Caribbean Coups

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30265, 18 October 1963, Page 10

Caribbean Coups

The hurricane that swept the Caribbean could scarcely have been more damaging than the political events that preceded it The overthrow of the democratic governments of President Juan Bosch, in the Dominican Republic, and of President Roman Morales, in Honduras, not only cancels the promise of social, economic, and political reforms in both countries but removes from the Caribbean two of its few pivots of stability. President Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress programme has suffered its heaviest blow, for Dr. Castro must now have new opportunities for extending communism through Latin America. Further coups may be expected in Venezuela and El Salvador, where democratic societies are weak, the military selfish and short-sighted, and the politicians sufficiently ambitious to embark on such reckless adventures. The United States can do little but break diplomatic relations with the new Right - wing dictatorships and suspend arms and economic aid. This policy, in Haiti, has served only to strengthen the dictatorial hand of President Duvalier. The United States might, as it did with Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, readmit military governments to the fold in the hope of bringing liberalising influences to bear on them; but nothing promises to ruin more effectively the democratic aims of the Alliance for Progress than this course. And although the Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of American States are to meet soon to attempt to discourage the spread of military coups, a majority of States are expected to oppose any resolute action. The Western world will look with sympathy on Washington’s troubles in the Caribbean, which has been likened to the pre-war Balkans. The Caribbean brought the world to the brink of nuclear war only a year ago. By tolerating for so long the feudal Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, the United States

shares some of the responsibility for the overthrow of President Bosch. A cardinal principle of the Alliance for Progress is that economic and social development is possible within the framework of democratic freedom; and the Dominican democratic experiment was intended to serve as an example to all Latin America. But Trujillo’s legacy was economic chaos, illiteracy, poverty, and the lack of any social structure or bureaucracy capable of running or understanding a free society. To transform the rigidly autocratic social structure into a popular regime required measures

that were unpopular with the land-owners and military elite; and President Bosch was overthrown. In similar circumstances, new African nations have set up one-man, one-party systems; and the Latin-American tradition is military rule. But the Caribbean is now going through the most agitated period in its history. The winds of change are unpredictable indeed in this area of political immaturity, economic inadequacy, and social protest. The United States and its friends in the Caribbean are not likely to surrender to chaos and hopelessness, which are Dr. Castro’s best allies; but the series of military coups has set back democratic progress severely. New tactics will be required if landowners, industrialists, and the army are to be persuaded to work with popular movements towards effective reform. Without their co-operation further disasters are inevitable.