From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: "Totalitarianism" in Nicaragua (III)
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 03:10:35 GMT

"Totalitarianism" in Nicaragua (III)

[...]

LeMoyne gives an account of Arias intended to be laudatory, but in
fact depicting him as an opportunist and moral monster who is
unconcerned over terror in El Salvador and Guatemala, the horrible
conditions that persist in Honduras, the fact that all three states
are effectively under military rule backed by the US, or the terrorism
of the US proxy army attacking Nicaragua.  Rather, in this account,
Arias's prime concern is that the contras are a "military Edsel," a
failure, so that other methods must be found to pressure the
Sandinistas "to moderate their revolutionary project"; but we must
bear in mind that we are hearing Arias through a particular
ideological filter.

LeMoyne refers to Jose Figueres Ferrer -- "the man who is widely
considered the father of Costa Rican democracy" -- but does not tell
us, nor would he or his colleagues ever tell us, what Figueres has to
say about the Sandinistas: namely, that "for the first time, Nicaragua
has a government that cares for its people," that he found "a
surprising amount of support for the government" on a recent visit,
that theirs is "an invaded country" and that the United States should
allow the Sandinistas "to finish what they started in peace; they
deserve it."@note{See my @u<Culture of Terrorism> (South End, 1988),
citing an interview published by COHA, @u<Washington Report on the
Hemisphere>, Oct. 1, 1986.}

Such comments lack ideological serviceability, as does Figueres's
statement that he "understands why" @u<La Prensa> was closed, having
censored the press himself when Costa Rica was under attack by Somoza.
Hence Central America's leading democratic figure must be censored out
of the media, though his name can still be invoked for the
anti-Sandinista crusade.

Excerpted from:

_Central America: the Next Phase_ by Noam Chomsky, Z magazine, March,
1988. Email copy via harelb@math.cornell.edu; also by email, more
about Z magazine.


            =============================================
            T h e   " N i c a r a g u a   L i b r a r y "
            =============================================

*
* =========
* Nicaragua
* =========
*
  WHO-WERE CONTRAS    Contras' origins; make-up; practices - documented
  FSLN     H-RIGHTS  Documented HRs comparison w/Somoza,Guat,ES,others
  FSLN     MISKITOS  Sandinista treatment of Miskitos;Charges & Realit
  FSLN     NICAJEWS  Debunks charges of Sandinista 'Anti-Semitism'
*
  OXFAM84  NICARAG   Oxfam America's 1984 report on Nicaragua, in full
  FSLN     ACHIEVE   Documented: achievements of the Nica. revolution
*
  NICA-84  ELECTION  Documented: Fair under Sandinistas; US subversion
  FAIRNESS NICA-USA  Flwup:`Is Nicaragua More Democratic than the US?'
  NICRAGUA ELECTION  Study in US subversion of '90 Nicaraguan election

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