From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: Human Rights In Nicaragua (II): The Sandinistas
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 08:44:06 GMT

Human Rights In Nicaragua (II): The Sandinistas


  "IN NICARAGUA there is no systematic practice of forced
  `disappearance,' extrajudicial killings or torture -- as has been
  the case with the `friendly' armed forces of El Salvador....nor has
  the government practiced elimination of cultural or ethnic groups,
  as the [Reagan] Administration frequently claims; indeed in this
  respect, as in most others, Nicaragua's record is by no means so bad
  as that of Guatemala, whose government the Administration
  consistently defends"

[Americas Watch Report on Human Rights in Nicaragua, July 1985, page
3.  A comparative study of Central American records on human rights
can be found in the more comprehensive Americas Watch report _With
Friends Like These_, edited by Cynthia Brown (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1985), chapter 4.]

[Found in: _What Are We Afraid Of? An Assessment of the ``Communist
Threat'' in Central America_ by John Lamperti, for the American
Friends Service Committee (published also by South End Press) $5 plus
$2 shipping from: Literature Resources // American Friends Service
Committee // 1501 Cherry St. // Philadelphia, PA 19102
TEL (215)-241-7048 or 7167. See AML resource files AFSCcatalog and
South.end.press.]

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"Since Somoza's downfall there has been a vast improvement in
Nicaragua's human rights situation. This has been documented by
respected international organizations such as Amnesty International,
Pax Christi, and Americas Watch. Americas Watch has written,

    Those forms of torture routinely practiced in other Latin American
    countries have been effectively eliminated by the Nicaraguan
    government.

"Death squads like those that operate freely in Guatemala and El
Salvador do not exist. Capital punishment has been abolished.
Opposition parties function openly and journalists may travel where
they please, except in war zones under direct attack."

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"We have seen the joy of peasants learning to read, the improved health
of children vaccinated against polio and other childhood diseases, the
pride of farmers who have title to their own land for the first
time... Nicaragua is one of the few Central American countries in
which these efforts by the poor are echoed rather than repressed by
the government. We do not deny problems, nor mistakes -- but we must
not confuse mistakes with systematic repression. We know repression.
In other Central American countries we have all lost friends who were
killed for their work with the poor."

--statement in April, 1983, by 47 U.S. clergy working in Nicaragua.

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"In Honduras, plantation workers have been jailed by government troops
for organizing unions. In Nicaragua, the new government is helping
peasants and factory worker to set up their own organizations, with
leaders elected by the members. In Guatemala an El Salvador, nuns and
priests have been killed by the army after they helped villagers to
organize farming cooperatives and reading classes. In Nicaragua, large
number of clergy are working in government-sponsored health,
literacy, and agricultural co-op programs."

[From: '83-'84 Oxfam America booklet: _Nicaragua: Development Under
Fire_; send the 1-line message GET OXFAM84 NICARAG ACTIV-L to
LISTSERV@MIZZOU1.BITNET for a copy of this report]

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

Americas Watch repoted that "Unlike several other Latin American
government that have come under harsh criticism (though not from [the
Reagan] administration), the [Nicaraguan government] has responded to
human rights organizations with efforts to improve the situation... In
early 1984, for example, the [Nicaraguan government] conducted several
investigations of abuses in remote areas, which resulted in the
prosecution and appropriate punishment of members of the security
forces. In the most important of these cases, forty-four security
agents and civilians were prosecuted fro several cases of murder,
rape, theft, and other abuses that had taken place in a border region
of Matagalpa and Jinotega.  Thirteen of them received heavy
sentences... In April 1984, an Army sub-lieutenant was sentenced to
eighteen years in prison for raping a Miskito woman in the village of
Lapan..." [35]

Reagan's use of human rights as an instrument of warfare has mean
portraying Nicaragua as the worst violator of human rights in Central
America, when, even at its low point on the Atlantic Coast in 1982,
the Nicaraguan human rights situation has been far better than in El
Salvador (discussed earlier) and Guatemala [see ACTIV-L resource files
on the mass-murder of these regimes --HB]. Guatemala state terrorism
under General Romeo Luca Garcia was discusses in the previous chapter.
During the dictatorial reign of General Efrain Rios Montt, from March
1982 to August 1983, thousands more Indians were massacred (Indians
make up a majority of the Guatemalan population). Even the
conservative Guatemalan newspaper, _El Grafico_, denounced the
"genocidal annihilation that is taking place in the Indian zones of
the country."

Rios Montt spoke openly of his murderous policies, announcing on
Guatemalan television that he had "declared a state of siege so that
we could kill legally." ... After meeting Rios Montt on December 4,
1982, Reagan called him "a man of great personal integrity and
commitment" who "want to improve the quality of life for all
Guatemalans and to promote social justice" and is "totally dedicated
to democracy" As for human rights criticism, Reagan said Rios Montt
was getting a "bum rap."

[35] Brown, ed., _With Friends Like These_, galleys, pp. 145-53

Washington's War on Nicaragua, by Holly Sklar
1988, South End Press, Boston

[South End Press, 300 Raritan Center Parkway, Edison, NJ 08818]
[For a free catalog: 1-800-533-8478; see AML resource files]


            =============================================
            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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