(8 of 8)
In fact, support for Argentina's invasion of the Falklands has come from only a handful of Latin American countries. Chief among them are Peru, a traditional Argentine ally on the South American continent; Ecuador, which smarts from the loss of more than 70,000 sq. mi. of territory to Peru in various wars; Bolivia, which lost a Pacific coastline to Chile a century ago; and above all, democratic Venezuela, which claims about half of neighboring Guyana's territory. In an interview with TIME'S Caribbean bureau chief William McWhirter, Venezuelan President Luis Herrera Campins warned that the U.S. "would have to bear the brunt of all the feelings of anticolonialism now rising across Latin America" as a result of U.S. support for Britain in the Falklands war. Said Herrera Campins: "The U.S. has probably never taken a greater risk in its international relations. We never thought that the U.S. would take an active part in a war against Latin America in this part of the 20th century."
The U.S. Administration has opted for a balancing act that combines strong public declarations of support for Thatcher with delicate hints that the U.S. would prefer negotiations. "The President fully supports Mrs. Thatcher, not as a matter of national bias but as a matter of principle," Secretary of State Haig said in New York City Friday. He added: "It remains to be seen if a framework can be put together to remove the pervasive animosities that will continue if this is improperly managed."
Since the current mood in Britain is not likely to lead to negotiations soon, the wisest course for the U.S. might be to address demands that Latin Americans have been making for decades: more economic aid from the U.S. and freer access to U.S. markets. Says former CIA Director William Colby: "There is nothing terribly new in Americans choosing their European friends over their Latin friends. But Latin Americans will look to their own economic interests first." Says Robert Wesson of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace: "There is little to be done but say 'sorry about this' and then go on to increase trade, build a new life, so to speak, after the Falklands."
But for the time being there was no easy way to patch the breach opened by the lamentable Falklands war. As long as emotions remained a guiding force both in Britain and in Argentina, the only U.S. option, in the words of a State Department official, was "quiet encouragement." The best hope was that time would heal the wounds opened so brutally, that a rational appraisal of each country's best long-term interests would eventually prevail, and that the hard-won peace would not unravel. —By George Russell.
Reported by Bonnie Angela/London and Gavin Scott/Buenos Aires