Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973–1976

350. Telegram 16118 From the Delegation of the Secretary of State in Mexico to the Department of State¹

Mexico City, June 11, 1976, 1742Z.

16118. Subject: Secretary’s Bilateral Meeting With Foreign Minister Blanco.

1. Summary: The Secretary (accompanied by Bill Mailliard) met with Foreign Minister Blanco (accompanied by OAS Ambassador Marques Sere) for approximately an hour on June 10. The bulk of the wide-ranging discussion centered on internal security, human rights, and terrorism, and on the particular economic problems of the middle income countries in ther efforts to obtain their share of international public financing. End summary.

2. Blanco raised with the secretary his concern over the problems faced today by middle income countries such as Uruguay. We [asked?] press for increased internal savings because our middle classes are already heavily pressed by our open economic policies. Yet because we are not among the poorest countries we have great difficulty in obtaining access to public bilateral and international financing. Many Latin American countries are in the same situation, and find themselves virtually forced into the arms of the third world if they wish to be heard and have their needs considered. Thus they are no longer able to serve, as they have so frequently in the past, as a buffer between the developed countries and the developing ones.

3. The Secretary indicated that he was now focusing on the fact that aid and Congressional policies provided for distributing most of U.S. aid funds to the poorest countries. He said that he had no objection to providing funds to the poorest countries, but suggested that the USG should make a distinction between assistance and relief. It is the middle income countries that stand to make the most progress from assistance.

4. Blanco noted that the present internal situation is a complex one, reflecting a more or less constant political development process rather than a crisis. (The press several days ago had given wide play to the fact that Blanco had been paged in the meeting hall for an urgent call, which turned out to be a request for payment for a previous call.) There was some discussion of the situation in Argentina and how that related to Uruguay’s security problem. Blanco thought stabilization of the Argentine regime would take some of the pressure off Uruguay but felt that the country would continue to be under strong pressures because of the long border, open economic policies and potential problems in Bolivia and Eastern Peru.

5. The Secretary indicated his understanding of the pressures on Uruguay, but suggested that unless certain minimum standards were observed the pressures in the United States would become unmanageable and it would be impossible to do with Uruguay what we wished to do. There would, however, be no “crusade” on the part of the USDEL. He and Blanco also entered into a wide ranging discussion concerning the motivation of the present generation of well-educated middle class origin terrorists.

Kissinger

1. Summary: Kissinger and Blanco discussed the problems of “middle-income countries,” the political situation in Uruguay, and Argentina.

   Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D760225–0603. Confidential; Immediate; Exdis. Repeated for information to Montevideo. Kissinger and Blanco were both in Chile for the OASGA from June 7–9. Kissinger traveled to Mexico on June 10 to meet with President Echeverria and senior Mexican officials.