48. Editorial Note
The Inter-American Economic and Social Council of the Organization of American States convened in Punta del Este at the expert level October 1-21 and the Ministerial level October 22-27. The purpose of the meeting was to review the progress of the Alliance for Progress after its first year. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Herbert K. May headed the U.S. Delegation to the first series of meetings. Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon arrived in Uruguay on October 22 to participate in the Ministerial sessions but was recalled immediately to Washington as the Cuban missile crisis escalated.
Dillon addressed the Council on October 23 before leaving Punta del Este. He acknowledged that Alliance for Progress programs were being implemented more slowly than had been anticipated but expressed confidence that they were moving Latin America in the right direction. He affirmed the support of the United States for economic integration in Latin America and for commodity price support agreements in the region. He confirmed that the United States had fulfilled its pledge to commit $1 billion to the Alliance for Progress before March 1962 and pledged to continue aid to Alliance programs in the year ahead “on the same general order of magnitude.” (New York Times, October 24, page 23) Before he left Uruguay, Dillon named Teodoro Moscoso to take his place at the final sessions of the conference.
Documentation on the conference is in Department of State, ARA/IPA Files: Lot 69 D 211, IA-ECOSOC: USDEL to Annual Mtg. of the IA [Page 111] Econ and Social Council at the Ministerial Level, Mexico City, October 1962; and ibid., ARA/USOAS Files: Lot 76 D 381, First Annual Meeting Economic and Social Council, Mexico, 1962.