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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 

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