From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: "Sandinista Mismanagement": care of Washington (II)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 05:04:08 GMT

    By early 1987, business leader Enrique Bolanos, well to the right
    of the UNO directorate, attributed the economic crisis in
    Nicaragua to the war (60%, presumably including the economic war),
    the international economic crisis (10%), the contraction of the
    Central American Common Market (10%), and decapitalization by the
    business sector and government errors (20%).
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    "Despite the horrendous circumstances, Nicaragua's economic
    progress through the early 1980s was surprisingly good, with the
    highest growth rate in Central America by a large margin, an
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    The London _Financial Times_ estimates the costs of the contra war at
    $12 billion; UNO economist Francisco Mayorga adds $3 billion as the
    costs of the embargo.  Actual totals are unknown, but plainly fall
    within the range of the "untoward events" which, the World Bank
    predicted, would lead to catastrophe.
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[From _Decline of the Democratic Idea_ by Noam Chomksy, Z magazine]
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So enormous was the devastation left as Somoza's final legacy
that a World Bank Mission concluded in October 1981 that "per
capita income levels of 1977 will not be attained, in the best of
circumstances, until the late 1980s" and that "any untoward event
could lead to a financial trauma." There were, of course,
"untoward events," but such facts do not trouble the ideologues
who deduce Sandinista responsibility for the subsequent economic
debacle from the doctrinal necessity of this conclusion.  A
standard rhetorical trick, pioneered by the Kissinger Commission,
is to "demonstrate" Sandinista economic mismanagement by
comparing living standards of 1977 to those of the eighties, thus
attributing the effects of the U.S.-backed Somoza terror to the
Marxist-Leninist totalitarians. {note: Conroy, _op. cit._}

Despite the horrendous circumstances, Nicaragua's economic
progress through the early 1980s was surprisingly good, with the
highest growth rate in Central America by a large margin, an
improvement in standard of living in contrast to a substantial
fall for the rest of Central America and a somewhat lesser fall
for Latin America as a whole, and significant redistribution of
income and expansion of social services.  In 1983, the
Inter-American Development Bank reported that Nicaragua's
"noteworthy progress in the social sector" was "laying a solid
foundation for long-term socio-economic development." The World
Bank and other international development organizations lauded the
"remarkable" Nicaraguan record and outstanding success, in some
respects "better than anywhere in the world" (World Bank).  But
U.S. pressures succeeded in terminating these dangerous
developments. 

By early 1987, business leader Enrique Bolanos, well to the right of
the UNO directorate, attributed the economic crisis in Nicaragua to
the war (60%, presumably including the economic war), the
international economic crisis (10%), the contraction of the Central
American Common Market (10%), and decapitalization by the business
sector and government errors (20%).  The London _Financial Times_
estimates the costs of the contra war at $12 billion; UNO economist
Francisco Mayorga adds $3 billion as the costs of the embargo.  Actual
totals are unknown, but plainly fall within the range of the "untoward
events" which, the World Bank predicted, would lead to catastrophe.
{note: _Ibid._, 232-3, 223, 239; Diana Melrose, _Nicaragua: the Threat
of a Good Example?_ (Oxfam, 1985); Sylvia Maxfield & Richard
Stahler-Sholk, in Walker, ed., _op.  cit._; Kornbluh, _op. cit._,
105f.; _Culture of Terrorism_, 52; Andrew Marshall, _Financial Times_,
Feb. 27; Christopher Marquis, _Miami Herald_, Feb. 21, 1990.}

Naturally, the idea that the U.S. might pay reparations for what
it has done can be relegated to the same category as the notion
that it might observe international law generally: Too ludicrous
to merit a word of comment.

Underlying their various tactical moves, the Carter doves had a
strategic conception.  Robert Pastor comments that "The United
States did not want to control Nicaragua or the other nations in
the region, but it also did not want to allow developments to get
out of control.  It wanted Nicaraguans to act independently,
_except_ when doing so would affect U.S. interests adversely."
Nicaraguans, in short, should have complete freedom to do what we
want them to do, and need not be controlled unless they are out
of control. {note: Pastor, _op. cit._, 32 (his emphasis).}
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From Noam Chomsky's _Decline of the Democratic Ideal_
Z magazine, 1991.

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From Noam Chomsky's _Decline of the Democratic Ideal_
Z magazine, 1991.

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