Human Rights Watch responds to the Reagan admistration's claim that: Quote: [TABLE] [TR] [TD="class: alt2"] [HR][/HR] In the American continent, there is no regime more barbaric and bloody, no regime that violates human rights in a manner more constant and permanent, than the Sandinista regime. [HR][/HR] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Quote: [TABLE] [TR] [TD="class: alt2"] [HR][/HR] Human Rights Watch: Human Rights in Nicaragua: 1986, Volume 1986 One illustration of the Reagan Administration's employment of human rights rhetoric in its war against the Sandinistas is a joint State Department-Defense Department document that was distributed to those who attended the White House ceremony on December 10, 1986 marking International Human Rights Day. Printed on glossy paper with a silver cover and with four color illustrations (a format that stands out in contrast to U.S. government documents on human rights in other parts of the world) it is titled "The Challenge to Democracy in Central America." At page 28, it cites the following statement approvingly: Quote: [TABLE] [TR] [TD="class: alt2"] [HR][/HR] In the American continent, there is no regime more barbaric and bloody, no regime that violates human rights in a manner more constant and permanent, than the Sandinista regime. [HR][/HR] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Whatever the sins of the Sandinistas -- and they are real -- this is nonsense.. Between 40,000 and 50,000 Salvadoran civilians were murdered by government forces and death squads allied to them during the 1980s. A similar number died during [the U.S. client] Somoza's last year or so in Nicaragua, mostly in indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population by the National Guard. The number of civilian noncombatants killed by the armed forces in Guatemala during the 1980s cannot be known, but it is probably the highest in the hemisphere. As to Nicaragua, taking into account all of the civilian noncombatant deaths attributable to government forces in the more than seven years since the Sandinistas consolidated power, it is difficult to count a total of more than 300 of which the largest number of victims were Miskito Indians on the Atlantic Coast in 1981 and 1982. [Furthermore], Americas Watch knows of two cases of [Nicaraguan] political prisoners in the sense in which that term is used in the United States . [one of these] had been arrested for evading the military draft. He was subsequently released without charges and is not presently serving in the military. Also at this time, Amnesty International has no currently adopted "prisoner of conscience" in Nicaragua under the Sandinistas. [HR][/HR] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Thread started at Forum 4 Politics on 04-10-2012 03:56 AM
Thanks for this Bot (do I call you Bot.) The middle Americas have suffered terribly at the hands of America during the 20th century. The Sandanistas revolution seemed positive in many ways and certainly had the support of the people on the ground. Insurmountable cruelty was rampant under Somoza (political prisoners were skinned alive, castrated and had their eyes scooped out with spoons) according to a testimony I heard last night incidentally. Roosevelt was quoted as saying "He may be a son of a (*)(*)(*)(*)(*), but he's our son of a (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)." Noam Chomsky has cited this as a classic case of US terrorism. What I don't really understand is why Reagan saw this as a threat. Was the administration really that paranoid (anything remotely marxist is to be quashed brutally)? Or was it more to do with money?
I started this thread. This is from some of the Wiki pages that I've been working on. It's my first time contributing to it so Ive hit a few bumps. Robert Pastor, President Carter's National Security Advisor on Latin America, explained why the administration had to back Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza untill the regime could no longer be sustained to then salvage the U.S.-trained National Guard even though it had been massacring the population "with a brutality a nation usually reserves for its enemy.": Thomas Carothers is one of the leading analysts on democracy promotion initiatives. He's currently the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is the founder and director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Program . He writes from the perspective of an insider, having worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on "democracy enhancement" programs in Latin America while serving as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State from 1985-1988. In conclusion, Carothers writes: Carothers observed, in El Salvador:
