Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-01-09


formation on the efforts of Argentina
to create an Argentinian sphere of in
fluence in South America, where the
totalitarian regime of Pedro Ramirez
in Buenos Aires is attacking two main
tenets of American foreign policy. The
regime seeks to break up the continental
solidarity of the New World states by
dividing them into blocs And it dis
regards the Moscow and Teheran dec
larations in favor of postwar family
of nations" Argentina is playing the
balance-of-p game.
The knowledge of Argentina's ambi-
ton is one of the main causes for the
postponement of recognition by the
United States of the revolutionary Bo-
llvlan government. On visit to Buenos
Aires last July. Paz Estenssoro leader
OF the Movimlento Revolucionario of
Bolivia, called on leading officials of the
Argentine government On December
20 the same EstenSsuro guided the coup
which overthrow thu Bolivian govern
ment of President Enrique Pena4 anda.
The State Department. is still in the
dark about whether Argentina actually
had a hand in the revolution. But
there are no illusions he,e about the
sort of game Argentina wants to play
in South America. It's concertion of its
potential sphere of influence runs as far
north as Peru, where a group of chau-
whist military officers is irpatiently
critical of President Manuel Prado be-
cause he has refused to renew the war
against Ecuador that was halted early
in 1912, The chauvinists want Ecuador
annexed.
Ramirez would disown any agent who
was caught encouraging the Peruvian
chauvinists in the name of Argentina
and promising them Argentinian support
for Ecuadors annexation. But in Peru,
Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile are men
spreading doctrines of dissension, and
they have friends in Argentina. In
triguing figures decorate the South
American diplomatic scene visitor in
La Paz, Bolivia, not long ago was
Ramlrez's confessor, Father Wilkinson.
Compete for Bolivian Favor.
Argentina has made public efforts to
win the friendship of her Paraguayan,
Chilean and Bolivian neighbors. Last
summer Argentinian representatives dis
cussed the establishment of a customs
union with Paraguay and Chile The
negotiations have been followed by a
silence which apparently indicates a
failure on the part of the Ramirez gov
eminent to convince the neighboring
countries that they should tie themselves
economically to Argentina.
Argentina is playing the ardent rival
with Brazil for the affections of Bolivia.
In order to establish a strong economic
tie with Bolivia, Brazil has granted
land-locked Bolivia free port rights at
Santos, although the city lies outside
the normal avenues of movement of
trade for Bolivia. Argentina and Brazil
have been racing to construct rail lines
to the Bolivian border in order to pro-
vide the country with new economic
arteries to the outside world.
Since the beginning of the war Ar
gentina has been following a course in.
furious to the interests of the United
States. In the first place, the country
has been neutral, and alone of all the
American republics has refused to act
on the pledge made at the Rio de ia
metro Foreign Ministers Conference to
sever relations with the Axis At first
the Argentine policy was regarded as one
of inimicable isolation. The country is
trying to replace isolation with dynamic
diplomacy aimed at winning away the
friends of the United States, which Ar
gentina considers a rival
A few years age Col. Juan Domingo
Peron, Minister of Labor in the Ra-
mirez government and the most power
full parsonage in that government, was
Argentine military attache at Santiago
de Chile. After his departure cliques
sprang up in Chile which spread criti-
cism of the United States and spoke
well of Argentina and that country s
policy. Argentina has been offering
cheap vacations to Chileans. Prices are
high in their own country
Whispering Campaign.
Chileans have been reminded by the
whispering campaign that in 1891 the
United States cruiser Baltimore put
American sailors ashore in Chile to
calm an uprising. The false story is
being spread that during this war an
American warship shelled a Chilean
destroyer. Chile is in theory fertile
ground for the preachers of dissidence
because the country, in the grip of a
costly imitation, is economically un-