Latin Envoys Call for Linking Debt Payments to Economic Performance

Envoys from 26 Latin and Caribbean nations ended a regional economic conference Saturday by demanding that payments on their foreign debts be linked to the performance of their individual economies.

The envoys had also called Friday for a “political dialogue” to seek a solution between debtor and creditor nations and urged the United States to curb what they called a growing tendency toward protectionism.

More than 100 delegates from the 26 nations forming the Latin American Economic System began returning to their home countries Saturday after ending the annual ministerial conference of the alliance.

In their final four-page declaration issued Friday night, the envoys declared that it is “necessary to adjust debt service to the real capacity of each country to pay, limiting service in relation to income from exports or performance of other economic variables.”

Member nations cannot achieve economic growth and development while paying off the region’s foreign debt on present terms, the declaration said.

The statement was a show of support for Brazil’s policy of linking payment on its $105-billion foreign debt to economic growth and Peru’s limiting paying of its $14-billion debt to 10% of its export income.

Analysts said the statement is the strongest and most precise declaration made since the alliance was established in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1975.

The alliance comprises countries of a diverse political spectrum, ranging from Communist Cuba to the right-wing military regimes of Chile and Paraguay.

Foreign ministers from Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, Chile, Jamaica, Paraguay and Suriname attended the two-day meeting. Other member nations sent economic and planning ministers or lower-ranking delegates.

The final declaration took a slap at U.S. economic sanctions against Nicaragua and Cuba, as well as rumored U.S. opposition to further World Bank loans to the military regime of Chilean President Augusto Pinochet.