Page 162 - Argentina - Carter, Regan, and Bush VP

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Orfila said that he was concerned that the United States policy on human
rights may get so heavy-handed that it would strengthen the hard-liners
and lead to an alliance among the military governments. He said he feared
that Latin America would be divided in half with the Southern Cone countries
on one side, and Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica on the other.
He himself had encouraged Argentine officials to make special efforts to
establish good relations with Venezuela and Mexico, and apparently the
Government of Argentina accepted his recommendation and will be sending
Hector Campora as its Ambassador to Mexico.

I asked whether the division between a repressive Latin America and a
democratic Latin America would necessarily be a bad thing. It seems to
me that it might introduce a constructive tension whereby the military
governments would be encouraged to join the ranks of several of the more
democratic governments . It would also provide an opportunity to deal
with real issues rather than to maintain an artificial facade of Latin
American unity. We both agreed that "Latin America" was a myth, and
that the discussion of substantive issues in which the U.S . and Latin
America were always on opposite sides of every issue was not constructive.

Orfila said that the U.S. would increase its credibility if we were more
evenhanded. For example, when the Congress held hearings on human
rights violations in Argentina, he encouraged Congressman Fraser to
hear from people from both sides, but instead the hearings were very
one-sided.

Belize

On his most recent trip to Central America, Orfila met with officials in
the Guatemalan Government as well as in the Mexican Government about
the issue of the future status of Belize. Mexico urged him to get involved
in the issue. Guatemala said that it would be willing to accept only two-
thirds of the southern province of 3elize, which amounted to about one-
fifth of all of Belize. This represents a considerable compromise on
Guatemala's part, since the country has been demanding total annexation
of Belize. Orfila will be going to Great Britain on April 4, to negotiate
with Ted Rowlands, Secretary of State for External Affairs, on this issue.
He will try to convince Rowlands to convince Prime Minister Price of Belize
to accept the Guatemalan offer. He thinks that if the United States mentioned
to Great Britain its interest in Orfila’s effort that Great Britain would be
moved to persuade Prime Minister Price. (Comment: This is a particularly
important issue only because if it is not solved in the next year, it could
conceivably lead to war between Guatemala and Belize. It would most
definitely lead to a very significant split between the Caribbean countries
which support Belize, and the Latin American countries which support
Guatemala.)

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