November 26, 1971
November 14 - Hundreds of thousands of Chileans turned out to welcome Cuban Premier Fidel Castro when he arrived in Santiago November 10. The trip, which is scheduled to last for at least 10 days, is Castro's first to Latin America in over 11 years. It is a dramatic sign of the growing breakdown in the U.S.-inspired efforts to isolate Cuba from the rest of Latin America.

Castro's trip to Chile is taking place at a time when Washington, D.C. is making increasingly menacing noises about Chile's nationalization of U.S.-owned copper companies. The first indication that the U.S. was exerting pressure on Chile came last August 11 when the Export-Import Bank rejected a six- month-old Chilean request for a $21 million loan and loan guarantee for the purchase of three Boeing jets. Henry Kearns, president of the bank, said that Chile could expect no loans from U.S. lending agencies until it agreed to pay what the U.S. considered satisfactory compensation for its nationalization of three copper companies: Cerro, Kennecott and Anaconda. The mounting economic pressure on Chile is also reflected in the fact that during the past year private foreign companies have virtually ended any investment in Chile.

The September 28 announcement of Chile's decision not to pay compensation to two of the copper companies, Kennecott and Anaconda, set off the loudest saber rattling in Washington. November 23, 1946
New leaps in prices have followed Truman's announcement last week of the decontrol of virtually all consumers' goods.

Truman's latest capitulation to the Wall Street price-gougers has brought still deeper slashes in the American workers' living standards.

Among the food items soaring in price are meats, butter, flour, bakery products, fats and oils. Beef, pork and lamb again have gone up in price after a temporary slight decline when hoarded meats, backed up in warehouses were dumped on the market.

In the week after Truman's order, wholesale hog prices jumped $2 to $4 per 100 pounds. Wholesale butter advanced three cents a pound and flour 15 cents per 100 pounds. These will lead to sharp advances in retail prices. Moreover by mid-winter, another meat shortage is anticipated, which will drive prices up still further. Already there is a slackening in livestock sent to the slaughter houses.  
 
 
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