Abrazo for the Neighbors

Always jealous of the attention their neighbor to the north pays to Europe and Asia, South American leaders are particularly concerned in an election year. Latin ambassadors in Washington have been bombarded with urgent inquiries from home about the presidential candidates' views on hemispheric issues, and even the most casual speech from the stump is scrutinized for hints of policy changes.

Latin America has been largely overlooked by the presidential aspirants, but the man still in office has not forgotten it. Last week, as reassurance to the U.S.'s southern neighbors, President Johnson flew to San Salvador for a minisummit with the presidents of five Central American republics: El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Before leaving Texas, he conferred with Bolivia's President Rene Barrientos Ortuno at the L.B.J. ranch and played host to ambassadors from 20 Latin countries at San Antonio's HemisFair, itself a symbol of inter-American solidarity. The Administration hoped that the little summit in San Salvador would serve the practical purpose of revitalizing the floundering Central American Common Market. The five isthmus Presidents will discuss ways of hurdling the barriers dividing them, and Johnson's presence, a tangible symbol of U.S. interest, might help them along.

As for the gala at HemisFair, it was clearly a success. Entertained in the extravagant Texas tradition at Governor John Connally's Picosa Ranch, the diplomats were later feted by the Johnsons at the U.S. Pavilion and treated to the traditional high jinks of an American Fourth of July celebration--in-cluding fireworks, a picnic atop HemisFair's 622-ft. tower and speechmaking. San Antonio's Independence Day orator was Lyndon Johnson himself, who departed from the standard rhetoric to liken the hopes of the founding fathers to those of the Latin nations today. The goals of those who met in Philadelphia, he told the ambassadors, "are the goals now of the New World."

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