From: ez000281@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Re-Salas
Date: 20 Nov 92 05:39:33 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

Mark Rosenfelder writes:

>Edelmiro, el escritor de tanta edelmierda, is in no danger of being
>thrown into prison.

Of course not Mark!  Just where the hell do you think we live in? Cuba?

>Your ignorance of your own government's actions in Latin America is appalling
>Curious, for instance, that you mention Noriega; are you not aware that
>Noriega was for years *on the CIA payroll*, to the tune of $250,000 a year?

Perhaps that's why it was so easy to kick his but.  We knew everything we
needed to know about him.

>Consider just a few of the interventions of our democracy-loving government
>over the years:

>Brazil: U.S.-supported coup ousts elected but left-leaning President Goulart

No evidence of "intervention"

>Cuba: U.S. supports Batista dictatorship; wages war against successor
>  Castro with invasions and exploding cigars.

The U.S. withdrew all support of Batista once his ruthless bloodshed began.  
We even supported Castro until he began shooting all his moderate elements in 
the streets of Havanna.  As to the exploding cigars, Kennedy never alowed the 
CIA to use them.  Perhaps if they would, 30 years of prison for the Cuban 
people would not have come about.  Now that you mention this, I think this 
tecnique won't work, Castro quit smoking.

>Chile: U.S. bankrolls opposition to Allende, supports Pinochet's coup
>  and subsequent brutal repression.

Yeah, and the Soviets and Cubas were bankrolling Allende. You see there are 
many evil forces working around the planet and we must choose sides at times.

>Dominican Republic: U.S. occupies country to prevent an uprising in support
>  of Juan Bosch, who was elected President but ousted in a CIA-backed coup.

Wrong, the OAS invaded the country in order to avoid the anarchy that ensued 
and to avoid having comunists take control of the country by way of force.

>Ecuador: CIA-backed coup ousts elected president Velasco Ibarra.

Again, we were just "backing" (if at all).

>Honduras: U.S. supports and trains Honduran military; death squads active;
>  Nicaraguan contras based here act as a state within a state.

No, no.  The Honduran government helped the Freedom Fighters by providing the 
safehaven in their territory.  There was no "state within" a state, but rather, 
just as the vietnamese did in Laos, they were simply "hosting" libertarian 
forces.

>Guatemala: CIA organizes force to overthrow elected president Arbenz Guzman.
>  Its hand-picked leader Castillo Armas obligingly outlaws political parties,
>  mandates the death penalty for strikes, and undoes Arbenz's land reform.
>  Over 100,000 citizens are killed in the subsequent 30 years of dictatorship.
>  U.S. trains Guatemalans in "counter-terror", including death squads
>  and aerial bombing of towns suspected of collaboration with rebels.

There was not a single U.S. soldier involved in this conflict against 
communism in Guatemala, the schoolground for terrorist Ernesto Guevarra.

>Nicaragua: U.S. backs the Somocista dictatorship (based on the National
>  Guard founded by the U.S.) for half a century, then wages an undeclared
>  war against the left-wing Sandinista government (violating its own
>  laws in order to fund it).

When Somoza turned genocidic we had to support democratic forces within the 
FSLN, such as Eden Pastora (Comandante Cero) and we took an active role in 
denunciating the bloody regime.

>Panama: U.S. supports and pays Noriega-- until he becomes too uppity.

No, Noriega was not arrested for being uppity, but for shipping drugs to the 
U.S.  Shame on you for supporting a drug kingpin!!

>El Salvador: CIA payrollee Jose Alberto Medrano organizes ORDEN paramilitary
>  force, considered a precursor of later Salvadoran death squads.
>  U.S. backs military government, despite murders of over 35,000 civilians,
>  including the country's archbishop.

And now all human rights violators will be castigated by our leadership in the 
U.N and our friendly and democratic Cristiani Government.

>Uruguay: U.S. supports military takeover.  The dictatorship is marked by
>  one of world's highest proportions of citizens held as political prisoners.

Incredible how some countries turn against their own democracy!!

>After all this you presume to lecture Latin Americans on democracy?
>Give me a break.

Better yet, lets give you a lecture on democracy.

>Edelmiro's opinions are nothing new in Latin America either.  In their
>knee-jerk opposition to communism and subservience to the US, they are
>mostly the views of the governing elites.

You mean the democratically elected governing elites.  Now I understand why 
neo-communists are against neo-liberals in L.A.: they fear democracy will put 
the masses in control, when in fact they should have some rebel anti yankee 
dictator in touch with Havanna leading their cause.

>>In many ways, latin-america has been as politically
>>close-minded as the countries in the middle-east.  They have a faith
>>that the United States is the great Satan and that only through a
>>marxist takeover can true salvation come.

>Some Latin Americans may think this way, but most are more realistic.
>They find much to admire in the U.S.  But that the U.S. is also a threat
>to their sovereignty, to their economic development, and to their
>democratic institutions, is not unfounded dogma but somber historical fact.

Come on!  Why don't you quit this yankee guilt and simply admit that the 
problems of these banana republics have simply been brought upon by no others 
but themselves?

Edelmiro