The Andes: Summit on the Wing

The two men in khakis and mud-spattered boots scrambled up on a huge rock pile, andhammed it up for photographers. Then they clambered aboard a bulldozer, and posed some more. A few moments later, they were riding on the running board of a Ford truck, jouncing along dirt roads past mud and thatch huts, waving eagerly to bewildered peasants.

Clearly having the time of their lives last week were Bolivia’s President René Barrientos and Peru’s President Fernando Belaúnde Terry. Barrientos andBelaúnde were on a three-day inspection of the Peruvian link of Belaúnde’sproposed marginal road, a 4,300-mile highway that will open up thousands of acres of isolated Andes back country, and follow the mountains from Venezuela down through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, linking up with highway systems in Paraguay, Argentinaand Brazil.

The two men had other things to discuss as well. Landlocked Bolivia is bickering with neighboring Chile, and therefore wants a new route to the Pacific, which Peru could provide. In turn, Peru’s military, miffed about a call for Latin American disarmament by the Presidents of Chile and Colombia, wants closer ties with Bolivia’s ex-Air Force General Barrientos, who is friendly with the Presidents of Argentina and Brazil—both of whom are also ex-generals.

Bearhugs & Namesakes. Meeting in the small Peruvian border town of Puerto Patria, Barrientos and Belaúnde greeted each other with bear-hug abrazos, and made a few speeches. The party of 55 traveled on by barge, truck, foot and air, making up the trip as they went. Aboard his DC-6, Belaúnde manned the public-address system, describing the dense, steaming jungle below and every twist and turn of the marginal road. “That’s the Tambo River,” Belaúnde noted, “where I came down the rapids in a raft.” Over there was Tingo Maria, a new agrarian-reform project where 25,000 settlers will soon dwell. Off in the distance in the fertile Huallaga River Valley was Tarapoto, which now boasts the biggest cargo airport in Peru, after Lima.

In the tiny village of Shanao, Belaúnde asked the name of a new bridge that was going up. “The Rio Mayo,” answered a local official. “No,” Belaúnde corrected. “Henceforth, this will be known as the Bolivia Bridge, in honor of the great Bolivian President.” Not to be outdone, Barrientos announced that he was naming a small town on the Bolivian stretch of the highway “Fernando Belaúnde Terry.”

The Hard Business. Among the handshakes and ribbon snipping, Belaúnde and Barrientos talked hard business.

And in the final communiqué, Peru promised to help find international funds to link Bolivia to the sea by road. The communiqué also provided that both countries would 1) improve the existing railroad service between La Paz and Peru’s southern coast, 2) “formalize and enlarge” an agreement covering free navigation on the waters of the Amazon Basin, 3) discuss the possibility of a pipeline across Peru to transport Bolivian petroleum to a Peruvian coastal port.

After a final, hearty abrazo, Barrientos flew to La Paz, where he made preparations for another summit meeting this week—with Brazil’s President Humberto Castello Branco. Belaúnde got into a helicopter and whirred off to the isolated, primitive Peruvian village of Aguarunas, where his interpreter explained to the curious Indians that this tall, grey-haired white man was the President of something called Peru. While the Indians laughed and shrugged in confusion, Belaúnde threw an arm around one for a quick photograph, then popped back into his helicopter for another stop or two before returning home.