quote:

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Sandinista comeback alarms Washington
Oct. 21, 2006. 07:36 AM
REUTERS

CHINANDEGA, Nicaragua — Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega is being greeted with wild enthusiasm at carnival-like rallies as he cranks up his campaign for Nicaragua's presidency, buoyed by a solid lead that worries Washington.

Leftist Ortega was met with quasi-religious fervor when his caravan of flashing lights, fireworks and pumping music rolled into the tropical town of Chinandega this week.

Two polls released this week predicted him winning in the first round on Nov. 5, the latest on Friday by Zogby International giving him 35 percent support or a 15-point lead over his nearest rival, conservative Eduardo Montealegre.

Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front led a popular uprising which removed the Somoza family dictatorship in 1979.

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[ 21 October 2006: Message edited by: BetterRed ]

quote:

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Two polls released this week predicted him
winning in the first round on Nov. 5, the latest on Friday by Zogby International giving him 35 percent support or a 15-point lead over his nearest rival, conservative Eduardo Montealegre.

Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front led a popular uprising which removed the Somoza family dictatorship in 1979.

He ruled Nicaragua through the 1980s. During most of the Sandinista government, Nicaragua fought U.S-backed Contra rebels in a civil war that killed 30,000 people before Ortega was voted out in 1990

---

During the Samoza years, it was cheaper than goats for the rich to use peasants to trim the grass by hand with scythes on their expansive estates.

And it looks like the Yanquis have already tried to interfere with the elections by ordering US ambassador paul trivelli to threaten to cut off aid to Managua if the FSLN wins in November. Yanquis ambassador Lino Gutierrez similarly compromised free and fair elections in previous years.

Viva la revolucion!

[ 21 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Brett Mann:
Not on a flight with any US stopovers, though.

---

Kahil happened to have the same name as another person who is on the US no-fly list. "No-fly" means you can't even fly through US airspace.

Flying direct from Toronto to Acapulco on Air Transat, Kahil had his name given to US authorities by the airline, and checked against the no-fly list. The charter aircraft was intercepted and escorted by U.S. F-15s to Acapulco, where Kahil was interrogated, spent the night on a concrete bench in a Mexican detention centre, and then was quietly returned to Canada the following Saturday on a private airplane with two RCMP escorts.

quote:

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MANAGUA, Nicaragua Oliver North, the former White House aide at the heart of the Iran-Contra controversy, warned Monday against Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega's possible return to power if he wins Nicaragua's presidential election next month.

[snip]

North is known for testifying before Congress that he was unable to recall the covert arming of the Contra guerrilla forces.

The former White House aide said he was in Nicaragua on Monday to visit friends, and wasn't supporting any candidate in the Nov. 5 presidential race.

But in a television interview with Canal 10, North said Ortega's return to power would be the worst thing for Nicaragua. Former Contra Adolfo Calero Portocarrero, who is running for Congress with the ruling Constitutionalist Liberal Party, accompanied North during the interview.

Later, North visited a memorial for fallen Contras and said he hoped Nicaragua doesn't follow the lead of Bolivia and Ecuador, both of which had elections he said were influenced by "petro-dollars" from the Venezuelan government of leftist President Hugo Chavez.

He said Nicaragua had suffered enough from the influence of outsiders.

"My hope is that the people of Nicaragua are not going to return to that. That's not good for your country. That's not good for my country," he said, adding: "My hope is that the election here is a coalition of people who believe in democracy," he said.

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Try and get your mind around that one.

Link.

[ 24 October 2006: Message edited by: sgm ]

Let's review:

quote:

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North helped orchestrate an elaborate plot to sell arms to enemy Iran in violation of an embargo, in order to free hostages held by Hezbollah terrorists who enjoyed Iranian patronage; giving the proceeds of the deal to the Nicaraguan Contras, themselves considered terrorists by many Americans, in violation of congressional resolutions cutting off funding to the violent anti-communist resistance.

---

This orchestrator of terrorism is now a syndicated columnist in the United States, as well as weekly television host on Fox TV.

Some people in North America howl with outrage when Al-Jazeera broadcasts a taped message from the cave of the terrorist mastermind bin Laden. But North on Fox? No problem: he's a respected commentator who can also be dispatched to the scene of his crimes to deliver thinly veiled threats to the people of Nicaragua.

quote:

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AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the significance of both Defense Secretary Rumsfeld going to Nicaragua and Oliver North?

VILMA NUNEZ: [translated] After the trail of different U.S. officials that we’ve had that have come through to Nicaragua making interventionist statements, everybody was prepared to hear an interventionist statement from Secretary Rumsfeld. He came for a meeting of the ministers of defense of the western hemisphere. He must have felt the atmosphere in Nicaragua and decided that it wasn’t a good moment for him to speak, and he said that he would not comment on Nicaraguan politics. But we do know that in private he has been doing the same kind of work on the subject as other U.S. functionaries.

And as for Oliver North, he is a particularly unfortunate person to visit Nicaragua because of his past. He also is intervening in the internal affairs of Nicaragua by coming in to try to rescue a candidate that Ambassador Trivelli and other State Department officials have pushed aside. So his very presence inspires fear, and that was his goal, was to put fear into the hearts of the Nicaraguan people remembering what happened in the 1980s in the war against the people of Nicaragua.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Fidel:

Viva la revolucion!

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Um, I guess so, if women's rights aren't important anyways.

quote:

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Nicaragua's legislature is expected today to approve a tough law that outlaws all forms of abortion, including those procedures intended to save the life of a pregnant woman.

The measure has been supported by most major political parties ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, as they seek to win over voters in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. Leaders of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua helped draft the bill and have mobilized followers to support it.

-snip-

The new law would establish prison sentences of six to 30 years for women who abort their pregnancies and the doctors who perform the procedure.

Leaders of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front and the ruling right-wing Liberal Alliance have said their representatives will vote for the proposal. The two groups control all but one seat in the 92-member legislature.

"The current law allows a small door in which abortions can be performed, and we are trying to close that door," said Dr. Rafael Cabrera, an obstetrician and leader of the Yes to Life Movement. "We don't believe a child should be destroyed under the pretext that a woman might die."

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I won't be holding my breath for any major improvements in government no matter who wins. Recognition of a woman's right to her own body is a basic prerequisite for progressive politics, IMO. I mean 'the pretext that a woman might die'? Christ in a sidecar.

Edited to fix formatting.

[ 26 October 2006: Message edited by: arborman ]

quote:

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Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader and former president who has a strong chance of getting his job back, has backed the ban. Last year he was married by a Catholic cardinal and in recent months has quoted the Pope and been photographed attending Mass.

Critics, including some within the Sandinistas, said the 60-year-old former revolutionary had betrayed the movement's tradition of feminism and liberalism to try to clinch victory in the first round of the presidential election on November 5. Of the four leading candidates, Edmundo Jarquín, leader of a dissident Sandinista faction, was the only one to oppose the bill.

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quote:

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First things first, arborman. Catholicism is large in Nicaragua as it still is in many countries regardless of politics. Keep in mind that the U.S.-backed contras were guilty of a lot worse than just backwards abortion laws.

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What could be worse than jailing women who have been raped if they try to get an abortion?

Nicaragua is a tiny country that had dirty war waged against it for several years by the most powerful country in the world at a cost of over 60 thousand lives. I think some people here would be surprised with how backwards ALL of Uncle Sam's democratic capitalist third world neighbors in Central America still are today.

I think you should go to Nicaragua and try converting them to secular socialism like the Marxists tried to do in Afghanistan before the start of CIA operation Cyclone, Stockholmer. Bring Darwin with you, too, because they'll want to hear all about it while 70 percent of them are struggling with poverty and illiteracy.

The Church at least has the afterlife to promise good Catholics as a reward for obedience. The capitalist economic long run can't even provide them with basic necessities in the here and now. Trust and obey, it's the only way.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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I think you should go to Nicaragua and try converting them to secular socialism like the Marxists tried to do in Afghanistan before the start of CIA operation Cyclone, Stockholmer. Bring Darwin with you, too, because they'll want to hear all about it while 70 percent of them are struggling with poverty and illiteracy.

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Who said anything about that??? There are many very Catholic countries in latin America that have abortion laws that are nowhere near as repressive and murderous as what Nicaragua now has - including Mexico and of course Cuba.

quote:

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
Your big hero Castro wasn't afraid to oppose the Vatican on all kinds of issues. yet in this case the so-called Sandinistas want to impoise a death sentence on women who will DIE without an abortion. There is no possible justification for this under any circumstances.

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How long do you think any government would last upholding a law that would result in the execution of women on a large scale ?. I think you're being hysterical for no real reason.

I think the Sandinistas could probably save the lives of more newborn infants through measures health care and education in Nicaragua than any repressive abortion law could save. Health care and education first, like Marxists were in the middle of building when children's schools and hospitals were firebombed and blown to bits by paid mercenaries from all over the Caribbean and Latin America in the 1980's, as it was in Afghanistan leading up to 1989 to 1990's post CIA operation Cyclone to rid that region of secular socialist thought.

But we are not talking about Afghanistan. We are talking about Nicaragua. now thanks to the Sandinistas, if a Nicaraguan woman has an ectopic pregnancy, the police and the church will sit back and watch her die in agony as her insides hemorrage - rather than letting her have an abortion to save her life.

quote:

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
What does this have to do with what the CIA did in Afghanistan? I agree, the best government Afghanistan ever had (not that that is saying much) was the Communist government in the late 70s.

---

I think it would be difficult to govern any nation where the CIA was funelling billions of dollars in terrorist training and weapons into and propping up the most ruthless, power-mad, theocratic-feudalist motherfuckers in Central Asia at the time. U.S-Saudi-British-Pakistani-backed Assholes like Gulbeddin Hekmatyar advocated throwing acid in women's faces then as well as assassinating Islamo-Marxists working towards basic human rights in general. Ultra-right rightists and their theocratic-feudalist war lords have vvvvvery little respect for anyone's rights but their own. That's what I'm saying, Stockholm. I've read that Afghanistan's civil war was started, basically, because of a women's rights movement. That movement is quite stunted in both Afghanistan and Nicaragua right now, isn't it!.

I think some of us are overreacting here. During Sandinista rule, abortions for victims of incest and rape were upheld as legal. The legislation is pre-election maneuvering by the conservative right and Church. Some Sandinistas sent their aides to vote on the law change, apparently because they couldn't do it themselves.

I think we have to be careful not to make direct comparisons between Canada and small Latin American countries which have endured great repression and human rights atrocities before and during the years of dirty war waged on Latin America to prevent them from choosing Marxism. This is Liberal democracy, and Nicaragua as well as the rest of Central America has much catching up to do with the rest of the world, especially in areas of *infant mortality, literacy and the most basic human rights. Schools and hospitals now! - not School of the Americas/WHINSEC.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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think we have to be careful not to make direct comparisons between Canada and small Latin American countries

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OK, let's compare Nicaragua to another small Latin American country - Cuba. Cuba, for all its faults is pretty good on abortion rights. I think that NIcaragua may now be just about the ONLY country in all of Latin America with such a draconian abortion law.

quote:

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Originally posted by Fidel:
Ignorance and poverty are weapons used by the west against the spread of socialism for a long time. Abortion laws can be changed at some point after literacy and living conditions are raised. They need schools, hospitals and, yes, basic human rights among many things are needed in Nicaragua - all those same things that were targeted for bombing by the U.S.-backed contras during in the 1980's. The whole country has been victimized for a long time.

---

That's corect. I think we have to remember to put this in the context of what the country has gone through, and it seems wrong for us to judge Nicaragua and tell them that something they're donig is "bad." As Fidel says, give these people some education, and attitudes may change over time.

quote:

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Like I said - Marxists treat their women like shit.

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In Nicaragua, many Marxists are women. I have had a pretty good opportunity of meeting with Nicaraguan Marxists and feminists, and have discussed abortion specifically with Dora Maria Tellez, who was the Sandinista spokesperson on this issue.

During the Sandinista government, abortion was illegal. Many North American women asked why this important right was not made real in Nicaragua, by the revolutionary government.

The answer was always the same, that 1) Nicaraguans are not ready for this, given the church position, and 2) no one would ever be actually prosecuted for the offence, even if it remained on the books.

I find the present bill to be pretty disgusting, but I am highly doubtful it will mean very much. Nicaragua is not like North America, and many laws exist which disappear into the legal mist upon approval.

quote:

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I think it is more likely that abortions will go on as before in Nicaragua,

---

When being critical of foreign countries, it is important to bear the context in mind.

I have no doubt that it would be better for Nicaraguan women to have the right to an abortion
written into the law.

But they've never had that right, and honestly, I don't think there has ever been much of a movement in Nicaragua to attain that right.

quote:

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Originally posted by Fidel:
IAbortion laws can be changed at some point after literacy and living conditions are raised. They need schools, hospitals and, yes, basic human rights among many things are needed in Nicaragua - all those same things that were targeted for bombing by the U.S.-backed contras during in the 1980's. The whole country has been victimized for a long time.

---

Sure. So we'll just deal with women's rights later. Throw a few to the dogs now, but that's politics I guess. The women can wait, like they always have.

Sorry, but I'd say a human's dominion over his or her own body is a first principle of real democracy and/or socialism.

Throwing in reference to what bad things other did is irrelevant. I'd like to be happy about a Sandinista win, but I can't - not if they've sold their principles and women in order to get it.

I've been to those countries, and yes, it's been a long nightmare. Ultimately, it's up to them to develop and grow they way they feel is best. It's up to us to work to prevent interference from the US and elsewhere.

quote:

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When being critical of foreign countries, it is important to bear the context in mind.

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Does that mean that next time Iran stones gay men to death or the next time Saudi Arabia beheads a woman in public for adultery, we should refrain from any criticism since we need to keep the "context" in mind??

Should we have not bothered getting upset when Black people were getting lynched in the US South since it was all part of "southern culture" along with waving the stars and bars?

Maybe the Holocaust should have been seen within the "context" of hundreds of years of Christians believing that Jews killed their "lord" (sic.)

quote:

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Originally posted by Fidel:
Let's not be down on our brothers in Nicaragua, they've suffered too much in the recent past. Forward and onward.

Viva la revolucion!

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It's not the brothers I'm worried about.

quote:

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
Like I said - Marxists treat their women like shit.

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While I agree with on the importance of not trivializing the issue of abortion rights, that is an absurd generalization and certainly not true in my experience.

quote:

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
What context is that? The context of hate.

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I could share with you the songs sung by Eritrean freedom fighters - both women and men - singing about liberation. I've had it on tape for a long time.

Nuances Stockholm, nuances Stockholm.

quote:

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
Since you seem to think that Nicaraguan women should just shut up and not make waves about be given a death sentence if they have an ectopic pregnancy, I guess you also think that having gays and lesbians get stoned to death in Iran is a small price to pay as long as you can yell "Viva la revolucion!"

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No, I said no such things. In fact, there have already been riots and protests. I'm very disappointed that you would think something like that. If the Sandinistas were anti-women, then why didn't they make it law when they were the government ?.

Nicaragua has been a special project of the CIA's, Stockholm. Destabilization, I think, is a mild term used to describe their dirty tricks. John Stockwell is a veteran of the CIA and specialist on CIA overt and covert actions against the people of Nicaragua. Read this interview of a few years ago and tell me what you think could be happening in Nicaragua today in light of Oliver North's visit there and continuing U.S. influence/interference with what are supposed to be "free and fair" elections in Nicaragua. The CIA has been involved involved in the overthrow of well over a dozen democratically-elected leaders in the last century to Jean Bertrand Aristide and attempted coup against Hugo Chavez in this century. I think it's business as usual for the CIA, don't you ?.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
The Sandinistas must go into the villages of Nicaragua and preach to people about the evils of catholicism. Whatever happened to "Religion is the opiate of the people"???

---

Poverty-stricken people can identify more easily with the the promise of hospitals, schools, clean water and sewers. It's not pie-in-the-sky Liberal democracy shinola promising economic austerity for the sake of debt payments to the world's banks, but it's realistic in the here and now. Nicaragua can afford social democracy just like we should be able to in Canada but are being foiled by successive autocratic Liberal and Conservative governments bent on preaching and delivering dated political ideology.

I think preaching anti-religion would be putting the cart before the horse in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas need to continue preaching social democracy and leave religion to the Church, even though some in the Church are apparently trying to campaign against them. People want social democracy not lectures. And the Sandinistas understand what is within their circle of control to change for this generation of Nicaraguans and what isn't.

What you're suggesting is that the Sandistas throw the election in favour of making a stand against conservative religious doctrine. You're suggesting that Nicaraguans have to be taught a lesson that all religion is bad, not just that there are powerful right-wing elements at work leading up to the election. And I think, as I'm sure the Sandinistas believe, they have to lash cart in need of repairs to a strong horse, or else some 70 percent of Nicaraguans living on less than $2 dollars a day can continue believing in the afterlife as a reward for having faith in a neo-Liberal economic long run.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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Originally posted by arborman:
I recognize that the political and social situation in Latin America is very different from here. That doesn't make women expendable - no matter what the brothers have been through.

---

You're a noble and splendid human being. If we could impress your same POV upon five million Nicaraguans, they wouldn't be in the fix they're in, we can be sure. I think violent and bloody revolution isn't for people like arborman or Stockholm who feel that they know what's best for Nicaraguans over the long run. Of course, they aren't living on less than $2 dollars a day or having to put up with political corruption and U.S.-sponsored propaganda everyday.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cueball:
I think that anyone you considers that violent and bloody revolution might be desirable for anyone, and thus implying that it is not a situation of extreme unpleasantness for anyone involved, regardless of the justice of the cause, is indulging themselves in extremely romantic notions about war and revoluition.

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What is it Lassie?. Speak! Jimmy's fallen down a cliff, hit his head on a kokanee bottle, and now he needs our help ?.

The truth ?. You want the truth ? YOU CANT HAAAAANDLE the truth

You guys are a tough crowd 2night.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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I think violent and bloody revolution isn't for people like arborman or Stockholm who feel that they know what's best for Nicaraguans over the long run.

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Please exaplain whom might find violent and bloody revolution anything more than a very serious and uncomfortable necessity. You statement seems to suggest that risking being killed, or being tortured, or involving oneself in an extremely btutal situation might some how be desirable.

I find this notion romantic.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Cueball ]

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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Poverty-stricken people can identify more easily with the the promise of hospitals, schools, clean water and sewers. It's not pie-in-the-sky Liberal democracy shinola promising economic austerity for the sake of debt payments to the world's banks, but it's realistic in the here and now. Nicaragua can afford social democracy just like we should be able to in Canada but are being foiled by successive autocratic Liberal and Conservative governments bent on preaching and delivering dated political ideology.

I think preaching anti-religion would be putting the cart before the horse in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas need to continue preaching social democracy and leave religion to the Church, even though some in the Church are apparently trying to campaign against them. People want social democracy not lectures. And the Sandinistas understand what is within their circle of control to change for this generation of Nicaraguans and what isn't.

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Right on, Fidel. Things must be put in a reasonable context.
People like Stockholm,who lived nice, well-fed lives and who could relax and think about liberal democracy and its "something for everyone" gimmicks, wont understand how average Nicaraguans feel.
The impoverished masses must be guaranteed basic necessities and given jobs and education.
Then they can really start talking about social liberalism.
And before you start snapping at me, I say this as someone who grew up in an impoverished country.
Ive seen what neo-liberalism does to communities.

quote:

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I think preaching anti-religion would be putting the cart before the horse in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas need to continue preaching social democracy and leave religion to the Church, even though some in the Church are apparently trying to campaign against them.

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OK, then don't preach anti-religion. How's about preaching FREEDOM. Catholics can be free to follow the reactionary diktats from Ratszinegr IF THEY WANT - but any political party that calls itself progressive should also support religious freedom for people who are NOT conservative Catholics and who do not CHOOSE to live according to Catholic fascist rules.

[ 27 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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They've had an NDP lawn sign EVery election that I can remember. They didn't have one this last time, and I know it's because of the SSM thing. And their own daughter is gay, mind you. I didn't know what to tell this guy and his wife, because I'd never heard either of them say anything bigoted before in my life.

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Tell them they are hateful bigots who want to strip other people of their rights and that in case they didn't know, Canada is ruled by the Parliament of Canada and NOT by the Vatican. If there is a God in heaven, its people like them who will burn in hell until the end of time for their hateful views.

If you don't want to go that far, you could try shunning them and refusing to have any contact wioth them. If they say hello - just walk by as if they didn't say anything. Try to make them feel really low - like they are persona non grata. If they finaly ask you what's wrong, tell them that you cannot and will not have any social contact with people who want to impose systematic discrimination on minority group members. End of story.

[ 28 October 2006: Message edited by: Stockholm ]

quote:

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Now picture that same man and wife a fee thousand miles south of here, a thick accent, and with , I dunno, say a grade eight education at best. These kinds of people are easily manipulated by the Church and conservative politicos to varying degrees. Not everyone deals from a full deck, Stockholmer. And I would never be as arrogant as to tell someone that there are only two ways: my way and the right way, and they are both the same.

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You certainly seem to feel that your way is the only way when it comes to "Viva la revolucion!" (sic.).

It may well be that people are manipulated by the church and conservative politicos. But isn't it the role of the "left" to try to counter act that manipulation? as opposed to surrendering.

I don't want to impose my view on anyone else. I support CHOICE. Did you hear that? CHOICE. If I want to make abortions and same sex marriage compulsory, then you might have a legitimate argument. But I don't. If some individuals don't think abortion is right under circumstances, then I fully support NOT FORCING them to have one. Similarly, I would never try to ban opposiute sex marriage and tell people that they are only allowed to have a same sex marriage.

My criticism is of the Sandinista party itself for grossly pandering to the most rightwing elements in the catholic Church.

[ 28 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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When being critical of foreign countries, it is important to bear the context in mind.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does that mean that next time Iran stones gay men to death or the next time Saudi Arabia beheads a woman in public for adultery, we should refrain from any criticism since we need to keep the "context" in mind??

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There is no need to resort to simple-minded platitudes.

Your examples are of acts. But the point I was making is that, in Nicaragua, abortion has never been legal, but it has been done regularly anyway, in hospitals, and by doctors. The law's reach there is much less than it would be in Canada.

quote:

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
An essential part of any progressive revolution MUST include women's liberation and and end to religious oppression. The Sandinistas must go into the villages of Nicaragua and preach to people about the evils of catholicism. Whatever happened to "Religion is the opiate of the people"???

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Brett Mann:
Yeah, and while we're at it, let's go to Afghanistan and educate people on the "evils of Islam". That should work.

---

It's only been 25 years since the west aided and abetted the Talibanization of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This continued at around the same time mouthpieces for neo-Liberal democracy were funding the killing in Central America. The infamous School of the Americas and Anti-communist League still exist under different banners.

They pound on Sandinistas here for having to play at dirty neo-Liberal politics but never mention the other examples, like Afghanistan, or Haiti where the people cling to religion for the lack of any kind of faith in neo-Liberalism. Their neo-Liberal thinking allows them to dismiss the need for revolutionary change like children colouring outside solid lines with dull crayons. The partial picture they present above is a total mess, but what they hay if it works for them.

[ 28 October 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

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I'm tired of all these men who dismiss abortion as a side issue to be looked at after the revolution.

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Actually, I was quoting Comandante Dora maria Tellez, who thought that Nicaraguans would not support a right to abortion.

She was not "men". She was a revolutionary who spent years in the jungle, fighting a dictatorship with a rifle. She risked her life for her revolution.

quote:

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Originally posted by Aristotleded24:
Once the people have their basic needs met, then they have an opportunity to become more educated about issues and minds may change that way.

---

quote:

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The seemingly unavoidable outcome of next Sunday's election is a Nicaraguan tragedy, losing at the ballot box what was won two decades ago by the blood of contra fighters and the risking of Ronald Reagan's presidency. Because the anti-Sandinista vote is split, Ortega figures to return his Marxist-Leninist party -- now backed by Hugo Chávez's Venezuelan petrodollars -- to the presidential palace. Apart from the misery to be inflicted on the Nicaraguan people, this reflects the deterioration of U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere under the Bush administration.

[snip]

The looming political fiasco in Nicaragua comes as no surprise. Adolfo Calero, a Washington-based contra leader in the '80s, returned to the U.S. capital in April to issue a warning. He asserted that tacit U.S. support for Montealegre and opposition to Rizo was a horrendous political error and that the only hope to hold off the Sandinistas was to support Rizo. But official doors were closed to Calero. The occasion of Calero's visit was a reunion of contra leaders, their former CIA handlers and Ollie North, who as a Marine lieutenant colonel ran the Nicaraguan account at the Reagan White House. The festivities were marred by fear and frustration over the coming election.

---

Who owns Nicaragua, and whose is it to win or lose?

Should, say, the people of Nicaragua own the country?

Not according to Novak, apparently: for him, 'failures' in US policy have led to the prospect of the ultimate disaster: actual Nicaraguans gaining control, through democratic means, of Nicaragua.

The Horror!

The Horror!

[ 30 October 2006: Message edited by: sgm ]

quote:

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Not according to Novak, apparently: for him, 'failures' in US policy have led to the prospect of the ultimate disaster: actual Nicaraguans gaining control, through democratic means, of Nicaragua.

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Again. There is nothing undemocratic about a revolution against a dictatorship, as any student of American history will know. Nor was there anything undemocratic about the two elections that the Sandanista's won in the 1980's.

quote:

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Novak is a registered Democrat despite his right-leaning views, principally so he can vote in the District of Columbia Democratic primary, often more decisive than the general election. He held more centrist views in his early career; indeed, he supported the Democratic presidential candidacies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, with whom he was friends

---

Robert Novak

Lest anyone think that the Democrats represent meaningful change in the USA.

[ 30 October 2006: Message edited by: Cueball ]

quote:

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Now Washington is worried its former Cold War foe will score a new left-wing victory in Latin America, helped by impoverished voters sick of empty promises.

"We are tired of so much cheating, so much lying. We gave the Liberals three opportunities and what have they done for us?" asked Miguel Mendoza, 45, who said inadequate state health services forced him to sell his home in the central town of Masaya to pay for treatments for his son's skin disease.

The U.S.-backed government elected in 1990 inherited a country wracked by the civil war and an economy in tatters.

Since then, a decade and a half of free-market policies have left Nicaragua with a reasonable economic growth rate, created a tiny millionaire class and dotted U.S.-style shopping malls around the capital Managua.

But unemployment is rife, 70 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day and central Managua is a slum of corrugated iron homes where addiction to crack and moonshine is rampant.

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Furthermore, "all forms of aid" to Nicaragua will be "reviewed", according to the Congressmen.

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Ed Royce, presidente del Subcomité de No Proliferación del Terrorismo Internacional, y el presidente del Comité de Inteligencia, Peter Hoekstra, del Congreso de Estados Unidos, enviaron ayer una solicitud por escrito a la secretaria de Estado, Condoleeza Rice, con copia al secretario de Seguridad Interior, Michael Chertoff, en la que le urgen, además, un posible bloqueo de las remesas enviadas por nicaragüenses trabajando en ese país.

Según cifras oficiales, entre 700 y 800 millones de dólares se estiman las remesas que nicaragüenses en el exterior envían a sus familiares cada año y en su mayoría, provienen de Estados Unidos.

Los argumentos de la carta enviada a Rice coinciden con los recientemente expuestos por el congresista republicano por el Estado de California, Dana Rohrabacher.

El representante republicano solicitó hace unos días al gobierno de Estados Unidos, que prepare un plan de contingencia destinado a bloquear las remesas enviadas a Nicaragua, si el FSLN ganara las próximas elecciones.

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