Yanqui on a Southern Swing

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Reagan goes to Latin America, bearing good will

When U.S. Presidents go abroad, they usually make a splash by announcing bilateral agreements, making blustery speeches or starring in extravagant ceremonial tableaux. By contrast, Ronald Reagan's five-day trip through volatile Latin America last week was low-key. In Brazil, where Reagan spent half his time, there was no black-tie banquet, but an outdoor barbecue lunch. In Colombia, Reagan's limousine ride to the presidential palace was a few blocks, hardly a motorcade at all. On Saturday in Honduras, Reagan's final, fleeting stop, he only visited the air force base in San Pedro Sula.

Reagan made the trip with no intention of issuing tough demands to his hosts or striking dramatic diplomatic bargains. Generating good will was the main intention. "I didn't come down here with a plan," he told Brazilian President Joao Figueiredo. "I want to ask you questions about how we can help."

Latin Americans felt betrayed last spring when the U.S. eventually supported Britain in its war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Last week's trip was at least obliquely an attempt to erase lingering resentment. All four countries Reagan visited are fiscally wobbly, Brazil most prominently. There Reagan reassured Figueiredo that the U.S. is not about to let Brazil's precarious economy, the world's tenth largest, collapse. Reagan also went south to reaffirm his Administration's antagonism toward the hemisphere's first Marxist regime (Fidel Castro's Cuba) and the latest (Sandinist Nicaragua). His stops in Costa Rica and Honduras symbolically isolated Nicaragua, which is wedged in between. Reagan also conferred with President Alvaro Magafta of El Salvador and Guatemalan Strongman General Ephrain Rios Montt, both of whom face leftist insurgencies. Though Reagan made it a point not to go to either of their countries, the sessions were controversial because of continuing human rights violations reported in both places.

Overall, the trip permitted Reagan to look and sound his statesmanlike best, both to Latin Americans, who feel chronically misunderstood by Washington, and to the U.S. public. "What am I thinking about?" replied the President to one Brazilian reporter's question. "Right now? I'm thinking this has been a very wonderful visit for us." White House aides tried to counter the impression that the President was shirking urgent work in Washington for a Latin holiday. Nancy Reagan did not go, and the 600-person presidential entourage, wary of "Flying Down to Rio" headlines, avoided Brazil's gayest metropolis.

Instead of Rio de Janeiro, Air Force One landed Tuesday night in Brasilia, the oppressively bland and businesslike capital city planned and built from scratch on an isolated plateau during the late 1950s. "Your elections Nov. 15," Reagan said on his arrival, "demonstrated Brazil's confidence in itself and stability in freedom."