From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,soc.culture.latin-america,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Nicaragua: Myth versus Reality (II) -- Land Reform
Date: 24 Aug 92 03:45:06 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB


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			[ c o n t i n u e d ]
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The most important disinformation to de-bunk, however, is precisely
about the achievements of the revolutions, for it is here that we come
to understand Washington's deep hatred and need to excise the "cancer"
in Nicaragua. I will program a series on this matter as I bid a sad
farewell to reading the gems of the UseNet apologists for a while, but
one item brought to my attention deserves attention first.

When the Sandinistas lost the election, they did not have to consult
with any geniuses to tell them what was in store for Nicaragua's
people. One merely takes a look at the surrounding showcase
"democracies" managed by Washington to discover the lovely conditions
which await the majority of the population: brutal poverty and living
conditinos, starvation, and other "Free World amenities" along with
death-squads for the peasants, unionists, church-workers, members of
cooperatives, students, human-rights activists, and other targeted
groups, as Amnesty International and others note [send 1-line email
message GET AI_REPT ELSALV ACTIV-L to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU];
land is a second key issue [See also Oxfam's report _Honduras: Why
Farmers Go Hungry; send GET OXFAM HONDURAS ACTIV-L].

The CIA-orchestrated crushing of Guatemalan capitalist democracy was
largely a result of Arbentz's land-reform program. So the Sandinistas
passed a law which would guarantee the peasants the tracts of land
they recieved, of the the key features of the revolution (again, well
known and documented by Oxfam as well as the international development
organs, the World Bank inluded I believe)

Washington's quite familiar aims were to take the peasants' land and
give it to the original owners who obtained, enlarged, or outright
stole their fortunes under the corrupt Somoza dictatorship and under
the protective wing of Somoza's National Guard; driving peasants off
their lands, death-threats to force bargain-basement "sales" of land,
with the aid of the U.S.-trained "security forces" are another
familiar feature of Central American U.S.-style "democracies"

Government leaders also gave themselves land and housing as were
provided for the Nicaraguan population, and even included rather fancy
appropriations for some Sandinista leaders, and here is where we owe
thanks to those who brought this up, the souls so troubled by this
corruption -- minisculed by the obscene salaries/benefit/gratuity
packages awarded to themselves by the Administration and Congress, let
alone the S&L taxpayer rip-offs -- whose hearts do not bleed when
fanstatic riches are accumulated by the Somozas or by tiny elites in
the U.S.-sponsored next-door "demoracies" while famrers starve but who
are driven to indignation when the government officials -- who
presided over "noteworthy progress in the social sector" [the
Inter-American Development Bank, 1983] was that was "laying a solid
foundation for long-term socio-economic development" and "remarkable"
Nicaraguan record and outstanding success, in some respects "better
than anywhere in the world" [World Bank], the slashing of the
illiteracy rate, the slashing of the infant mortality rate (to be
documented in the upcoming series; or use GET with FSLN ACHIEVE) --
award themselves too generously when they leave office.

The story of the Sandinistas' move to protect the land-reform benefits
of the revolution -- these being inexpressible within the maintream
press to begin with -- was thus suppressed while the propaganda
apparatus explained that what the Sandinista government's last-minute
law as about was self-enrichment -- since they somehow forgot during
their 11 years in power to give themselves the nice houses that were
their prime plans for Nicaragua.

The footnote to all of this which we must be grateful to those who
brought this up for, is that as the UNO coalition in the legislature
tried to undo these measures, the Sandinista legislators put forth an
alternative proposed law which would have mainatained the land rights
they had guaranteed to Nicaragua's peasants in their eleventh-hour law
but, this time, minus any corresponding giveaways to Sandinista
officials.

UNO, under the same Chamorrow whose arm had been twisted off its
socket by Washington until she finally agreed no longer seek the $18
billion or damages assessed against Washington by the World Court for
its sponsorship of the illegal terrorist war against Nicaragua,
naturally said no, exposing in full light the real threat to the
sentiments in Washington the Sandnista law engendered.

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