SUMMIT ENDS WITH PROMISES HEMISPHERE LEADERS FOCUS ON TRADE

SANTIAGO, Chile, April 19—The second Summit of the Americas ended here
today with President Clinton and 33 other Western Hemisphere leaders
signing a declaration that promised everything from a rethinking of the
drug war to negotiations that could create the world's largest free-trade
zone.

The leaders treaded lightly on the challenges to democracy still looming in
Latin American trouble spots from Paraguay to Peru, concentrating on "a
second generation" of issues, such as education and economics. The topics
reflected what participants labeled an overall deepening of Latin America's
transition from dictatorships to democracies and from state-owned behemoths
to free-market systems.

Clinton underscored his belief that a greater pool of people must benefit
from those changes if they are to hold. The Americas have undergone a
"profound revolution in the last few years, a revolution of peace and
freedom and prosperity," the president said. "Here in Santiago, we embrace
our responsibility to make these historic forces lift the lives of all our
people. . . . It is a future worthy of the new Americas in a new millennium."

In Latin America, which long has been the inferior partner in a generally
paternalistic relationship with the United States, the summit is widely
viewed as a key turning point in equalizing that relationship. Latin
officials, for instance, believe a great leap forward was made in the
creation here of a Multilateral Counter Drug Alliance that would use the
Organization of American States as a tool to evaluate each nation's record
of combating drug trafficking -- a process seen here as a potential
alternative to the highly disparaged U.S. procedure of "certifying" the
anti-drug cooperation of individual nations.

"We saw the [U.S.-Latin America] relationship change during this summit,"
Chilean Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Insulza said in an interview. "If
Richard Nixon hadn't used the term 'mature partnership' to describe his
ignoring of Latin America in the 1970s, that is exactly the term we would
be using to describe the relationship today. We are talking more equally,
and we are no longer having one-way conversations. The U.S. is listening to
us, too."

But U.S. officials were quick to point out that some changes are not likely
to be immediately forthcoming. In discussing the U.S. drug certification
process, national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger declared: "We
would have to obviously have a long discussion with Congress before there
were any changes in U.S. law. I think that's not contemplated at this
point." In general, however, he echoed Insulza's assessment of the
hemispheric relationship.

"One of the things that is very striking about this meeting," Berger said,
"is that . . . there is no sense of America trying to dominate [the other]
countries. . . . There is a genuine spirit of partnership."

That new relationship manifested itself in a number of ways, not all
pleasing to the Americans. One clear indication of hemispheric willingness
to question U.S. policy came in the form of private calls for reinstatement
of Cuba to the OAS and in public declarations that Cuban President Fidel
Castro should be included in future hemispheric summits.

On the heels of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in January, it was
revealed this weekend that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who will
host the next summit, possibly in 2000, has accepted an invitation to visit
Havana next week, becoming the first Canadian leader to do so in 21 years.
Meanwhile, other leaders here spoke of ending Cuba's isolation.

"The exclusion of Cuba is unfair because that country isn't a threat to
anyone," Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori told reporters. "The Cuban
president should have been allowed to come here and express his point of
view and to listen to criticism of him."

But the Cuba issue was one of the few divisive notes in what was generally
a diplomatic love fest. Indeed, the language of the final communique is so
lofty that it almost echoes Marxist utopian rhetoric from bygone
generations -- the difference being that trade and capital markets, rather
than economic collectivism, are offered as the keys to a happier future for
the region. As expected, the summit participants agreed to a strict
schedule of negotiations for a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas,
despite the fact that Clinton arrived in the Chilean capital without "fast
track" authority -- the power to sign trade accords that Congress could
then only vote up or down, without amendment. The lack of fast track, which
Clinton failed to win from Congress last November, ironically was viewed
here as a deal maker, rather than a deal breaker. Countries such as Brazil
- -- which had resisted the initial U.S. format for trade talks -- found the
United States now willing to compromise on the structure of negotiations to
keep the prospect of a vast free-trade zone alive.

Although it will still be tough to persuade many opponents at home, U.S.
Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said that the proposed free trade
area "is embraced by all of the countries without exception as integration
to a broader agenda of strong democracies, the alleviation of poverty and
the empowerment of people and sustainable development." In the summit
communique, the nations agreed to sign an accord by 2005, with the first
round of negotiations to begin as early as June.

The 34-page "plan of action" goes on to address everything from new
techniques to combat the drug trade to standards for transporting nuclear
waste through the Panama Canal. Other new drug proposals include
hemispheric efforts to crack down on money laundering, combat drug
addiction and support "alternative development" programs to encourage
farmers who grow drug-producing plants to cultivate legal crops.

The summit plan also focused on illiteracy and pledged to "ensure, by the
year 2010, universal access to and completion of quality primary education
for 100 percent of children and access for at least 75 percent of young
people to quality secondary education." The Inter-American Development Bank
and the World Bank have already committed $6 billion in concessionary loans
for education over the next three years.

The plan calls further for a strengthening of Latin American judicial
systems -- still among the region's weakest institutions -- through
creation of a new justice center that would train judges and prosecutors on
applications of law. The document also outlines a tighter regulation of the
region's banking system, greater cooperation in rooting out money
laundering and greater participation in U.N. peacekeeping missions by Latin
American armed forces.

Indeed, at the same time the United States engages in a new partnership
approach toward Latin America, the nations in the hemisphere appear more
willing to work with Washington to address their myriad social and economic
problems. There may be a lingering "us vs. them" attitude, especially in
South America, but it was not much on display here.

"You now have recognition by all these governments of the need to rebuild
civil society at the local level," one senior U.S. official said. At the
first summit of the Americas, in Miami in 1994, he said, "we couldn't get
that recognized. Some of them wouldn't even talk about it."

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