Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

are private institutíons, but their development programs were gíven high priority by the Government About seven months later, when asevere earthquake struck Chile -on July 8, 1971 the President of the Inter-American Oevelopment Bank, Mr. Antonio OrUz Mena, joined Presi– dent Allende and members of his Government in a tour of the devastated areas to determine their most urgent needs. . Afterward, Mr. Oiiiz Mena proposed a plan for assigning IOB resources for reconstruction and rehabilitation work. Al Ihat time, several Bank loans authorized before Ihe Allende Governmenl were in Ihe process of disbursement. Some of these loans with undisbursed portions. however, for various reasons could no longer be used in the projects to which they originally had been devoted. In accordance with normal Bank policy, these unused por– tions were going to be canceled. Mr. Ortiz Mena proposed that these undisbursed funds be diverted for reconstruction work in areas hit by the earthquake. The Board of Executive Oirectors approved the conversion of nine of the loan contracts for emergency work. Chile wasreassigned $16,120,000 for rapid disbursement during the remainder of 1971 and the first half of 1972. TAe modified conlracts were signed at Bank headquarters on October 8, 1971 by the Executive Oirecior of CORFO's New York office on behalf of his Government, and President brtiz Mena for ,the Bank. . . Utilization of the $16,120,000 meant that. during President Allende's Administration, Chile received the largest annual disbursement of foreign exchange in the Bank's híslory -$33,804.000 in 1971; $21,702,000 in 1972; and the equivalenl of $14,570,000 between January and Septémber 1973. When President Allende came lo office, the Bank was studyíng two proposals presented by the preceding Administration. The Chilean authorities, however, withdrew the priority formerly assígned to those projects, and the Bank diséontinued its consideration of them. Between September 1970 and Oecember'1972, Mr. Allende's Administration presented one new project to the Bank-a $31,500,000 loan proposal lo Petroquímica Chilena S.A. As then proposed, the project posed serious questions concerning its economic feasibility, among Ihem Ihe prospecls for exporling two thirds of its production to Argentina and to the countries of Ihe Andean Group. The Government of Chile, therefore, agreed to have a Britísh consulting firm, Matthew Hall Engineering Ud., prepare a study on Ihe project The firm submitted lis report in October 1973. Considering the changes in the world oíl situation this project is agaín being studied lo determine its economic feasibili¡y. In Oecember 1972, Chile presented two additional loan projects lo the Bank-one for exportíng natural gas to various other countries and anolher for the Antuco hydroelectric project on a river basin some 500 miles south of Santiago. The latter project, which was inlended lo íncrease energy productíon by 1,800.000,000 kílowatt-hours ayear, also included a study on the írrigation of 1,062,530 acres.Jn the basin. President Allende, who assigned top príoríly lo the proposal, had díscussed it with a high-Ievel Bank m.ission led by Enrique Peñalosa and Mario Mendivil, when they met with Chilean aulhorities in November 1972. After that visit, Ihe Minister of Finance, Mr. Orlando Millas Correa, reaffirmed the imporlance which his Governmenl assigned lo Ihe hydroelec– tric project 151