Nicaragua inauguration is snubbed
1985Larry Cooperman 1985-02Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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KELP /RIGHT the Journal well knows, but for its cardinal concern-preserving the "free enterprise" system.
During the 1970s the United States and the Soviet Union concluded 10 arms-control agreements. During the same period the United States added 6056 nuclear weapons to its arsenal while the Soviets built an additional 3903 weapons. Today the United States builds five or six nuclear weapons every day in pursuit of a goal of 17,000 new nuclear weapons by 1992.
Eugene J. Carroll Jr., a retired rear admiral and deputy director of the Center for Defense Information, puts the fact bluntly: "Talks to talk about future talks will provide only a facade to cover the inexorable growth of nuclear arsenals" (New York Times, Jan. 8, 1985).
Talks renewed
The inauguration of Daniel Ortega as president of Nicaragua on Jan. 10 was marked by a deliberate snub by many Latin American and European governments, which sent only low-ranking delegations to attend the event. The only head of state present at the ceremony marking the installation of the first popularly elected president in Nicaraguan history was Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The presidential inauguration occurred the day after the National Assembly, elected Nov. 4 of last year, held its opening session. Ninety-six representatives were given their credentials. The Sandinistas have a two-thirds majority in the assembly, reflecting the Fidel Castro's views on revolution.
See pp. 12-13 percentage of votes cast for them in the elections. The new National Assembly will take two years to draw up a new constitution for Nicaragua.
The pro-capitalist opposition in the National Assembly immediately called for the drawing up of financial incentives to the "private sector" to increase production. They vowed to oppose any enactment of a "Marxist-style" constitution.
In addressing the assembly, Ortega pointed out that U.S.-backed military aggression will force Nicaragua to spend 40 percent of its 1985 national budget on defense. The costs of the war are imposing increasingly difficult economic sacrifices on the Nicaraguans.
Material aid needed
The Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe have made it clear that they do not intend to supply Nicaragua's needs. And Western and Latin American social-democratic governments have only provided minimal aid.
The Wall Street Journal published the text of a letter from Carlos Andres Perez, former president of Venezuela and current current vice president of the Socialist International, to Ortega to (continued on page 10, in “Helping to build the April 20 antiwar actions”)