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

phic research and the construction of port facilities, surely was not going to be easi Iy rejected by a sea and naval power, The acquiring of industrial secrels in Ihe copper industry brought off by Russía was real treason lo Ihe fatherland, The examples are endless.(1) As itwill be examined in Ihe following chapters regional policíes were very closely tied to the objective in which the international policies were inspired, II INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN A REGIONAL CONTEXT The first objective set down in the international polícles 01 the Popular Unity Adminis– tratlon on a regional level was the breaking down of ideological frontiers. This pragmatic design, as well as the relations with al! the nations of the world, is unobjectionable as the expressions of a democratic society that aspires to maintain cordial relations with other coúntries of dilferent ideologies. Nevertheless, it also becomes necessary to examine its concrete contents to be able to understand their effects and, most of al!, their utilization within Ihis framework of international politics, THE DISTORTION OF IDEOLOGICAL PLURALISM From the very beginning it was evident thal the Popular Unity Administration conceived the breaking down of ideological barriers in a unilateral way, that is, it was a laudable principie to the extent in which other governments agreed to accept the presence of a Marxist regime in Chile, but at no time did the Popular Uníty indi.cate its acceptance ofother ídeologies present in these other countries, In sum, they continued to attack with no respite the milítary governmentof Brazil and Argentina; al! this criticism was not expressed through the Administration but through their press channels and polítical parties, which were inseparable from the government itself as it is common knowledge. The second step consisted in the attempt to put into practice the aboye mentioned principie on an inter-American level, whích was achieved through a declaration issued by the General Assembly 01 the OAS which stated that ideological pluralism is a principie 01 the inter-American system, But immediately the exact nature of the pursued objective was revealed. On the one hand, during the meeting held Qn the reform of the system, which took place in Lima, they tried to replace the principie of representative democracy wilh thal of ideological pluralism in the OAS Charter; by doing this they were giving legitimacy to the totalítarian orientation that the Chilean government was clearly pursuing on the internal leve!. CIDLE'S HELPLESSNESS On the other hand, as a corolary to the aboye mentioned strategy, the offensive to revoke or incapacitate the Interamerican Treaty of Mutual Assistance was initiated, which meant great danger from the view point of national security. For such an end it was argued that the Treaty was incompatible with the principie of ideological pluralism, because Ihe sanctions applied against Cuba are based on il. Truthfully the argument was false, because what has been sanctioned are the acts of intervention by Cuba in other countries. as it was done before during Trujillo's Administration! which did not share the same ideology. Furthermore, if it only dealt with Cuba's situation, ít would suffice torevoke the sanctions applied by the meeting of consultalion withQuI need of revoking the Treaty, By disabling the Treaty of Rio, Chile was going lO remain wilhout a mechanism of (l)The study "Dos Años de Penetración Soviética en Chile", Portada Magazine N,O 39, May 1973, contains a detaíled account 01 the SOviet ínfluence in Chile. 78