MILITARY REGIMES Explanation given for U.S. support

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32707, 9 September 1971, Page 13

MILITARY REGIMES Explanation given for U.S. support

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, September 8. The Defence Secretary (Mr Melvin Laird) told a Congressional committee that the United States must recognise the fact that in many Latin American nations the military was “the only cohesive group,” United Press International reported today.

“We have a clear preference for free and democratic processes, but we deal with Governments as they are,” he said. The Defence Secretary made the statement in closed hearings of the House Appropriations Committee last March. The committee has released a heavily-censored transcript of the sessions. “I think it is important for us to bear in mind that the military is the only cohesive group in many of the countries of Latin America and that they are very important,” Mr Laird said. “No part of the United States training given Latin American officers is in any way related to overthrow of governments, but on the contrary is aimed at maintaing internal security and stability in order that economic progress can be achieved.”. Political attitudes of the Latin American military are products of the environment to which they live, Mr Laird said, and "intervention by the military when it judges that the government

has failed has been a widelyaccepted reaction in Latin America.” Mr Laird added that United States military programmes in Latin America “cannot be expected to negate the political beliefs and attitudes of a lifetime.” Mr Christian Chapman, of the State Department’s Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, another witness, said that one of the purposes of United Stages military training programmes in Latin America was “to improve the professionalism of the Latin American officers and men.” .He said that the programmes also were carried out to “improve their technical capabilities, which has some sides uses in civilian economy. “But it is not to encourage them to assume political power," be said. Military regimes control 11 nations in Latin America — Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Peru.