Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cornell.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!amd!pesnta!greipa!decwrl!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!gil From: gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: El Salvador, Nicaragua Message-ID: <463@cornell.UUCP> Date: Wed, 6-Nov-85 10:36:50 EST Article-I.D.: cornell.463 Posted: Wed Nov 6 10:36:50 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Nov-85 16:30:41 EST References: <531@nbires.UUCP> <7280@ucla-cs.ARPA> <347@ubvax.UUCP> <766@mmintl.UUCP> Reply-To: gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger) Distribution: net Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept. Lines: 44 In article <766@mmintl.UUCP> franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) writes: >... the entire right wing of Nicaraguan politics has been eliminated or >forced underground. I believe that there were truely (sic) right wing >newspapers, which were forced out of business by the Sandinistas. Most of the right wing of Nicaraguan politics left the country in 1979. It was not forced out, but it realized that the society in which it had come to thrive no longer existed. Remember that much of the Nicaraguan right was the National Guard. The only major papers in the country before the revolution were La Prensa and Las Novedades, a Somoza paper. I don't think the Sandinistas forced the latter out of business, but that it left with Somoza. Can you cite any other papers that have been "forced out of business"? >Newspaper censorship in this country took place only during declared wars. >The rest of the time, we've had freedom of the press. (sic) The United States is the one that is fighting an undeclared war against Nicaragua. The Nicaraguans and their government recognize they are at war, regardless of whether or not it is declared. The contras are not a nation on which Nicaragua can declare war. >The question is not so much how free the country the is, but which way >it is going. It is hardly a valid criticism of the U.S. to say that it >has gotten more free with time. Unfortunately, after a promising start >after the ouster of the Samozaists (sic), Nicaragua now seems to be going the >other way. It is true that civil liberties are now abridged in Nicaragua as they were not two months ago. Nevertheless, Nicaraguan society remains more open than most in Central America. When searching for the cause of the abridgement of civil liberties in Nicaragua, we must look both at the government there and at our own. The U.S. administration is responsible for the situation in Nicaragua to which the Sandinistas are reacting. -- Gil Neiger Computer Science Department Cornell University Ithaca NY 14853 {uw-beaver,ihnp4,decvax,vax135}!cornell!gil (UUCP) gil@Cornell.ARPA (ARPAnet) ; gil@CRNLCS (BITNET)