Mrs Carter heads south

Press, 31 May 1977, Page 8

Mrs Carter heads south

NZPA-Reuter Washington

President Carter’s wife Rosalynn, yesterday began a two-week good-will tour of seven Caribbean and Latin American countries to emphasise the United States Administration’s new policy in the region.

The policy, outlined by the President six weeks ago, lays heavy emphasis on the respect of human rights. With the exception of Brazil, Mrs Carter’s itinerary has been carefully chosen to avoid any country especially sensitive on this issue.

The other countries on the 19,000 km (12,000 mile) tour are Jamaica, Costa Rica, 1

Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Mrs Carter — the President calls her “a political partner of mine” — is inexperienced in diplomacy and has gone through a crash course on Latin America to prepare herself for the trip. She has also been studying Spanish. The First Lady will be accompanied throughout heri meetings with Government leaders by the State Depart-! ment’s top Latin American affairs expert, Mr Terence Todman. Grace Vance the wife of the Secretary of j State, Mr Cyrus Vance, is also on the trip. United States officials emphasise that while Mrs Carter will be having substantive discussions on her

tour she is not going as a negotiator.

Most of the countries she will visit have long been close allies of the United States, although relations with Kingston were strained under the Administration of the former President, Mr Gerald Ford.

Also, there were allega-< tions of involvement by the Central Intelligence Agency in the recent Jamaican General Elections.

I United States relations (with Brazil have become strained over President Cariter’s criticism about the state of human rights in the country and also over Washington’s attempts to prevent the sale to Brazil of a West German nuclear reprocessing plant.