THE AMERICAS: Social Whirl

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From Caracas to La Paz last week, red carpets were unrolled, honor guards got busy with spit and polish, ceremonial banquet tables were laid. Reason: a merry-go-round of formal state visits by Latin American chiefs of government. The President of Venezuela visited Lima in June,, and next week the President of Peru will return the courtesy. The President of Bolivia went to Santiago in February, is expected to visit Bogota in September. The President of Chile will visit Bolivia this month. President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of Colombia landed in Ecuador last week for chats with his neighbor, President Velasco Ibarra.

To add another spin to the gay whirl, Bolivia's President Victor Paz Estenssoro flew 665 miles northwest to Lima one day last week. It was a historic occasion. Ever since Chile defeated them in the War of the Pacific (1879-83), Peru and Bolivia have sullenly blamed each other for their joint misfortune. But from the moment that Peruvian President Manuel Odría gave him a big abrazo at the airport, Paz Estenssoro was treated like a long-lost brother. Bands played, a Cadillac convertible drove the Presidents through cheering throngs. Paz responded: "Peru and Bolivia have an ancestral unity . . . There is now a new spirit in our two nations, seeking closer economic and cultural relations."

Behind the fine phrases was a growing awareness among all the small countries of Latin America that if they are ever going to do away with the need for foreign capital, they will have to cooperate more fully with one another. No country knows this better than landlocked, mineral-rich, dollar-starved Bolivia. Last spring, Peru and Bolivia started planning a new railroad to bypass Lake Titicaca, where everything traveling between Peru's Pacific ports and La Paz must now be transshipped to and from a lake steamer. When the ceremonies were over, Paz Estenssoro and Odria signed a formal agreement to go ahead with the 115-mile Puno-Guaqui railroad. Said a Peruvian diplomat: "Peru and Bolivia look to me like Siamese brothers, joined by the Titicaca lake."