Good Fences

Good neighborliness in the Americas has been badly strained of late. The U.S.'s recent denial of a visa to Carlos Fuentes--a leading Mexican novelist with leftist leanings--which will prevent him from participating in a U.S. television debate with Richard Goodwin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, will almost certainly increase Latin America's mistrust of the U.S.'s motives. Mexico, battling to maintain neutrality between the giant on the north and a little Cuba feeling new Marxist-Leninist oats, is particularly sensitive to American slights.

Both Goodwin and Senor Fuentes had agreed to debate on the prospects of the Alliance for Progress, and the NBC program had received advance publicity in Latin America. When the U.S. embassy in Mexico subsequently indicated its belief that Fuentes was a Communist, the State Department denied his visa under the provisions of the Walter-McCarran Immigration Act. Although the State Department can choose to seek special waiver of such restrictions, in this case it did not. "Not in the national interest," said the Department. But Fuentes had had no trouble gaining admittance to the U.S. last October; then he came in connection with the publication of his latest novel which was well received in this country.

It is difficult to know whether or not Senor Fuentes is a Communist, or how much of Latin America he speaks for, but he is certainly one of the most articulate representatives of left wing opposition to the Alliance. His views should have a chance to be aired.