Wall Street, Rebels, and Rio Branco - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 139

for everyone in this great country. I am going up the Amazonas. . . . I am going to make
a report and I am sure it will be gratifying to this great country.” 4 One passenger on the
Wilmington was the US consul to Brazil, K. Kennedy, and in Belém at the time of the
arrival ofthe gunboat were Bolivian foreign minister Paravicini, fresh from the Bolivian
frontier; Guillerme Uhthoff, Paravacini's aide; and the customs officer of the Bolivian
frontier, Ladslau Ibarra.
The Wilmington was to take a US-Bolivian pact to the president of the United States,
William McKinley, signed by Pavacini, Kennedy, and Bolivian vice consul Luiz Truco.
The accord dealt with an “agreement” over the Acre River basin, still technically
Bolivian but in militant dispute by Brazilian sertanejo / seringeiro guerrillas. Bolivia had
already sent an expedition to the Acre basin to back up its claims with armed men. The
“Little Agreement” between the United States and Bolivia, as it came to be known in
Amazoniancircles,involvedsevenprovisionsthatwouldmakeBrazilianbloodruncold.
The first article of that document established that the United States would, through
diplomatic means, raise with Brazil the question of recognition of Bolivia's rights to the
entirewatershedsoftheIaco,Acre,andPurúsinlightofthelimitsestablishedin1867by
theTreatyofAyacucho.Article2wasthattheUnitedStateswouldfurnishthenecessary
arms should a war break out between Brazil and Bolivia. The third article established
that the United States wouldpressure Brazil andBolivia toname acommission toestab-
lish the international boundaries of the of the Juruá and Javari Rivers. The fourth clause
stipulated that Bolivia would enjoy free navigation rights on all the tributaries of the
Amazon and duty-free status at the customs houses of Belém and Manaus for products
coming into and going out of Bolivia. The United States would defend these rights. The
fifth condition was that in view of the previous clause, Bolivia would discount tariffs
on US products coming into Bolivia by 50 percent and reduce tariffs on rubber going
to any US port by 25 percent for ten years. The last two clauses of the Bolivia-US pact
stipulated the disposition of responsibilities in case of war: Bolivia would denounce the
Ayacucho Treaty in accord with the United States and establish that the new territorial
boundary would pass through the mouth of the Acre River, and the remaining territor-
ies (those between the mouth of the Acre River and the existing occupation) would be
handed to the United States in freehold. The United States would pay the war expenses
and receive the rents from Bolivian customs houses as future payment for these military
outlays. 5
This was quite a list, with unpleasant implications for Brazil. First, it was obviously a
set of agreements about prosecuting a war and distributing its costs and benefits, includ-
ing a generous territorial giveaway to the United States. Second, the remaining clauses
were trade and transport agreements that would make the rubber holdings and other re-
sources in the far western Amazon very economically alluring.