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From: bmac3@ssc-bee.UUCP (Scott Pilet)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Nicaraguan Parallel: Some ke
Message-ID: <402@ssc-bee.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 10:29:07 EDT
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Posted: Thu Oct 17 10:29:07 1985
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> 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.
> > 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.
> jeff m

More reading could include the State Department's report entitled
"The Sandinistas and Middle Eastern Radicals" issued in September.
This paper charges that the Sandinistas have been closely connected
with Libya, Iran and the PLO for more than 15 years.  The report
also accuses Nicaragua's government of providing financial help and
safe haven for terrorists.  Forming an opinion of a person or a 
country's government without taking into consideration the people
and/or organizations they seem to support should result in an opinion
that is without an adequate foundation.  Defending a government that
supports organizations that murder Americans is, of course, a matter
of choice.