The Americas: Small Hello

When Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito started angling last year for a chance to promote nonalignment and trade in Latin America, half a dozen countries responded with invitations. But Tito played it safe. Well aware that he would be the first unbearded Communist chief of state to visit Latin America, he accepted only where he could hope for an enthusiastic reception: Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Mexico, all of which profess an “independent” line between East and West. Last week the Yugoslav strongman was halfway through his tour, and he had seen little enthusiasm.

Brazil could only be described as a diplomatic disaster. The few feeble cheers were drowned in the roar of protest from Roman Catholic churchmen and conservative organizations. Tito wanted to visit Rio and Sao Paulo; their governors flatly refused, saying they could not guarantee his safety. So for four days Tito hung around the backlands capital of Brasilia while President Joao Goulart wondered miserably what to do next. Tito’s address to the joint session of Congress (on the growing importance of nonalignment in world affairs) was boycotted by four-fifths of the legislators.

Goulart managed to wangle an invitation for Tito to visit the booming inland city of Belo Horizonte. But that, too, was canceled in disgust by the governor of Minas Gerais state when he heard that Yugoslav security men insisted on the arrest of every Serbian and Croatian refugee in town. In desperation, Goulart wound up driving Tito 130 sweltering miles to the raw and sprawling town of Goiania, a must on nobody’s list—only to be greeted by a row of grim, silent priests, each holding a crucifix wrapped in black crape.

The Chileans were slightly more polite. In Santiago, President Jorge Ales-sandri greeted Tito with decorous formality and an evident desire to keep him out of sight. At the official reception in the ornate Palacio Cousino, Tito made only the briefest of appearances and was then hustled off to a private room before he had a chance to talk to anybody. Two of his five days in Chile were spent in complete seclusion at the seaside resort of Vina del Mar. Four of Alessandri’s Cabinet ministers had al ready resigned in protest against his policies, and Chilean officials thought it best not to risk upsetting anyone else.