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From: hope@gatech.UUCP (Theodore Hope)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Nicaragua
Message-ID: <10360@gatech.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Oct-84 12:49:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.10360
Posted: Mon Oct  1 12:49:55 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Oct-84 06:12:11 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: School of ICS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Lines: 32


>From: wall@ucbvax.ARPA (Steve Wall)
>Subject: Re: nicaragua (long article, but *please* read)

>One more point. I just noticed that the population of Nicaragua is
>2,300,000. Estimates say that the Somacistas number between 10-15,000;
>That leaves 2,280,000 people who either support the Sandinistas, or
>feel that the Sandinistas are better than the Somacistas. Please don't
>suggest to me that 2,280,000 support the government in fear of repression
>if they criticize the government; I really can't swallow that.


You mean you can't swallow the thousands of 'desaparecidos' in Argentina or
the countless numbers of Russians who have been shipped off to Siberia for 
speaking out?

The 2,280,000 people that 'support' the government, as you say, may not
in reality do so.  Yes, entire populations remain silent out of fear.
Just look at the USSR: how many people over there get away with
criticizing the government?  The same is true for many countries in
Latin America and other parts of the world.  The situation is not
polarized; we can't separate the Nicaraguans into those a) supporting
the government and not supporting the guerrillas and b) supporting the
guerrillas and not supporting the government.  A large portion of the
population remains silent and publicly unsupportive of the guerrilla
movement for fear of government repression.
-- 
Theodore Hope
School of Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:	Hope @ GATech		ARPA:	Hope%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
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