, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) with which it has a South African- based joint venture, African Explosives and Chemicals Industries (AECI...
...Tetagua Supakai(New York, Boletinl nformativo de la Comisi6n de Apoyo al Acuerdo Nacional Paraguayo), Vol...
...Navy units with various Latin American navies...
...Washington Post, May 14, 1982...
...In recent years South Africa has provided regular intelligence train- ing to Argentine military per~onnel.~' The Argentines have sent a different kind of specialist...
...Two factors accounted for South Africa's good fortunes in this period: first, the consolidation of military rule in the Southern Cone provided South Africa with receptive targets for its initiatives...
...For Brazil the end of Portuguese colonialism and the growing importance of relations with African suppliers of oil (Brazil is the largest importer of oil in the third world) allowed the Foreign Ministry's more pro-Black African perspective to prevail over the forces that favored ties to the white-settler regimes...
...see also introduction to Jane's Fighting Ships, 1969-70 (New York: McGraw Hill, 1970...
...capital as Citicorp chairman Walter Wriston and Lazard Freres investment bank partner Felix Rohatyn (also chairman of New York City's Municipal Assistance Corporation...
...X, no...
...The military regimes shared with the apartheid regime a claim to legitimacy based on the Cold War principle that domestic dissent was a product of Soviet-sponsored subversion...
...In particular, he charged that Brazil ignored the strategic importance of the Malvinas/Falklands and Argentina's claim to them...
...Uruguayan Association, "The Policy of Cooperation," p. 16...
...Agence LatinoAmericaine d'Information (Montreal), Nos...
...As condemnation of apartheid and human rights abuses resonated more loudly in the United States and Western Europe, South Africa and the Southern Cone regimes drew closer together for mutual support...
...Financial Mail (Johannesburg), June 26, 1981...
...81-09 (November 13, 1981...
...The Making of a Pariah South Africa is the last white settler colony in a continent which has seen the decline of British, French and Portuguese rule...
...102-3...
...naval forces in the South Atlantic, arrived to plan the UNITAS XVII maneuvers, an annual exercise of U.S...
...jail), who became an un- official commercial agent for South Africa in Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil...
...And these figures may mask considerable investment in Brazil by third country subsidiaries of South African firms.27 South Africa's giant Anglo American Corporation has acquired a signifi- cant stake in Brazilian ventures...
...1.40...
...Astiz has been shielded from Swedish and French extradition requests by the terms of a Geneva Convention barring prisoners of war from prosecution for crimes committed in their home countries...
...It thus sought to broaden its export markets, particularly in Latin America...
...Paratus (Official Journal of the South African Defense Force), May 1981...
...New possibilities in South Atlantic relations seemed to open and discussions ensued about creating a South Atlantic Treaty Organization linking the United States, South Africa, Brazil and the Southern Cone regimes...
...1 (January-March 1977), p. 45...
...Der Spiegel, August 11, 1980...
...Latin America, Vol...
...A longstanding relationship between the U.S...
...John Vorster, who NACLA ReportMaylJune 1982 17 became prime minister in 1966, offered to pro- vide economic aid to Black African governments in exchange for diplomatic support...
...The Latin American Connection," Sechaba (African National Congress), Vol...
...Sunday Times(Johannesburg), April 11, 1982...
...Anglo was not forced to divest any of its holdings and it made further acquisitions in 1975 and in years since...
...The first real political breakthrough for Pretoria came in 1974, when Paraguay's General Stroessner accepted an invitation to visit South Africa, only the third head of state to visit the country since 1945.12 Although friendly contacts between the two governments can be traced back to the 1960s, the visit followed more recent South African offers of financial assistance...
...La Nacidn (Buenos Aires), October 5, 1977...
...Prensa Latina dispatch, May 30, 1981...
...Furthermore, Paraguay and South Africa have exchanged top-level military visitors almost continuously since the VorsterIStroessner trips of 1974-75.28 In the late 1970s Paraguay became the base of operations of Eduardo Rabi, a mysterious international financial speculator (now held for stock fraud in a U.S...
...rhetoric about Angola and the South Atlantic and its continued pursuit of "selective involvement" with South Africa and warm relations with the Southern Cone regimes encouraged the proponents of SATO, even as Washington pursued closer relations with Black Africa...
...After that it will be our turn in America, and then we will really regret our past errors...
...The newly independent African, Asian and Caribbean nations share not only the scars of colonial exploitation and a continued, dependent status in the global economy, but also the co 0 Argentine high school rugby players with Afrikaner team in Pretoria, 1979...
...The man they sent, General Boscan H6ntou, is now head of the Uruguayan Army...
...At the same time he dispatched his foreign minister and minister of commerce and industries to Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.' Vorster's motives were economic as well as political...
...17-19...
...On BOSS-CIA ties, see Stephen Talbot, "The CIA and BOSS: Thick as Thieves," in E. Ray, et al., eds., Dirty Work 2: The CIA in Africa (Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart, 1979...
...38 (September 30, 1977...
...South African Firm Big Investor in US...
...Sources: Ruth Kaplan, study of Anglo American for the American Committee on Africa, 1982...
...43 (1981), pp...
...Brazilian exporters to South Africa receive all the usual government incentives, and exports and imports between the two countries rose steadily...
...108-10...
...Brazil's earlier contract with U. S. -based Westinghouse also specified use of South African uranium, to be enriched in the United States.28 South African firms have been investing in Paraguay over the years and one South African construction company recently received an $80 million road and bridge contract from the Par- aguayan government...
...2 3 The Argentine junta had from the outset also rejected any role for Chile in a South Atlantic pact, insisting that Chile is not an Atlantic V m t') p tEc re Southern polar projection, illustrating inter-oceanic relationships country...
...1982 23 U.S...
...Joe Trento, "CIA Helped Chile Recruit Cuban Killers," News Journal (Wilmington), February 24, 1980...
...58-60...
...Two years later, Ambras investe,d heavily in gold mining, diamond prospecting, explosives, construction and fertilizer firms...
...In September 1973 General Pinochet led the bloody coup against the Allende government in Chile...
...The 1960 Sharpeville massacre-the brutal slaughter of unarmed, peaceful black protestors by the South African government--spurred intense international action against apartheid...
...politicians, journalists and publishers who supported the apartheid regime...
...Rand Daily Mail, April 18, 1981...
...Schneider, "Geostrategic Perspectives," pp...
...The idea of a South Atlantic pact was first floated in the late 1960s...
...In particular, Army officers understood that the navies of each country stood to gain most from any joint venture concerning the South Atlantic...
...The Security Council urged member states to ban arms shipments to South Africa in 1963...
...The CIA introduced agents from DINA and BOSS to a group of anti-Castro Cubans who were contracted to assassinate opponents of the Pinochet regime around the world...
...They portrayed themselves as the "free world's" front line defenders...
...Gold mining now accounts for Ambras' major profits in Brazil...
...Latin American Weekly Report, No...
...Sunday Tribune (Durban), October 18 and 25, 1981...
...Figures before 1980 do not include military items...
...We do know that in April 1976 Brazilian naval minister Admiral Geraldo Azevedo Henning visited Buenos Aires at the invitation of Argentine Navy chief Emilio Massera, a member of the ruling junta...
...Anglo's major activity is mining: besides gold and diamonds it also mines uranium, copper, nickel, coal, tin, asbestos, iron ore, lead, zinc, potash, wolfram and platinum...
...a South African expert explored Uruguay's potential for coal mining...
...After an unsuccessful effort to kill Christian Democratic leader Bernardo Leighton in Rome, their escape was aided by BOSS-supplied West German passports and South African Airways passage arranged by the South African Ministry of Information...
...7. Sanders, "Brazil's Foreign Policy," p. 2; see also Ronald M. Schneider, "Geostrategic Perspectives and Capabilities of Brazil and Argentina with Regard to the South Atlantic over the Next Fifteen Years," unpublished ms., February 1977, pp...
...Guglialmelli concluded that Brazilian strategic doctrine sought a superior role for Brazil in South Atlantic defense, even as Brazil was rejecting involvement in a formal South Atlantic pact...
...April 26, 1982...
...security forces first opened fire on children in Soweto protesting a government decree enforcing Afrikaans as the official school language and then suppressed demonstrations around the country...
...Through its partnership with Sofin, and the appoint,ment of a Portuguese national as chair- man of Ambras, Anglo was able to enjoy the privileges that Brazil extended to local firms, as Portuguese are considered Brazilian nationals by diplomatic agreement...
...This bitter dispute, which has brought the two nations to the brink of war, is being mediated by the Pope...
...And in September, James Johnson, the head of the South African Navy, observed UNITAS maneuvers at the invitation of Argentina...
...The expression "pariah international" came into use to describe this informal alliance...
...See box...
...18 (April 30, 1976...
...Sunday Times (Johannesburg), May 2, 1982...
...and Brazilian armed forces dated from World War II and the earlier years of the Cold War...
...Such is the pariah status of South Africa today that even sports events involving South African newly independent African countries applied for admission to the United Nations...
...1979...
...policy toward southern Africa presented an additional obstacle to the creation of SATO...
...Without explicit U.S...
...South Africa faced limited opportunities for growth in its internal market (because the earnings of its African majority are so low), the prospect of reduced economic ties with African nations and stiffer competition from multinational corporations operating in South Africa...
...He found, however, that Brazil's support for Portuguese colonialism was an impediment to economic as well as political relations with these countries...
...Figures from 1974-1979do not include petroleum products...
...Seeds of Change In the late sixties, Brazil entered a period of rapid industrialization, with Washington's encouragement...
...2 Two months later, South Africa massacred over 600 people, many of them children...
...38 (September 30, 1977...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 111...
...and Santiago Chile Domestic Service, 0000GMT, March 23, 1982, as cited in FBIS, March 24, 1982, p. El...
...1970: 1 rand = $U.S...
...South Africa: Export Country," Information Service of South Africa, n.d., p. 22...
...The Times report has been impossible to confirm, but it does cite South African and Argentine government sources.' 1 Woman's stomach ripped by a bullet during Soweto uprising...
...In 1970 a 20-member Argentine trade mission, led by the deputy foreign minister, visited South Africa...
...The Guardian (London), June 17, 1981...
...The Brazilian regime also supported continued Portuguese colonialism in Africa, gaining privileged access to markets in Angola and Mozambique...
...Rabi is a confidant of Paraguayan chief Stroessner and his operations were protected by links to powerful Paraguayan officials...
...South African Digest, January 29 and April 16, 1982...
...40 (October 14, 1977...
...British Broadcasting Corporation Summary of World Broadcasts, June 4, 1981...
...Minorco has controlling interest (in these cases over 27 Yo) in Englehard Corporation, the world's largest fabricator and trader of minerals and metals, and Phibro Corporation, the world's largest publicly owned commodities trading company...
...1 Among the ties better left hidden was a clandestine relationship between South African and Chilean security forces...
...South African Digest, July 24 and August 7, 1981...
...While Vorster's initiatives achieved almost nothing in Africa, they achieved notable success in Latin America...
...Last December Anglo's Latin American invest- ments took a significant leap forward when it pur- chased a 40% share in the Hochschild Trust's Con- solidated Mining and Industries' subsidiary, Em- presas Sudamericanas Consolidadas...
...The Esmeralda, used as a torture ship Anglo American's Latin Reach The Anglo AmericanCorporation of South Africa is the pillar of a Byzantine corporate empire headed by Harry Oppenheimer, According to the New York Times of June 2,1982, the shares of companies con- trolled by Anglo American account for half of all the shares traded on the Johannesburg stock exchange...
...ticipated in the U.S.-led intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965...
...Anglo organizes its Latin and North American opera- tions through its Bermuda-based holding company, Minorco (Mineral and Resources Corporation...
...South Africa, in his view, was the first domino: "If we let South Africa succumb, without giving it our aid, control over the Indian Ocean will inexorably be lost, and in less than a decade Europe will be Communist...
...81-37 (September 18, 1981...
...Sources: Figures for 1970, 1976-1980 compiled by Jim Cason using South Africa Department of Customs and Excise, Monthly Abstract of Trade Statistics, January 1976 through December 1980...
...In 1960 alone, 17 ideological legacy of their struggles for political independence: an anticolonialist and antiracist perspective on international issues...
...In contrast, the Argentine team's visit to South Africa went smoothly, marking the extent to which South Africa has progressed in its 15-year effort to overcome its international isolation by developing ties with Latin America, particularly with countries in the Southern Cone...
...Robert Barros, "Beagle Channel: War Averted," NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol...
...After a storm of protest, Montes denied it all a day later...
...In Argentina, the military, which had been forced by popular pressure to withdraw to the barracks in 1973, returned to power by ousting the strife-torn government of Isabel Per6n in 1976...
...Paratus, May 1981...
...16 (March 1982), pp...
...Foreign Minister Guzetti, an admiral, argued in favor of it in a televised interview in September 1976 during the visit of South African Admiral Johnson...
...1.30 (the rand fluctuates greatly year to year due to changing gold prices...
...South African Digest, June 5, 1981...
...The regimes in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, in particular, have pursued variants of orthodox "free market" economic policy which more closely integrated their economies into the international capitalist system...
...In Argentina's case the opposition had more to do with its suspicions of Brazil and the strength of the Army than with a competing third worldist perspective...
...41-44...
...General Alberto Marini stated in October 1976 that if "the West does not support South Africa, that country cannot survive...
...6. Sanders, "Brazil's Foreign Policy," passim...
...The FBI believes the same group was responsible for the murder in South Africa of Robert Smit, a South African economist who had received information revealing South African government payoffs to U.S...
...In 1969 a South African naval mission was received in Buenos Aires and the commander in chief of the Argentine Navy reciprocated by visiting South Africa...
...XIII, no...
...81.6 986 1,239 83 95.4 - - - 5,876 6,274 1980 77.5 12.2 7.77 8.0 1.42 132.2 1,952 138.8 9,926 14,396 *1980: 1 rand = $U.S...
...Uruguay's President Juan Maria Bordaberry became a figurehead for military rule in 1973, and in 1976 the military seized outright control of the government...
...A conflict over Brazil's Africa policy emerged within the government...
...2 4 Nevertheless, the Argentine junta did not rule out a South Atlantic pact...
...1 (January-February 1979), pp...
...38 (September 30, 1977...
...5 (September 1970...
...support, the rank and file "defenders of the free world" in the South Atlantic were hard put to carry through their schemes...
...See map...
...Another consequence of Brazil's rapid industrial growth was a search for African export markets beyond those in Portuguese controlled territories...
...em- barg~.~' Political and military cooperation between Chile and South Africa is particularly signifi- cant...
...While certainly not freeing Brazil from the demands of international capital, the result of industrialization was to diminish Washington's influence on Brazil's foreign policy...
...Waksman, "El Proyecto," p. 3 3 3; see also Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 102...
...6-10...
...El Pais, for example, called South Africa "particularly worthy of maximum consideration as one of the most advanced nations in the world spiritually, intellectually and materially," while La Manafia published a pro-South African series by the leader of the Uruguayan Nazi movement...
...On Minorco's board of directors sit such titans of U.S...
...In late April a joint Argentine-Brazilian naval mission traveled to South Africa's Simonstown naval base for discussions with their South African counterparts...
...Production for export was expanded at the expense of domestic consumption...
...Among South African investments in Uruguay was a $13 million program to enlarge the stateowned cement plant...
...IV, no...
...The Ties that Bind While Brazil's veto was a major factor in blocking SATO's development, its economic ties with South Africa have continued to expand over the past decade...
...Albert Fishlow, "Flying Down to Rio: U.S.-Brazil Relations," Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...associate Ronni Karpen Moffitt in Washington, two members of this anti-Castro Cuban hit squad lived on South African gold krugerands...
...XI, no...
...Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," p. 98...
...LAWR, June 19, 1981...
...Commercial and other business elites lobbied for increased political ties with South Africa to complement the growing flow of trade, commerce and inMay/June 1982 19NACLA Report vestment...
...In the Ford-Kissinger period U.S...
...8. Uruguayan Association Against Racism and Apartheid, "The Apartheid Regime and Uruguay," undated report, Geneva...
...2 The development of ties between Latin America and South Africa is not "natural...
...North African and West African oil producers had the wherewithal to buy Brazilian products, and in 1972 Brazil's foreign minister visited eight West African countries with the primary objective of opening new markets...
...Southern Cone, No...
...It was forced out of the British Commonwealth in 1961 and a United Nations General Assembly resolution in 1962 urged member nations to sever diplomatic relations with South Africa...
...121-122, using South Africa Monthly Abstract...
...26 22 NACLA ReportMaylJun...
...33 In 1981 the heads of the Chilean Navy, Air Force and police-all members of the govern- ment junta-have visited South Africa, while General Pinochet received the head of South Africa's Air F~rce.~' Chilean Air Force chief Matthei recently commented: "South Africa, along with Israel, has an excellent industrid and technological capacity, which could translate into material support for us...
...The MaylJune 1982 1718 NACLA Repofl policy also depended on Brazil's special relationship with Portugal, based on ties of language and commerce...
...LatinAmerica, Vol...
...and multinational corporate subsidiaries dominated an ever-growing share of the domestic market and productive resources...
...1 6 Clandestinity, however, soon gave way to open friendship...
...But here, too, the offensive for SATO ran into opposition...
...5. Thomas G. Sanders, "Brazil's Foreign Policy in Africa," American University Field Staff Reports, No...
...But relations between South Africa and the Southern Cone take on a special significance by virtue of their common location on the South Atlantic...
...Ambras' investments brought hordes of Anglo personnel and capital equipment into Brazil, and a concerned Brazilian Congress decided to in- vestigate its activities...
...workers' wages were kept low as inflation spiraled...
...Minerals," Washington Post...
...Anglo American is now the largest foreign investor in the United States through its Minorco holdings...
...The other two were Portugal and Malawi...
...South African Exports to the Americas [million rand]* 1966 1970 1972 1973 1975 1976 1978 0.36 0.67 1.94 0.14 n/a 6.78 0.78 1.84 0.32 0.08 n/a 18.8 129.0 28.2 4.64 2.33 0.66 0.09 n/a 16.33 - 1,543 South African 1966 8.66 3.32 0.05 0.73 0.17 1970 12.20 2.90 0.87 1.36 004 1972 22.18 3.21 0.35 0.52 0.10 9.0 2.85 4.51 0.13 n/a 47.09 15.90 2.98 2.90 0.35 0.03 72.93 26.9 7.82 1.19 3.30 1.75 120.0 459.7 124.8 77.8 15.2 4.72 2.17 .26 147.7 1,349.9 113.4 - - 4,542 7,270 Imports from the Americas [million rand]* 1973 1975 1976 1978 25.29 26.09 32.4 31.8 6.88 6.58 4.1 9.8 0.07 1.41 0.62 4.92 1.19 2.70 2.32 1.63 0.37 0.26 1.1 1.06 21.6 424 70.4 - - 2,547 47.1 1,267 85.9 1979 111.8 25.2 14.1 6.74 .67 251.9 1,410.2 171.9 1980 133.0 41.8 21.2 3.78 .27 294.0 1,648.0 205.0 14,839 19,922 1979 48.8 9.68 5.27 2.65 1.8 61...
...This in- creased Anglo's stake in thecodemin nickel project, May/June 1982 25 after the 1973 coup, has paid several courtesy calls on South African ports.31 In 1977 SWAP0 charged that Chileans were fighting alongside the South African forces in Namibia, but the allegation remains uncor~firmed.~~ The growing warmth of Chilean-South Afri- can military and political relations is evident in the 1981 appointment of Lieutenant Jack Dut- ton, second in command of the South African armed forces, as South Africa's first ambas- sador to Santiago...
...Out of the visit came a South African commitment to finance the construction of a new Ministry of Justice building in Asunci6n as well as general agreements on trade, cultural and technical exchanges and investment, including reciprocal granting of most-favored nation trading status...
...Nicaragua and El Salvador later cut ties with Pretoria...
...Before the September 1973 coup, according to CIA sources, money and weapons from the CIA were channeled to opponents of Chile's Popular Unity government through agents of South Africa's Bureau of State Security (BOSS), based in Buenos Aires and Brasilia...
...Trade also grew steadily...
...From 1979 until fall 1981, when they were exposed by the Durban Sunday Tribune, four Argentine naval officers who had directed kidnapping and torture operations in Buenos Aires were posted as "diplomats" to South Africa...
...No to the Navies But the obstacles to SATO's formation proved to be insurmountable...
...Anglo American Latin American Venture," financial Mail, January 1, 1982...
...A confidential internal memo of the Chilean junta, dated December 9, 1974, classified South Africa as a "friendly country," but went on to state: "We must be careful not to show publicly our ties with this country because of its level of international isolation...
...X, no...
...In April 1982 a report surfaced in the Johannesburg Sunday Times of a secret South Atlantic pact dating from 1969, linking Brazil, P4raguay, Uruguay and Argentina as well as Taiwan and Israel in a mutual defense organization...
...Africa, No...
...Under the terms of a 1975 agreement be- tween West Germany and Brazil on nuclear power development, Brazil was to use South African uranium (which often means uranium mined in Namibia in contravention of interna- tional law) until its own considerable reserves could be tapped...
...349-50...
...Ellen Ray, "Argentina Activates International Death Squads," Covert Action Information Bulletin, No...
...Given Anglo's dominant role in its home economy, its global activities are a key expression of South Africa's economic relations with the rest of the world, and South America in particular...
...31-32, October 27 and November 3, 1977...
...Also see Bill Minter, "Brazil: A New Afro-Asian Policy and Its Reversal," NACLA Newsletter, Vol...
...players have a highly political character...
...XI, no...
...LAWR, June 19, 1981...
...35 And in which it already had 35% interest through Ambras, and gave Angb its first share in Brazil's Catalao columbium mine, Peru's Arcata silver mine and Chile's largest privately owned mine, Mantos Blancos...
...SouthAfrican Digest, February 20, 1981, p. 6. 34...
...Brazil Argentina Chile Uruguay Paraguay Latin America & Caribbean United States Canada Total South African Exports Brazil Argentina Chile Uruguay Paraguay Latin America & Caribbean United States Canada Total South African Imports MaylJune 1982 2324 NACLA Report South African investment in Brazil, accord- ing to official figures, doubled from $45 million in 1978 to $98 million in 1980...
...United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, p. 3; Fig, "The South Atlantic Connection," pp...
...South Africa, meanwhile, continues to be ruled by a white minority which remains dead set against the prospect of majority rule...
...In 1975 the Pinochet regime denationalized South African-owned fishing properties, expropriated under the Popular Unity government and encouraged further South African investment...
...In fact, the common public scorn which the regimes experienced from the Carter Administration encouraged them to extend relations...
...South Africa became increasingly isolated diplomatically...
...XI, no...
...Like the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, Soweto became a symbol of resistance against apartheid and heightened international concern and action...
...Reversing an embryonic effort by the deposed civilian government to develop a foreign policy independent of Wash- ington and oriented to the growing third world nonaligned movement, the generals patched up relations with the United States and par1960 Sharpeville massacre-68 dead, 227 wounded...
...But in March 1975 Anglo's long-time chairman, Harry Oppenheimer (recently retired), met with then Brazilian President General Ernesto Geisel and leading government technocrats in order to defuse potential problems before the in- vestigative commission was convened...
...Since 1975 the Brazilian regime has publicly rejected participation in any pact involving South Africa...
...New York Times, December 19, 1980...
...Latin American Regional Report...
...The Observer (London), February 8, 1981...
...indeed it already has...
...Chilean Ties-Covert and Overt Pinochet's Chile, conscious of its own diplomatic isolation, at first was wary of pursuing too open a relationship with Pretoria...
...In an interview at the time, the Uruguayan foreign minister advocated cooperation in trade, in protection of "vital security interests and in the common fight against "subversive activities in our countries...
...A 1972 government commission recommended that "South Africa should increase contact, assistance and marketing of its goods in respect of certain South American countries," and "the 'empty' economies of Latin America must be regarded as 'natural' markets for South African exports...
...5 Brazil's African policy grew out of the vehement anticommunism of the generals (the ideological justification of their harsh repression of the Brazilian working class) and their generally pro-Western orientation...
...The SATO Seesaw The increasingly warm political, economic and military ties across the South Atlantic were consistent with Washington's own "red scare" reaction to events in Angola in this same period...
...Discussions about South Atlantic security continued at the Eighth Interamerican Naval Conference in Rio de Janeiro in August...
...Waksman, "El Proyecto," p. 346...
...2 Even as late as October 1977, Argentina's ambassador to the United Nations Oscar Montes told the Italian News Agency ANSA that Argentina and other Southern Cone countries were involved in discussions with South Africa concerning South Atlantic security...
...2 The Argentine Navy presented SATO as a way to defend that country's national rights in the same manner as it proclaimed itself the most vigorous defender of claims to Antarctica, the Beagle islands and the Malvinas/Falklands...
...14-16...
...1 3 In August 1975 Vorster returned Stroessner's visit and also stopped in Uruguay...
...At the same time, U.S...
...LVII, no...
...War rII against communism...
...9. Latin America, Vol...
...XI, no...
...Argentine Pucara counter- insurgency planes, which figured in the South Atlantic war, were offered to Pretoria in 1975, and in 1978 some of Argentina's warships were refitted at Simon~town.~' The countries exchange military expertise as well as equipment...
...Moreover, the military, as an institution in its own right, fostered "security" projects with South Africa, including arms sales and military training, which would bolster their internal and external position...
...In February 1981 South Africa agreed to sell Chile the Crotale/Cactus anti-aircraft missile system, manufactured in France under South African ~ontract.~' In addition, the South African fishing in- dustry, after exhausting Namibian waters, moved on to considerable investment in Chile...
...In 1973 Anglo American set up a Brazilian sub- sidiary, Ambras (Anglo American do Brasil...
...Sales of high technology telecommunications equipment and of industrial goods have grown as Relations between the Argentine junta and the apartheid regime have also warmed since the mid-seventies...
...Until then the post was ad- ministered by the ambassador to Argentina...
...Uruguay received South Africa's foreign minister, Roelof "Pik" Botha, in August 1978...
...And in each of the military regimes in the Southern Cone the Army was the dominant force...
...thus giving Anglo controlling interest...
...But with industrialization, economic ties with Western Europe and Japan expanded, as did financing from private banks, undercutting the importance of U.S...
Vol. 16 • May 1982 • No. 3
