U.S. Abstains on World Bank Loan to Chile

The World Bank voted to make a $250-million loan to Chile on Thursday, with the United States abstaining to signal Washington’s objections to the human rights abuses of that country’s authoritarian government.

“Our abstention on this loan (vote) reflects the serious concern of the United States over human rights violations in Chile,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman said. “As greatly as we value and commend the considerable economic freedom that has been established in Chile, we must also voice our firm conviction that political freedom and respect for individual rights are indispensable to the establishment and maintenance of free societies.”

Redman said that the loan, intended to ease Chile’s economic dependence on copper mining and to correct other economic problems, was justified on its economic merits.

The abstention marked a softening of the U.S. position since July 30, when Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, told a congressional committee that he advocated voting against the loan.

Abrams’ Opinion Aired

Asked what changed between July and November, Redman would say only that Abrams “gave his opinion at that time.”

A State Department official said earlier that Washington was concerned that a U.S. vote against the loan would strengthen the regime of Chilean President Augusto Pinochet by stimulating Chilean nationalism.

“If we voted no and it passed anyway, it would make us appear impotent,” the official added.

The Carter Administration regularly voted against World Bank loans to Chile, but most of them ultimately were approved.

During its first few years, the Reagan Administration tended to focus on Chile’s free-market economy and avoid emphasizing its human rights violations. In recent years, however, the Administration has sought to pressure Chile into an early return to a democratic political system. U.S. officials have cited Chile, along with the right-wing government of Paraguay and the leftist regimes of Cuba and Nicaragua, as the “odd men out” of a trend toward democracy in the Western Hemisphere.