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!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!qantel!ihnp4!houxm!vax135!cornell!gil From: gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: El Salvador, Nicaragua Message-ID: <496@cornell.UUCP> Date: Thu, 7-Nov-85 08:30:12 EST Article-I.D.: cornell.496 Posted: Thu Nov 7 08:30:12 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Nov-85 15:59:03 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: 46 In article <766@mmintl.UUCP> franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) writes (in reference to the press in Nicaragua): >The question is not so much how free the country 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 Somozans, Nicaragua now seems to be going >the other way. One must be careful when saying things like this, because "which way it is going" can be a very subjective judgement. For years our administration has certified that the human rights situation in Guatemala and El Salvador has been improving. Nevertheless, to live in either of these countries, despite their support by the Reagan administration, is a nightmare compared to life in Nicaragua. The genocide of Mayan Indians in Guatemala continues to this day, and rivals what the Nazis did to the Jews. Although the activities of death squads in El Salvador may have abated a little, they still operate, the "flying death squads" (as some call the Salvadoran Air Force) are conducting an air war over the countryside that is on a par with what was done in Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam War. Of course it is unfortunate that the Sandinistas have abridged civil liberties. But this should not necessarily condemn them. A few years back they declared a similar state of emergency, gave a time limit for it (as they did this time), and lifted it at that deadline. They did so well in time to run what international observers declared to be one of the freest elections ever held in Central America (the rhetoric of the Reagan administration and the U.S. media notwithstanding). To determine "what way" the Sandinistas and Nicaragua are going, we should give them on opportunity to act freely. See if they lift the state of emergency at their self-imposed deadline. But more importantly, the U.S. should stop its war against them to really give the Sandinistas a chance to "show their true colors," during a time a peace, not during a life-and-death war, when any government might act differently than it would like. -- 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)