Caribbean aid package agreed on

The United States, Mexico, Venezuela, and Canada have agreed on a major economic program to aid poorer countries of the Caribbean and Central America. Monitor Latin America correspondent James Nelson Goodsell writes, however, that program details have yet to be worked out; neither Mexico nor Venezuela is entirely enthusiastic about the aid effort; and the meeting here between the foreign ministers of the four countries was merely a preliminary one designed to launch the aid package.

But the communique ending the meeting July 11 stressed the positive aspects of the effort.

"The ministers concluded that there are significant advantages to an economic and social development approach without military considerations or political preconditions," it said.

Prior to the session, both the Mexican and Venezuelan foreign ministries played down the Caribbean aspects of the session and instead played up the idea that the meeting would allow their foreign ministers to get to know US Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr.

The meeting apparently did both, satisfying the US, which had sought the session in the first place to give the Reagan administration's Caribbean aid effort a multinational look and also satisfying the Latin Americans, who would probably agree with a Mexican foreign office spokesman who called the meeting "fruitful."

But to bear further fruitage, the four countries will have to meet regularly on the aid program, and there is no indication when they will agai n come together.

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