Comings & Goings

Warmed by the easy companionship of Panama's unique meeting of Presidents--and in particular by their private, get-acquainted visits with President Eisenhower--the chief executives of South America made going home last week the occasion for an unheralded program of presidential gadding-about. Unforeseen delays threw the formal travel schedules into a state of confusion, but by week's end South America's Presidents knew each other as never before.

Guests Without Hosts. Brazil's Jusce-lino Kubitschek, with Uruguay's Alberto Zubiria a guest in his plane, had planned to be back in Rio for a state visit by Argentina's Pedro Aramburu, but engine trouble delayed them in Peru, and bad weather stalled them in Santiago, Chile. Chile's Carlos Ibanez, however, was not on hand to greet them; on his way home the Chilean President had 1) run across Ecuador's Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra at the Guayaquil airport and dawdled over a glass of champagne, and 2) landed at Lima for a chat with ailing Manuel Odria, Peru's outgoing President.

Next day Kubitschek and Zubiria flew on to Uruguay, deciding, by the time they arrived, that they felt "like citizens of the same country." After a noisy airport reception, the Brazilian President left for his own capital, where Vice-President Joao ("Jango") Goulart was entertaining Aramburu; Kubitschek managed to rush from the airport to the final reception for the visiting Argentine. Next day Aramburu sped off to Uruguay for a tumultuous one-day visit before returning to Buenos Aires--and Kubitschek settled down to await the arrival a few hours later of Bolivia's Hernan Siles Zuazo.

Disappearing Divisions.In more formal fashion, another noted traveler also made the rounds. After Panama, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dropped in on Colombia's Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. The implied honor to Rojas, who was the Panama conference's No. 1 absentee, angered Colombians who oppose the self-made strongman. Moving to Ecuador, Dulles restored the balance by pointedly praising Ecuador's "firm support of constitutional processes." Then the Secretary of State flew off to the inauguration of Peru's Manuel Prado (see below).

The week's junkets underlined what the U.S. hopes will be the historic meaning of Panama: more mutual trade and aid among the Latin American nations, with a corresponding playing down of continuing economic dependence on the U.S. Old rivalries, bad transportation and plain shortage of capital in most countries plainly stand in the way. But the unexpected show of presidential friendship was a hopeful sign on the first week after the meeting that the historic divisions of Latin America may be breaking down.

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