GUATEMALASeCITY, Guatemala (Delayed) — Many rural communities in this beautiful and mountainous country are so lacking in medical services that they don't even have "a good witch doctor."
This shocking comment was made to a visiting International House-LSU goodwill medical mission by a prominent Guatemalan physician, Dr. Carlos Soza Barillas.
Dr. Soza is one of the founders of an organization known as the Liga Pro Salud del Puebla, or the Peoples' Health League. Its purpose is to send mobile medical units to isolated countries.
Dr. Soza and Oscar Echever-ria, another leader of the movement and manager of the local Pan-American Life Insurance Co. branch, appealed to the people of New Orleans to help the League obtain medicines for this work. Dr. William W. Frye, dean of the LSU medical school and a co-leader of the goodwill mission, said he would establish a New Orleans committee through International House, to work with the League.
52 HAVE DOCTORS
Other shocking statistics Dr. Soza presented to the Louisiana delegation:
— Of 322 municipalities in Guatemala, only 52 have physicians.
— Of a total of some 800 doctors, 579 practice in Guatemala City, and about 70 are abroad. These physicians are to provide for the health needs of a nation of four mililon persons.
The International House 46th mission was composed of 16 Louisiana educators and physicians who were given a firsthand glimpse at medical problems and progress in the five Central American nations and
Panama. In addition to Dr. Frye, Dr. John Hunter, president of LSU, led the mission, and William W. Martin of International House was in charge of programming.
Events ohjlie medical side of the Guatemalan visit included visits to famed Roosevelt Hospital, to the medical and dental schools of centuries-old San Carlos University, and to the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama.
Dr. Charles V. patchette^ an orthopedic surgeon from Lake Charles, praised the nutritional institute for its work in fighting hunger and nutritional imbalance throughout the Americas. He noted that the institution (INCAP) had developed a powdered milk that sold as cheaply as four cents per quart. MOST ADVANCED
Dr. Edmund Jeansonne, assistant dean of dentistry at Loyola University described the dental school at the University of San Carlos as "the most advanced school of its type in these six countries."
One of the most informative highpoints of the visit was a look at the activities of ROCAP — the regional office of the U.
S. Agency for International Development (a principal Alliance for Progress arm) for Central America and Panama.
Without doubt, this is the busiest office in Central America today, reflecting the drive and pace of a Madison Avenue advertising agency. As the chief U.S. agency working in conjunction with the budding Central American Common Market, ROCAP is the generator of many new social, economic and political ideas sweeping the Isthmus. A number of projects involving cooperative efforts by ROCAP and International House were discussed with dynamic ROCAP Director Henry Du Flon, public relation chief Ed Polakoff and with Enrique Rit-tscher, an advisor on investments and tourism for the region. These include:
1. Ways of increasing two-way tourism between Central America and the Gulf Coast, especially New Orleans.
Incidentally, at Guatemala's Lake Aetitlan — perhaps the most beautiful and unspoiled lake in the world—the Louisiana group saw entire hotels empty, out of business. A sophisticated tourist promotion program could end such situations and boost the entire Central American economy. By the same token, the lack of tourist promotion for New Orleans was noticed throughout the travels by the I Louisiana mission.
CONFERENCE SERIES
2. Creating more direct commercial links between the two areas and exchanging specialized trade delegations periodically.
3. Holding a series of conferences either in New Orleans or in Central American capitals between bankers and financial experts of both areas.
4. Continuing the successful Pan-American Press Seminars with cooperation of the New Orleans and Central American staff of the Pan American Life Insurance Company.
5. Scheduling a visit to New Orleans in the near future by two top ROCAP experts to discuss with business groups here of the mutual business opportunities with Central America.
Speaking of such business opportunities, the mission saw several trade missions from Europe; Japan—and interestingly enough, Israel — touring the
In the political field— and medical men find themselves involved as much in politics as in medicine here—the delegation gained the impression that the government of Col. Enrique Peralta is restoring stability and a good business climate to Guatemala. Economic and social reforms are being speeded up, and a relatively stiff income tax law has gone into effect under Peralta. But civil rights remain suspended and the "state of seige"' declared at the overthrow of ex-President Ydigoras earlier this year, remains.
<STHJL NERVOUS'
Also, as Ambassador John O. Bell told the Louisiana mission in a briefing, "the police are still nervous/' This was demonstrated when a member of this group attempted to take pictures of the new Municipal Palace with a movie camera equipped with a telephoto lens. Guards on a nearby prison saw him, ordered him to stop, and indi-
cated they would shoot if he didn't. He stopped.
Ambassador Bell, when asked if the country was still feeling ill effects from the bloodless revolt which brought Ydigoras' overthrow, answered:
"Guatemala is like a girl who has had smallpox. The disease is over but the scars remain."
PHOTO: AT A RECEPTION given by U.S. Ambassador John O. Bell in Guatemala City for the members of the International House's 46th mission are (from left), Pedro Julio Garcia,
editor of "La Prensa Libre"; Dr. John A. Hunter, president of Louisiana State University and leader of the good-will mission; and Ambassador Bell.
