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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Sandinistas and Human Rights
Message-ID: <528@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Mar-85 15:22:55 EST
Article-I.D.: whuxl.528
Posted: Wed Mar 20 15:22:55 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Mar-85 03:38:43 EST
References: <680@ihopb.UUCP> <489@harvard.ARPA>
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> > From Jim Matthews:
> > A vote on releasing funds for military aid to the "contras" will be coming
> > up shortly in Congress. The contras are the ex-Somocista national guardsmen
> > who attack Nicaragua from bases in Honduras. 
> 
> 	Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.  The issues in Nicaragua would be more
> clear-cut if this was the case, but in fact only a small minority of the
> contras have ties to the old national guard.  Men like Eden Pastora fought
> the Samoza regime for decades, only to see his revolution co-opted by 
> Marxists.  And that's why they are fighting in the jungles.
 
Correction: in fact the coalition asking for funds admitted that 18 of
the 50 leading members of the contras were members of Somoza's National
Guard.  Further, Eden Pastora has been cut out of the contra coalition.
 
>  
> > The contras, despite massive funding by CIA covert aid and private right-wing
> > groups in the US,.... 
> 
> 	Again, this is a simplification.  The aid to the contras (some $40
> million last year, the Administration is now asking for $14 mill.) has
> been rather insignificant.  Immeadiately after the Sandinista victory in
> 1979, Jimmy Carter sent the new regime $75 million in economic aid.  In fact,
> Carter gave the Sandinistas more money in one day than we had given to
> Samoza in years, or that we have given the contras since.  
 
Correction: $75 million in economic aid for a whole country 
(even if it is a small one)
is rather different than $40 million for a group of armed rebels.
If Cuba sent $40 million to violent revolutionaries in the U.S. we
would be very upset.
 
> But I didn't
> hear you complaining of "massive" U.S. funding of a regime that has also
> been implicated in rather brutal violations of human rights.

Correction:  America's Watch and other Human Rights organizations have
reported that the contras have been responsible for hundreds of violations
of human rights since 1981, involving murder and other violations.
The Sandinistas have been held responsible for 3 disappearances.
The Sandinistas could also be held responsible for catcalls and attempts
to drown out opposition speakers in the last election.  Is this any
different than the Reagan campaigns confiscation of protest signs from
demonstrators at Reagan rallies while passing out Reagan-Bush signs?
While such tactics are certainly not to be condoned on any side, I would
hardly call them "brutal violations of human rights".  Would you?
 
If you wish to fund terrorist activities led with heavy influence
by National Guardsmen for a regime that was one of the most abusive
of human rights in Latin America, then come right out and say so.
But do not claim that such a group is in favor of democracy any more
than Somoza was.
                      tim sevener   whuxl!orb