The Americas: Resuming Relations

The U.S. publicly deplores military takeovers in Latin American countries, but if they last, invariably winds up dealing with the new governments. Last week, after a two-month wait, the State Department formally resumed diplomat ic relations with Honduras and the Dominican Republic, whose constitution al Presidents were ousted by military coup. Honduras, poor even by Central American standards, desperately needs Alliance for Progress aid ($4.2 million in fiscal 1963). Recognition of the Dominican Republic will enable the U.S. to keep a closer eye on a potentially dangerous Castroite guerrilla flare-up there. The soldiers running the two countries made only distant promises of new elections, but the U.S. considered it a start. As one Washington official put it: “Withholding recognition was a necessary step. But nonrecognition, in the long run, is not a satisfactory policy. Nonrecognition has never beaten anybody to their knees and has never changed a government. When we’re not on the scene, we end up sitting back and watching our own interests go to pot.”