HISTORY AND THE SANDINISTAS
Chris Nelson’s letter “Rewriting History” (April 20)
represents a throwback to the Cold War rhetoric of the 1980s. To discredit the
Sandinistas, Nelson now (and President Reagan then) called them “Marxists.” In
fact, the Sandinistas included people from all points along the progressive
spectrum. Some were liberal reformers, some were socialists, some were
Marxists, and some were Catholic priests who believed in Liberation Theology.
The Sandinistas supported a mixed economy, which included
private ownership, cooperative ownership, and government ownership of farms and
factories. In particular, there was no “forced collectivization.” Forced
collectivization would have required small farmers to turn over their land to
government collectives, which never happened in Nicaragua.
It couldn’t have happened in Nicaragua,
because the campesinosdidn’t own the land. Over half the
cultivatable land in Nicaragua
was owned by the dictator Somoza and his cronies. The Sandinista government
gave this land to the campesinos who had worked it for generations without any hope of ever owning it.
Sandinista economic policies received praise from some
surprising sources. For example, in 1983 the Inter-American Development Bank
wrote, “Nicaragua
has made noteworthy progress in the social sector, which is laying the basis
for long-term socio-economic development.” The World Bank acknowledged that its
projects were “extraordinarily successful in Nicaragua;
in some sectors, better than anywhere else in the world.”
The Nicaraguan economy failed because the US
carried out a trade embargo and a proxy war against this tiny country. Fifty
percent of the Sandinista budget probably was funding the military — no surprise when a small country is under attack by a
superpower.
After the Sandinistas forced out Somoza in 1979, a national
directorate governed the country until democratic elections took place in 1984.
The “thugs” who kept right-wing politician Arturo Cruz out of the 1984 election
were in the headquarters of the CIA, not in the streets of Managua.
Our administration was afraid that if Cruz ran and lost, this would discredit
the Contra leadership (New York Times,
October 21, 1984).
Before the 1990 Nicaraguan elections, President George Bush
pledged that the US
would end the Contra war and stop the US
trade embargo if the Nicaraguan people voted against the Sandinistas. After the
Sandinistas lost, President Daniel Ortega passed the presidential sash to DoñaVioleta Chamorro. As Nelson
correctly notes, this event marked the first time in Nicaraguan history that
power had been peacefully transferred from one democratically elected official
to another. That’s what democratic leaders do: They pass the power of office to
the next democratically elected president. I consider this peaceful transfer of
power strong evidence that the Sandinistas believed in democracy.
The situation regarding the indigenous people of the Caribbean
coast is complex and continues to be problematic for the government of Nicaragua.
In the 1980’s, I never knew whether to laugh or cry when the US government
criticized the Sandinistas for the relatively modest mistakes made in dealing
with these ethnic groups. As we all know, our country’s history includes
countless policies that were truly genocidal to the Native Americans.
Compared to the actions of the US
government, and many other governments, Sandinista treatment of the indigenous
people was enlightened and benign. Moreover, after 1979, the Sandinistas made a
good-faith effort to include the Caribbean communities
in the quest for progress. In the 1980’s, I met students from the Caribbean
coast who were studying medicine in Managua
and León. This would never have happened before the
revolution.
I was one of many internationalswho traveled to Nicaragua
during the 1980’s to support Nicaraguan sovereignty and self-determination.
International supporters came from countries all over the world — Spain,
Scandinavia, Italy,
Great Britain,
and Israel. I
never met — or even heard tell of — an East German or North Korean
solidarity activist.
I did meet some Bulgarians; they were constructing a factory
to convert Nicaraguan fruits into jams and jellies. Internationals didn’t come
with guns and bombs–they came with skills and dedication. One of my strongest
memories of Nicaragua
in the 1980’s was visiting a small health center in El
Sauce, Nicaragua,
and watching a Danish nurse — blond-haired, blue-eyed, and almost 6 feet tall
— working alongside her Nicaraguan counterpart, who was dark-haired,
dark-eyed, and barely 5 feet tall. Any of the 100,000 US
citizens who visited Nicaragualibre can remember similar
scenes.
The military draft in Nicaraguawas extremely unpopular, as it was in
the US during
the war against Vietnam,
and as it will be again in the US
if George W. Bush reinstates it. In the 1980’s, Nicaragua
was a country of less than four million people, under proxy attack by a country
of 250 million people. A military draft was, unfortunately, necessary for
survival. How can we blame the Sandinistas for a military draft caused by our
country’s policies?
The Sandinistas did do great things. They lowered the neonatal mortality rate from 121 deaths per
thousand live births to 64 deaths per thousand live births. (Not great, but
obviously much better.) They raised the literacy level from a disgraceful 50
percent to a respectable 90 percent. The Sandinistas carried out the reforms
they promised the Nicaraguan people during the long revolutionary struggle. I
believe that anyone who looks at the facts objectively will reach the same
conclusion.
Finally, however, let’s put aside my perceptions and Chris
Nelson’s perceptions, and turn to an objective source: the World
Court in The Hague.
In 1986, the World Court
condemned the US
for “unlawful use of force” against Nicaragua,
ordered the U.S.
to terminate support of the Contras, and further ordered the US
to pay $17 billion in reparations to Nicaragua.
The US
government ignored this order of the World Court,
but no concerned reader of City should ignore the significance and the implications of this landmark decision.
Arnold H. Matlin, Linwood, New York
SUPER-POWER POWER
There is no doubt that Chris Nelson has done some research,
and he speaks intelligently and knowledgeably about Nicaragua
(“Rewriting History,” The Mail, April 20). It’s doubly shameful that
he commits the same disingenuous error that he chastises his opponents for:
rewriting history.
One gets the impression from his letter that the main
political dynamic in Nicaragua
was between the people and the Sandinista government. There is no doubt that
the Sandinista government repressed the Indian population and committed other,
unforgivable, atrocities. The main dynamic, however, was US
military aggression in Latin America.
The CIA’s role in overthrowing democratically elected
Salvador Allende in Chile
and installing Augusto Pinochet was fresh in the
minds of the world. Why was Ortega spending half his budget on the military?
Ever tried to fight a guerilla army funded by one of the world’s super powers?
The US was
funding the Contras from bases in El Salvador
in a bloody, 12-year war.
At the time, the US
was one of two world super powers. It’s now the lone world super power, and its
ability to intervene wherever it sees fit shapes every national debate.
Self-determination and sovereignty are a joke when a democratically elected
government can be toppled at any moment by a US funded puppet (think Haiti,
Chile, El
Salvador, Iran,
Philippines) or
directly invaded like Iraq.
To ignore this is to misrepresent history and to
misunderstand the mass anger around the world against the US
government.
Brian Lenzo, Monroe Avenue,
Rochester
SEEKING PEACE?
Reading the interview conducted by Krestia DeGeorge (“To
Seek Middle East Peace, Seek Equality” (April 20), it would seem that the
American Friends of Neve Shalom are promoting
Israel-bashing more than peaceful co-existence.
When the two interviewees fault Israel’s
policies and its prime minister, Ariel Sharon, for the lack of progress towards
peace, how can any useful dialogue occur? How absurd for Mr. Najjar to completely negate the negative impact Yaser Arafat had on the Palestinian people and the peace
process through destructive policies characterized by corruption and suicide
bombings.
Israel
will soon be leaving the Gaza
strip. It continually has to deal with a hostile Palestinian population that
still has not reconciled Israel’s
right to exist. It is indeed fortunate for both the Israeli and Palestinian
visitors from Neve Shalom that they enjoy the freedom
to speak freely despite their one-sided bias.
Elliot Fix, Brandywine Lane, Brighton
MUSIC’S HOUSE
Aloha!
Mahalo for your cover article “Music Lived Here” (April 20).
While you allude to Big Pink and The Grateful Dead’s
house, you imply that 288 Breck
Street is being absorbed into the neighborhood as
just another residence. Fans of The Squires of the Subterrain
from around the world may just prove you wrong. Chris Earl’s musical influences
from that house come through his music strongly, and I suspect that Rochester
and Breck Street
in particular are going to become a point of pilgrimage for those of us who
avidly collect his recordings.
There’s an old saying that “a prophet is without honor
in his own land.” People have a tendency to ignore the potential for
talent from within their own midst, as though their locality was incapable of
generating anything of greatness. Perhaps you’re not aware of the loving
picture of Rochester that has been
painted by The Squires in songs like “Cherry
Creek Lane” and “Small Town Girl”
or the generosity of the Breck
Street house specifically depicted in “My
House Is Your House.” Truthfully, the spirit of your community is
portrayed in a very appealing way throughout Mr. Earl’s music, and as it
rapidly gains a larger and larger audience, there’s bound to be a parallel
curiosity about Rochester, the city
that figures so prominently in it.
In the months and years to come, you’ll find an increasing
number of strangers wandering your streets to look for things mentioned in the
Squires’ discography, and 288 Breck
Street will have a particularly strong magnetism.
It isn’t too early for the city fathers to start contemplating the commission
of a plaque for the house, perhaps one reading “Music Lived Here.”
MahaloNui
Loa,
Jim Klieforth, Waikoloa, Hawaii
WRITING TO CITY
We welcome and encourage readers’ letters for publication.
Send them to: themail@rochester-citynews.com or The Mail, City Newspaper, 250
North Goodman Street, Rochester14607.
Our guidelines: We don’t publish anonymous letters — and
we ask that you include your street name and city/town/village. We don’t
publish letters that have been sent to other media — and we don’t publish form letters generated by activist groups. While
we don’t restrict length, letters of under 350 words
have a greater chance of being published. We do edit letters for clarity and
brevity. And in general we don’t publish letters (or longer “op-ed” pieces)
from the same writer more often than about once every two months.
This article appears in May 4-10, 2005.
