From: finkel@sdi.com
Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: "Free elections" indeed
Date: 18 Aug 92 14:47:08 CDT
Organization: Systems by Design of Illinois (SDI), Chicago

In article <1992Aug17.132733.3525@desire.wright.edu>, demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
> In article <9208160451.AA04793@poly.math.cornell.edu>, harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai) writes:
> ...
>>...
> ...
> 	For the 1984 abuses: any America's Watch or Amnesty international. 
> Also news reports from the time document:
> 
> 	Arrest of opposition leaders.
> 	Violent assualts on opposition rallies.
> 	Sandanista death squads killing vocal opposition leaders.
> 	Sandanista take over/shut down of opposition press.
> 	Revokation of ration cards to opposition members.
> 	Wide spread round up of potential adversaries, many of whom have never
> been seen since.
> 

	 As for the 1984 elections, the British Economist, which is
	 hardly a liberal journal, called them 'scrupulously fair'.  The
	 president of Costa Rica said that the Sandinistas, with all
	 their warts, had brought democracy to Nicargaua for the first
	 time.  

	 The arrest of some opposition leaders and the closing down of
	 the opposition press occurred because they were aiding and
	 abbetting the enemy (viz., the US led contra army).  They were
	 harming the efforts of the military to protect the gains won
	 during the revolution (schools, health centers, etc), which were
	 the contra's primary targets.

	 The presses were never destroyed and were returned to the
	 owners.  While I don't personally agree with this policy, one
	 must realize that it went no further than what Lincoln did
	 during the American Civil War.  

	 One must remember that the Sandinistas organized elections in
	 which 7 political parties - some to the right, some to the left
	 - were given full access to the media, money, and full rights to
	 organize and hold rallies...all during a time when the country
	 was being invaded on *three* fronts.  A few rallies were
	 disrupted by Sandinista supporters, but there is no evidence
	 that this was either organized nor supported by the Sandinistas.
	 Nor was it ever a standard operating procedure, unlike in El
	 Salvador, where even community leaders are tortured and killed
	 by the right.

	 That the Sandinista organized death squads is a smear; where's
	 the evidence? The first act of the Sandinista government was to
	 outlaw capital punishment, and there is no evidence that this
	 rule was ever violated.

	 One must be careful when reading the US press.  When the Chinese
	 massacred the students and workers in Bejing and Shanghai,
	 reports went out over UPI that the Sandinistas had congatulated
	 the Chinese on their action.  This was, in fact, a complete
	 fabrication, as thoroughly documented by Alexander Cockburn.  In
	 fact, the Sandinista paper reported the facts of the massacre
	 and never condoned it.  Lies about the Sandinistas are rampant
	 in the US press.

	 Uncritical support for the Sandinistas would be a mistake; but
	 taking action to distabilize and destroy the Nicarguan government
	 was and is criminal.
	
>...
> 	Apparently things like a free press are only necessary if you already
> agree with the government.

	 Actually, I think that a free press is crucial, and the
	 Sandinistas provided an environment in Nicaragua in which the
	 press is freeer than it ever was before.  While I do not
	 condone their temporary shutting down and censorship of the
	 capitalist press, it is certainly understandable given the
	 miltary secrecy that they thought necessary.  To their credit,
	 the Sandinistas returned the presses undamaged.
-- 

/Joel Finkel

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		       vote for RON DANIELS for president
  Joel R. Finkel   Systems by Design of Illinois (SDI) 	 finkel@sdi.com
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Newsgroups: alt.activism