Emerald
Vol. 82, No. 105
: it
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Friday, February 20, 1981
Wouldn’t fit
in the trunk
A Plymouth Fury parked in front of the Pi Kappa
Phi fraternity house at 751 E. 11th Ave. was crushed by
a 90-foot tall fir tree brought down by high winds about
3 a.m. Thursday.
The tree belonged to the neighboring Phi Kappa
Psi fraternity. Mark Hallquist, Phi Psi member anc
Interfraternity Council president, said a Phi Psi tree
also was blown down last year, but caused nc
damage.
Photo by David W Zahn
The owner of the Plymouth asked not to be
identified, and members of both fraternities said the
damage had not been estimated Thursday afternoon.
However, Pi Kappa Phi Pres. Scott Steward al
ready was making plans to dispense with the tree.
"If you know anybody interested in buying some
firewood, we might have some for sale soon, ” Steward
said.
Panelists view human rights ‘crisis’
By PAUL TELLES
Of the Emerald
All but one of five panelists agreed
Thursday night that human rights in Latin
America are in crisis.
Speaking to about 800 people in the
EMU Ballroom, William Wipfler, director
of the National Council of Churches’
Human Rights Office, traced the recent
increase in Latin American human rights
violations to American involvement in the
region and to the concurrent emergence
of military governments.
Although the Kennedy administra
tion’s Latin American policy originally
was based on idealistic premises, the
American government later supported
repressive governments because of the
“anti- Castro, anti-communist paranoia”
of the early 1960s, said Wipfler, an Epis
copalian priest who spent many years
working as a missionary in the region.
“We are facing over the last decade in
Latin America a different type of phen
omenon" from earlier political instability,
said Edy Kauffman, a political science
professor at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem.
For example, countries like Uruguay —
long considered to have positive human
rights policies — have begun to practice
torture and other forms of political re
pression, Kauffman said.
Agreeing with Wipfler and Kauffman,
Rick Rolf, legislative aide to Sen. Mark
Hatfield, R-Ore., said Pres. Jimmy
Carter's human rights policy had many
loopholes that allowed the State Depart
ment to continue to put United States’
national security above the rights of Latin
Americans.
However, “without that exception, you
would never have (human rights) legis
lation passed," Rolf said.
Consequently, he called on the
“human rights community" to enter into
a dialogue with national security ad
vocates and impress them with the
“long-run” view that American support
of authoritarian regimes eventually has a
negative impact on national security.
But State Department official John
Blacken disagreed, saying Carter policy
had a positive effect on human rights.
"In looking at Latin America today, the
picture is certainly not all that bad,”
Blacken said, drawing hisses from the
otherwise well-mannered crowd.
Latin America is more developed and
progressive than most underdeveloped
areas, Blacken said. Two-thirds of Latin
Americans live in cities, three-quarters
are literate and the countries’ gross
national products have been rising
steadily for several years, the director of
the State Department's Office on Central
American Affairs said.
Although the situation has improved,
there are still many violations of human
rights in South America, he said. But he
warned against making human rights the
Photo by Erich Boekelheide
Human rights in crisis was the topic of Thursday night's panel discussion in the EMU
Ballroom. About 800 people listened for two hours to the five panelists.
only point when dealing with these
countries.
This could lead to the “manipulation"
of the United States government and the
lessening of American influence, as
happened in the early 1960s, he said
Caught up in anti-communist fervor, the
U S. government was manipulated by
authoritarian regimes posing as
democracies
Likewise, he added, the government
should beware of being fooled by
revolutionary governments now.
The crowd’s mood improved after Ma
ria Alves, an expert in Brazilian affairs,
began speaking.
Saying it was important to have a
dialogue with people like Blacken, Alves
said the "barrage’' of economic statistics
Blacken used to illustrate his points are
“not what we (South Americans) mean
by development."
The number of people who now live in
Latin American cities isn’t an example of
progress but of the wrong kind of
development, Alves told the applauding
crowd.
"We would rather have people be able
to survive in the countryside" than be
driven to the cities by multi-national
corporations interested in producing
cash instead of subsistence crops, the
Brazilian native said.
Although Brazilians are hoping to
change their society through peaceful
means, Alves said she supports violent
revolutions like the one that overthrew
Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua.
“It is the right of the people to over
throw a tyrannical government."