Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ut-sally.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!bellcore!decvax!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!riddle
From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: San Juan del Sur (Re: Fair play for Nicaragua)
Message-ID: <1810@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-May-85 20:45:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.1810
Posted: Fri May  3 20:45:17 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 6-May-85 01:06:48 EDT
References: <1413@bbncca.ARPA>
Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
Lines: 45

> The Soviet navy will gain use of the Pacific port of Corinto, comple-
> menting the Atlantic coast port access that navy already enjoys in Cuba.
> This seriously complicates, even compromises, the strategic security
> of the US in its OWN hemisphere.  Bye bye, Monroe doctrine!
> 
> The Cubans already maintain a small military base & port in (I think)
> San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, which I believe is also on the Pacific
> Coast.

That's funny -- just this weekend I heard a funny story about San Juan del
Sur from a minister and his wife from Clear Lake City, Texas, who were
speaking about Witness for Peace, the organization that sends people to
Nicaragua to observe the conditions there and the consequences of the U.S.
war against the country.

When they returned from Nicaragua they gave a press conference in Houston
talking about their trip.  A columnist for one of the Houston papers
responded by listing San Juan del Sur as one of the places they "obviously"
hadn't visited, because if they had they would have seen a 6000 ton drydock
that the Soviets had built their for repair of spy ships cruising the U.S.
West Coast.

Unfortunately, the journalist seemed to have some of his facts wrong: the
group had spent several days in San Juan del Sur, had been all over the
place, and had seen only what was there: a sleepy little town with a very
minor port, lacking even docking facilities for ships of any size -- the few
freighters that stop there must anchor out in the bay and unload their cargo
into small open boats which transfer it to shore.  Needless to say, they saw
no 6000 ton dry dock.

Of course, they wrote a letter to the paper, correcting the columnist; of
course, the paper didn't print it.   When they finally reached the columnist
by phone and asked him to explain himself, all he could say was that the
Russians must have moved the drydock when they heard Witness for Peace was
coming!

Unfortunately this is all too indicative of the quality of some of the
damning "facts" about Nicaragua distributed by administration sources and
eagerly repeated by certain elements of the press.  Of course, you can
choose to believe the columnist and his unstated source of information --
I'll believe people who've been there and seen things for themselves.

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
--- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally