‘Castro’s Nemesis on the Left’

This is in response to Tad Szulc’s article (Opinion, Sept. 8, “Castro’s Nemesis on the Left.”

Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez’s Marxist, but anti-Soviet position, on the $370-billion debt owed by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean may be a problem for Fidel Castro, but it is a striking opportunity for this country to wake up and alter the disastrous course currently being pursued.

To the degree that we hold the debt as an abstraction--and not something with a direct bearing on whether massive numbers of people suffer and die from malnutrition--we will continue to smooth the path for Castro and his Soviet masters.

Castro seeks to use the debt as a divisive wedge between this country and those of the south. It is to Garcia’s credit that he and other Latin American neighbors continue to seek ways for that debt to be repaid.

But if the attempts at repayment serve only to drive the debtor nations further into poverty, then all countries concerned will be ill served.

Our first concern has to be to see that the standard of living in the various nations involved continues to improve, even if that means drastically altering the repayment schedules.

Hunger breeds revolution. If we embrace Alan Garcia and others like him as the nationalists that they are--rather than seeing only “leftist” governments--we can work together to stabilize the hemisphere we share in common and eliminate the need for revolution. Increasing standards of living for the poorest in a nation leads to stable economies, and stability is the best hope in this hemisphere for well-fed and well-educated democracies.

Or we can go on supporting contras and governments as vicious as the Guatamalan oligarchies that serve as open invitations to Soviet involvement with forces and governments with nowhere else to turn.

We have embraced the second choice too long--and forgotten our own history while fearful men guide us. With the second choice we will become increasingly estranged not only from the people of poverty but from our own best selves.

LONON F. SMITH

Los Angeles