341. Telegram 2905 From the Embassy in the Dominican Republic to the Department of State1
2905. From Ambassador. Subject: Alcoa Bauxite Negotiations. Ref: A) State 151562; B. SD 2877; C. SD 2900.
1. Of the many Dominicans who claim close friendship with and easy access to President Balaguer, three can make such assertions more truthfully than most: Rafael Bello Andino, the President’s private secretary; Ramon Font Bernard, Presidential advisor, and Polibio Diaz, long-time political ally of the President’s and one of his closest advisors. In order to prepare the terrain for my démarche to Balaguer and to give Alcoa Rep Hughson a helping hand, I asked Font Bernard to drop by for a drink early last evening. In the cordial atmosphere characteristic of my previous conversations with Font, I explained our preoccupation over the manner in which the Alcoa negotiations were proceeding. We [Page 905] were struck by the parallel with the Jamaican situation, i.e., initiate bilateral negotiations with a rigid government position and when that position was not met, pass legislation embodying the position. I told him frankly that the Jamaican actions had not set at all well with us (we were particularly alergic to seeing U.S. companies forced to negotiate with a pistol at their heads) and that we would be most unhappy to see such a friend of the U.S. as the DomRep copy the Jamaicans. More fundamentally, we were very seriously concerned over what seemed to be an emerging pattern of nations which in combination possessed a substantial amount of an important natural resource acting in concert to the detriment of the rest of the world and to their own detriment as well since they were not immune to the inflationary pressures resulting from such action. We were looking to the DomRep to pursue its national interest based pragmatically upon the realities of the Dominican situation and to avoid becoming part of a movement that was leading all of us into trouble. In short, I urged that the GODR find a Dominican not a Jamaican solution and that the negotiations return to the bargaining table where the issues could be resolved on their merits and without any threat of legislation.
2. Font replied that the Palace had not initiated the legislation (Comment: We have heard from other sources that the draft legislation came from the Office of ING, Fernando Periche Vidal, one of the government negotiators, and that President Balaguer is irked that the matter was presented in the legislature). Font continued that he had personally been entrusted with a message from the President to German Ornes, owner-editor of the prestigious daily “El Caribe,” to the effect that Balaguer fully agreed with Ornes’s editorial on the Alcoa situation, particularly in that the Dominican Republic was not Jamaica and therefore Dominican solutions must be found. Font continued that he was confident that a reasonable solution would be found and that he would convey to the President that evening the importance we attached to the DomRep not falling into the Jamaican pattern and our deep distaste for negotiations under threat of legislation.
3. Later last night I discussed the situation with Alcoa rep Hughson and informed him of the gist of the foregoing. Hughson seemed relaxed and said he was getting encouraging signals from the Palace that a reasonable solution would be found. It should be noted here that Polibio Diaz is a lawyer for Alcoa on a retainer basis and therefore Hughson’s entree to the President. Hughson informed me that the very helpful “Listin Diario” editorial (ref C) had been written by Frank Marino Hernandez who said that the editorial was the first of four pieces that would appear with the goal of forcing the government negotiators back to the table in a more flexible frame of mind. Her [Page 906] nandez and I had discussed the Alcoa situation in detail last Friday (July 12).
4. I am lunching a deux today with Bello Andino.
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Summary: Hurwitch reported on a conversation with Presidential advisor Ramón Font Bernard in which he conveyed U.S. concerns about the course of negotiations between the Dominican Government and Alcoa on payments due in connection with the U.S. company’s bauxite mining activities.
Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Country Files, Box 783, Latin America, Dominican Republic, Vol. 1. Confidential; Immediate; Exdis. Telegram 151562 to Santo Domingo is dated July 13. (Ibid., RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D740187–0669) Telegram 2877 from Santo Domingo is dated July 15. (Ibid., D740189–0474) Telegram 2900 from Santo Domingo is dated July 15. (Ibid., D740191–0891) Hurwitch subsequently discussed the issue with President Balaguer’s private secretary, Rafael Bello Andino, and made the “same points” to him, but “with greater emphasis this time on investment climate (Bello Andino is more hard-hearted than the intellectual Font Bernard).” (Telegram 2927 from Santo Domingo, July 18; ibid., D740193–0762) In telegram 3028 from Santo Domingo, July 24, the Embassy noted that Balaguer had informed an Alcoa representative that he believed that unilaterally imposing new levies on the company’s operations would be “the wrong way to go.” (Ibid., D740200–0624) In telegram 3068 from Santo Domingo, July 26, the Embassy expressed its gratification that its “efforts with President Balaguer’s palace intimates” had helped to derail “the proposed legislation which would have set the terms of Alcoa’s new contract a la Jamaica.” (Ibid., D740204–0013) The conclusion and the terms of the agreement subsequently reached with Alcoa were reported in telegrams 4924 and 5065 from Santo Domingo, December 2 and 11. (Both ibid., D740348–0863 and D740360–0475)
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