From dartvax!news Tue Jan 22 01:01:07 EST 1991
Article 7520 of alt.activism:
Xref: dartvax alt.activism:7520 talk.politics.misc:51784
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Path: dartvax!news
>From: news@dartvax.dartmouth.edu (The News Manager)
Subject: Oil, Nicaragua, and Crocodile Tears (Was: Orgeta's Peace
Message-ID: <1991Jan22.022507.25232@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 1991 02:25:07 GMT
Efforts in Gulf)
Reply-To: harelb@cabot (Harel Barzilai)
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Organization: Dartmouth College
Keywords: 
>From: harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Path: cabot!harelb

In article <21509@netcom.UUCP> you write:
>In article <1991Jan21.034930.28965@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu (Harel Barzilai) writes:
>>[PeaceNet forward from AML (ACTIV-L) -- see bottom for more info]
>>Nicaragua's free-falling economy, like the economies of other
>>developing countries, will receive another blow by rising oil
>>prices caused by the Persian Gulf conflict.  
>
>Um, Harel, do you *read* this stuff before posting it?  

1) Usually. In this case, yes.

2) a) The Gulf *WAR* and Bush's anti-peaceful-resolution stance
are the main reasons for oil price increases. And shortages.
This, too, is discussed in Phil Agee's speech which I posted and
recommended. [still avail. by email from me]

b)Regardless of manifold points to be made in (a), please be aware
that Washington's illegal war against nicaragua had taken a
devastating toll on the country. Nicaragua took the Reagan Admin. to
the world court, which found against the U.S., to the tune of $17 or
$18 billion in damages done to the country ravaged by hospital-bombing
civilian torture/rape/murdering "freedom fighters".

An important figure to keep in mind when Congress hands Chamorrow some
scraps as "aid."  Another important figure is Nica's total foreign dept,
which is roughly *half* the $18 billion figure above; i.e., Nica would
be as much in the black as it is in the red right now if the
adnimistration paid the compendsation it has no intention of making.

All of this ignores the devastated state Somoza --whose dynasty had
long been supported by successive U.S. regimes, "discovering" the
issue of human rights in Nicaragua only in 1979 with the overthrow of
the U.S.-backed brutal dictator -- left Nicaragua in, including the
looting of the nicaragua treasury for his benefit and that of his
accomplices, and the bombing, his good-bye message, of Nicaraguan
schools, hospitals (sound familiar?), etc.

The devastation was so bad that international observers (IMF or UN, I
believe) estimated at least a decade before Nica. would be on its
feet. This estimate, obviously, didn't consider the massive war waged
by Nicaragua's neighboring superpower against its people and economy,
by the terrorism-sponsors who would later complain about "Sandinista
mismanagemnent"

Harel
##################################################################

"The contras have routinely attacked civilian populations. Their
                  ^^^^^^^^^
forces kidnap, torture, and murder health workers, teachers, and other

government employees." -- Americas Watch(*)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"_Terrorism_ is premeditated, politically motivated violence

perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
clandestine state agents" -- U.S. Department of State, _Patterns of
			     Global Terrorism: 1983_, Sept. 1984.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(*)From the Americas Watch report _With Friends Like These_, edited by
Cynthia Brown (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985). For the contras'
history and human rights practices, see also Christopher Dickey, _With
the Contras: A Reported in the Wilds of Nicaragua_ (New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1985), and Reed Brody's _Contra Terror in Nicaragua:
Report of a Fact-Finding Mission, September 1984-January 1985 (Boston:
South End Press, 1985). A study enumerating the former Somoza
Guardsmen among contra leaders is "Who Are the Contras?" prepared by
the staff of the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus of the U.S.
Congress, _Congressional Record_, April 23, 1985, pages H2335-H2339.

[From _What Are We Afraid Of?_ by John Lamperti, South End Press 1988]
(now $5 -- ordering info by email --HB)