THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502180499
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Brought together by an idealistic group of Virginia college students, a remarkable gathering of Latin American diplomats is sketching out a hopeful picture of hemispheric solidarity and cooperation for the post-Cold War world.
Initiated by the Latin American Club at the College of William and Mary, the 1995 Inter-American Ambassadorial Summit is a rare opportunity for the diplomats to meet outside the Washington pressure cooker and discuss the dizzying changes engulfing the world since the fall of communism.
The two-day session concludes this morning.
In two free-wheeling panel discussions Friday afternoon, ambassadors from seven Latin American nations and a U.S. State Department official spoke in dramatic terms: In the emerging world order, long-cherished principles of national sovereignty and nonintervention are giving way to a new spirit of interdependence driven by economic forces, not ideology.
``The falling of the Berlin Wall had an enormous influence . . . in the Americas,'' Uruguayan Ambassador Eduardo MacGillycuddy said. ``It ended the bipolar world. . . . We are now talking about doing things together without that big sovereignty word that got in the way before.''
The turning point for the Western Hemisphere, MacGillycuddy said, was the Miami Summit of the Americas, held in December, which set the ambitious goal of establishing a hemisphere-wide free trade zone by the year 2005.
``Most of us didn't believe it was going to happen,'' he said. ``We didn't think we could work together. We thought it would be a big meeting with a lot of pictures and a lot of press, then everybody goes home and nothing happens.''
Instead, he said, a ``miracle'' occurred: Representatives from all of the hemisphere's 35 nations except Cuba agreed on a detailed plan for unprecedented economic cooperation.
A major reason for the summit's success, the diplomats agreed, was the demise of military dictatorships that has opened the way for democracy across Latin America in recent years.
``We have modified the way in which we perceive reality,'' said Argentine Ambassador Raul Granillo Ocampo. ``Economic relationships are now in the forefront of international relations. . . . We're in the middle of a redefinition of the world order.''
Ambassador Jose Del Carmen Ariza of the Dominican Republic echoed that view. ``Ideologies are not so important anymore. Instead of the Cold War, now we talk about a new war: the war of the market.''
Donald F. Terry, manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, put it in similarly stark terms. ``It's clear to me that economic interdependence is a fact, not an option,'' he said. ``The discussion is over how the rules of the game can best be developed.''
The end of the Cold War has prompted a crucial new consensus among the nations of the world, said Alexander Watson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs: ``the recognition that authoritarian and totalitarian regimes don't work.''
Nevertheless, the diplomats warned against letting the euphoria of the moment obscure the tough problems that plague the hemisphere, such as human rights violations, extreme poverty, official corruption, subjugation of women, territorial disputes and mistreatment of indigenous peoples.
And they warned against unilateral interventions such as the United States has undertaken in the past. Guatemalan Ambassador Edmond Mulet noted wryly that in three countries where that happened - Panama, Cuba and Nicaragua - ``you generated Noriega, Castro and the Sandinistas.''
Watson, the State Department official, assured the ambassadors that the Clinton administration ``is trying as hard as we can to work within multilateral institutions.''
As an example, he cited the restoration of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, which was carried out under the auspices of the United Nations and the Organization of American States. ``That was the first time that a deposed, democratically elected president has been returned to power,'' he said.
The William and Mary summit is the second such gathering at the college. The first one, three years ago, was also student-initiated. ILLUSTRATION: TAMARA VONINSKI/Staff
During the ambassadors' summit at William and Mary on Friday, Edmond
A. Mulet of Guatemala, left, reacts to a comment made by Sonia
Picado of Costa Rica, right.
by CNB