Office of the Historian

144. Letter From President Carter to Bolivian President Padilla1

Washington, May 8, 1979
Dear Mr. President:

I deeply appreciate your letter of February 23 offering Bolivia as a site for a regional remote sensing training center in Latin America.2 As you know, the Agency for International Development (AID) is currently studying the feasibility of supporting one or more such centers in Latin America to complement similar facilities already in operation in Africa and planned in Asia.

The AID Regional Remote Sensing Study Team which visited Bolivia along with 17 other Latin American countries has recently returned to the US and is completing its assessment and recommendations on possible sites. In addition, AID will be exploring what further [Page 445] funding may be available for such centers from multilateral donors. The AID team was most impressed with the available facilities and the productive applications of remote sensing projects underway in your country. Bolivia’s willingness to share its facilities and experience with others is indeed gratifying.

I expect that AID’s deliberations on support, along with other donors, for regional remote centers in Latin America will be completed in several months and have instructed Ambassador Boeker to advise you of the results of these activities at that time.3 In any event, we would expect to be working with your country over the next two or three years as arrangements to harness this modern technology for the development of South America move(s) ahead. In the meantime, please accept my best wishes for Bolivia’s continued success as one of the world’s leaders in applying satellite remote sensing techniques to national development problems.

My wife Rosalynn enjoyed her brief meeting with your wife last February.4 I was particularly pleased to hear of your continued strong commitment to free elections in Bolivia this July. I wish you every success.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Carter
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 2, Bolivia: President Hugo Banzer Suarez, 8/77-10/79. No classification marking.↩
  2. In a February 23 letter to Carter, Padilla proposed that such a regional training center, using imagery from the Landsat satellite, be established in Bolivia. (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 2, Bolivia: President Hugo Banzer Suarez, 8/77-10/79)↩
  3. In a May 7 memorandum to Carter, Brzezinski, Press, and Owen wrote: “It is likely that we will choose to install such a center in Bolivia. Politically, however, we believe that it is advantageous to withhold notification of any favorable decision affecting Bolivia until after a new civilian government is inaugurated in August so that we may then use the regional center to show support for Bolivian democratization efforts.” (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 2, Bolivia: President Hugo Banzer Suarez, 8/77-10/79)↩
  4. No account of this meeting has been found.↩