Latin America:U.S.-Peru Relations Worsen
Relations between the U.S. and Peru took a turn for the worst May 23 when Peru announced its decision to reject Governor Rockefeller's planned visit to the country and to expel the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force missions. Foreign Minister Edgardo Mercado Jarrin told newsmen: "Conditions essential to national dignity do not exist so that the government could receive Mr. Rockefeller and talk with him." (Rockefeller had been scheduled to visit Peru May 30-31 on the second of his Latin American trips.)The Peruvian action was in response to a U.S. decision to suspend sales of military equipment to Peru. The U.S. decision, originally made sometime in February following Peru's seizure of two American tuna boats [See 1969 Peru: U.S. Tuna Boats Attacked], had become known May 17 and was officially confirmed May 23 by the U.S. ambassador in Lima, John Wesley Jones. Peru had issued a sharp statement May 19 that if the suspension of arms sales was confirmed, Rockefeller's visit to Lima would be "inopportune" and there would be no purpose in the continued presence of U.S. military missions in the country.
The public announcement of the U.S. decision followed Peru's seizure May 16 of another American tuna boat. The vessel, the fourth to be captured this year [See 1969 Peru: More U.S. Boats Seized; 1969 Peru: U.S. Tuna Boats Attacked], was escorted to Talara by the Peruvian navy and the captain was forced to pay about $15,000 in fines and fees.
The State Department May 24 expressed regret that "the Peruvian government has decided not to receive Governor Rockefeller.... It has been and continues to be our belief...that his visit to Lima would have been an excellent opportunity to pursue constructive conversations on the problems which currently complicate the historically friendly relations between our two countries." The State Department also said that the U.S. military missions in Peru (41 officers and servicemen plus 120 dependents) would be promptly withdrawn.
In a separate statement issued the same day, the department justified the suspension of military sales to Peru on the basis that U.S. law required halting all credit sales of arms to any country that seized an American fishing vessel more than 12 miles off its coast. The State Department denied that the suspension of arms sales was in any way related to "the problems arising from the expropriation of the International Petroleum Co. holdings in Peru" [See 1969 Peru: U.S. Relations; 1969 Peru: U.S. Postpones Sanctions] and asserted that the Peruvian embassy in Washington, D.C. had been "officially advised" of the action on April 3 and Peru's ambassador, Fernando Berckemeyer, had been personally informed on April 15. Peru had charged May 20 that it learned of the decision through press reports. (Peru was reported to have bought about $2.5 million in U.S. arms during each of the past four years. It also had received grants of about $5 million worth of training aircraft, helicopters, trucks, ammunition and training supplies.)
Further complicating the relationship between the U.S. and Peru was the fact that Ambassador Jones' resignation, which had been offered on the inauguration of the Nixon Administration, was accepted May 15. He was expected to leave Lima in June.