Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site uwmacc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!myers
From: myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Nicaraguan Parallel: Some ke
Message-ID: <1557@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 13:56:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1557
Posted: Mon Oct 14 13:56:18 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Oct-85 06:51:24 EDT
References: <720@whuxl.UUCP> <7800508@inmet.UUCP>
Organization: Ken Kopp's Fresh Seafood Tank
Lines: 79

> 
> Now for the promised excerpts:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 

My, my, Jan's so proud of his articles that he saves them!  I save other
peoples' articles rather than my own, not having unlimited disk space.

> 
>  Before I turn to your specific points (my main
> objection will always be that you are talking
> policy while I am talking political structure),
> let me discuss your final conclusion.
>

The National Assembly is now in the process of drafting the new Nicaraguan
Constitution - you are correct in saying that structure is a very important
thing - let's see how the contitution comes out and whether or not it is
ratified.  However, one should also judge a given structure by its history and
past and present policies: structure does not exist in a vacuum.

> 
> > There are informers in Nicaragua, but I know of no evidence that that 
> > are as omnipresent as you claim.  There are also informers in this country.
> 
> I've read of at least one informer per every block.
> 

And I've read of a chicken in every pot in the US - it's just that some of
the pots are in church sponsored soup kitchens.  WHERE have you read this?

> 
> Show me anti-Sandinista  mass rallies like they have even in
> South Africa, even in Chile. True, they are dispersed there, but
> they assemble first. Not in Nicaragua. That net of informers
> must be thicker, and work better, than you give them credit for.
> 

Such rallies certainly occurred during the elections, in support of Arturo
Cruz (leader of the splinter Coordinadora parties), for the PLI and for the
PCD (Liberals and Conservatives).  There was a problem with FSLN youth
harassment of some of these gatherings, which should rightly not be condoned,
especially harassment of the PLI and PCD, which were registered electoral
parties.  See the State Dept white paper on the election.

Another good source is the report of the University of Texas - Austin's 
Latin American Studies Association, titled "The Electoral Process in
Nicaragua: Domestic and International Influences".  The delegation of 15
US scholars observed that "the Sandinista government deliberately chose a
West European-style proportional representation system that would maximize
representation of opposition parties in the national legislature."

> 
> > Untrue.  Only those areas that are actually in the war zone are such.  There
> > is freedom of movement in the rest of the country.
> 
> I didn't mean martial law. I meant that "nation under attack",
> "them vs. us"  mentality .  In Russia they always speak
> of "Socialist Camp" and "Capitalist Camp",
> in Nicaragua it's "Yankees, the enemies of humanity",
> and all their neighbors are accomplices, too.
> 

Maybe you should read a little Nicaraguan (the Poland of Central America)
history.  The US invaded in 1855, 1912, and 1927, then aided the Somoza
family in sitting on the country from 1933 to 1979.

> 
> Do you know how much a phone call costs from there to here ?
> I forgot the exact figure, but it is hundreds of dollars.
>

Jan, you're full of shit.  You probably saw an old figure in C$, or
co'rdobas, the analogue to the dollar in Nicaragua, also referred to as
pesos.  The figure now is probably a few thousand cords to call the US
(C$680 per US $1, more or less).  This is a hefty sum for a Nicaraguan,
and not real cheap for a North American.

jeff m