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From: notes@ucbcad.UUCP
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Subject: Re: Number Fifty-one - (nf)
Message-ID: <960@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 2-Dec-83 16:25:05 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.960
Posted: Fri Dec  2 16:25:05 1983
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#R:ihuxp:-52700:ucbesvax:2900043:000:1521
ucbesvax!turner    Dec  2 05:25:00 1983

Re: Puerto Rico & El Salvador

Questions for Dani Eder: isn't offering citizenship to Salvadorans tanta-
mount to creating the "flood of refugees" that is used as a scare-tactic
to keep up public support for the current regime there?  After all, the
Reagan administration's rationale for turning them back now is that they
are really "economic", not political, refugees.  Of course, I suppose
they could categorize them more selectively, so the more radical types
are kept in El Salvador to be killed in the long run.  Unfortunately,
these are also the more educated types, supposedly the foundation of a
modern, prosperous economy.

Another: when the U.S. took possession of Puerto Rico, was it during a time
when a civil war was taking the lives of thousands of civilians per year?
If so, what incentive is there for Salvadoran immigrants to re-invest in
their own country with the money made here?

Another: the same cheap-labor/capital-attraction is at work in El Salvador;
open up your terminal and you're more likely to find TTL chips marked
"El Salvador" than "Puerto Rico".  It's not obvious that it's working
there, assuming that it works at all.  In fact, given the level of violence
directed at union leadership in El Salvador, it would seem that the
creation of a healthy climate for investment, and maintenance of a cheap
labor force are part of the problem, rather than the solution.

I don't think the situations are comparable.

Just Another Humorless Leftist,
    Michael Turner (ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner)