Secretary’s Comments on Chile at Boston World Affairs Council
S-1999-00030
2203248 FEB 84
SUBJECT: Secretary’s Comments on Chile at Boston World Affairs Council
- GOC embassy expressed concern 2/21/84 over reported remarks by the Secretary concerning Chile made in the context of the Secretary’s speech of 2/16/84 to the Boston World Affairs Council on “The United States and Africa in the 1980s.”
- Transcript of Q and A’s after speech shows the following exchange as last Q and A of the evening:
BEGIN TEXT:
MR. ELIOT: Mr. Secretary, I’ve tried to save the easiest question for the last. Why do we always end up on the wrong side in Central America, in Lebanon, in the Philippines, and elsewhere in the world? (Applause)
SECRETARY SHULTZ: I think we’re on the right side. (Applause) We’re on the side of democracy, we’re on the side of freedom, we’re on the side of economic development. (Applause) There is a fever of democracy running through our hemisphere. It’s exciting. I just spent about eight days in Central America, in South America, in the Caribbean, and people, particularly people living in countries that have existed under dictatorship, when you talk with them, they’re so excited. Not only in the area that I mentioned—take Portugal and Spain. I don’t know whether any of you have visited and talked to people there. They’re so excited. They say, “We have freedom. It’s wonderful.” I don’t think we Americans have any appreciation of what it means to have freedom. It’s like the air we breathe to us, but to people who haven’t had it, it’s wonderful.
And by this time we can say that in our hemisphere there are living under conditions of democracy or states which are moving inexorably to democracy over 90 percent of the population. Sticking out like a sore thumb: Cuba, Nicaragua, Suriname, Chile. Very different countries, but leave that to the side. It’s a pretty good picture, and we’re on the right side of these issues in sticking with these principles.
END TEXT.
- Secretary’s response parallels language in 1983 country reports on human rights practices, which reads as follows:
BEGIN TEXT:
A Time of Choice for Democratic Nations… One of the most hopeful developments in recent years, the march of democracy in Latin America, has gone largely unnoticed. The recent inauguration of President Alfonsin of Argentina is only the latest in a series of victories for democracy in Latin America. Apart from Cuba, Suriname, Haiti, Guyana, and Paraguay, the other twenty-seven nations of Latin America and the Caribbean are either basically democratic, or at least nominally embarked on the transition to full democracy. This process has accelerated over the last three years. Between 1976 and 1980, only one Latin American nation, Ecuador, elected a civilian president to replace the military. Since 1980, however, nine Latin American nations have either held free elections, or declared their intention of doing so soon: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay. Even the government of Nicaragua, having reneged on earlier promises to hold free elections, now claims to be planning them for 1985.
END TEXT.
- Introduction section of Human Rights report did not mention Chile by name. It was intended that Chile would be included among those twenty-seven Latin American nations nominally embarked on a transition to full democracy.
- In responding to Chilean concerns about the Secretary’s remarks quoted in paragraph two above, embassy may point out the Human Rights report’s distinction between non-democratic countries and those in transition to full democracy. The Secretary’s words (“very different countries, but leave that to the side”) also indicate distinctions. You may assure the Chileans that the Human Rights report is our official position. We do not intend to issue any further statements on this subject.
SHULTZ
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