Terror takes many in U.S. war on Nicaragua

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The Reagan administration appears to be concerned these days with international law. Rea -gan has cynically referred to a series of legal statutes to justify the U.S. government's terrorist attacks against the Libyan peo -ple.

But Reagan's sudden concern for such matters rings a particularly hollow note when one considers the fact that the administration has totally disre -garded the World Court's condem -nation of the U.S.-sponsored contra war against Nicaragua.

The U.S. war against Nicaragua has already killed 12,000 Nicaraguan citizens and resulted in the injuries or mutila -tions of many thousands more. Forty-five thousand children have been left orphans. The savage character of the contra terror has been widely documented.

The new schools and health care units built by the Sandinista government have also been a prime target for the contras. From 1980 to 1984, eight schools were destroyed and 149 teachers killed in the border region alone. Over 200 other schools had to be closed down ... Libya (continued from page pretended that the Libyan firing at U.S. planes was "totally unprovoked," as White House spokesman Larry Speakes said. Yet within a week of this confrontation, a top U.S. official bluntly admitted to the Los Angeles Times (March, 28, 1986): "We would have been disappointed if Qaddafi had sent nobody up to challenge us...It was a provocation, if you want to use that word."

In mid-April, the semiofficial Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported that U.S strategists had been trying for eight months to enlist the Egyptian Army as shock troops for a joint strike against Libya. Soon after, the Washington Post reported that the Reagan administration had not abandoned this plan, even though the Egyptian forces were reticent to move against Libya.

A few days later, citing "irrefutable evidence" that Libya had masterminded the Berlin nightclub bombing, the U.S. government carried out the military attack it had planned many months before.

This criminal, terrorist act left some 100 Libyan civilians dead, including Col. Qaddafi's infant daughter, as well as causing because of the threat of contra attacks. This has left over 50,000 students without classrooms and education. Fifty health units, including one major hospital, have also been destroyed by the contras.

The Nicaraguan economy, initially weak and largely OFF devastated by the Somoza dy -nasty, has been another target of U.S. state terrorism. The U.S. government and its contra clients have sought to destabilize the Nicaraguan economy, thereby hoping to undermine popular support for the revolution. From 1980 to 1984, an estimated $380 million was lost due to material damages or pro -duction losses caused by contra attacks. These losses are equiva -lent to the total export earnings during the same five-year period. Another factor that has wreaked havoc on the economy is the loss of foreign credits from interna -tional lending agencies due to U.S. pressure. From 1980 to 1984, an estimated $345 million in development loans were blocked or cancelled.

U.S. trade embargo

The trade embargo decreed by the U.S. government in May 1985 has also had major reper -cussions on the economy. Nicaragua's main productive sector is the agro-export industry. The United States has tradition -ally been the main supplier of agricultural materials to Nicara -gua. The materials that have been embargoed include desperately needed fertilizer, pesticides, and

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countries.

machine parts.

Moreover, to counter the contra aggression, the Sandinista government has been forced to divert precious financial and human resources toward military defense.

In 1982-83, military spending increased from 13 percent to 25 percent of total state expend -itures. By 1985, over 50 percent of the national budget was devoted to defense, with 20 percent of the labor force shifted to defense-related activities.

The economic and military war suggested investigating.

In any case, what is known is that the Reagan administration and Congress, aided by a servile media, are purposely deceiving the American people. The "Libyan threat" is a concoction designed to deal some sharp blows to the "Vietnam syndrome," which continues to endure in the public consciousness.

This is the real intent of U.S. aggression against Libya-to clear a path for greater U.S. intervention against the so-called terrorist threat in Central America. "From now on, military force will be more readily used to further U.S. foreign policy than at any time since the Vietnam War," explains Business Week in its April 28 edition. "Libya may have been the literal target, but the message was intended to be understood in places as disparate as Nicaragua and North Korea."

War against Nicaragua Just as with Libya, the administration uses lies and slanders in its attacks against Nicaragua, which is portrayed as an "outlaw state." One such fabricated story was the so-called Nicaraguan invasion of Honduras last month.

But the Honduran goverment ACTION Closing date: of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials.

April Play M 1y Gr 1g, M illie Ryan, Carol Seligr ian, per No.

San of aggression by the United States has fueled a severe economic crisis and the reduction in the standard of living of the average Nicaraguan.

Reagan's terrorist war against Nicaragua involves more than the torture, assassination, and rape inflicted by the contras on the civilian population. It includes the economic sabotage of a nation whose only crime was to say it wished to determine its own destiny-free from U.S. domination.

confessed that the United States pressured it into falsely claiming that it had been "invaded" by Nicaragua. And for the first time, the Honduran government has openly acknowledged that the contras are operating out of its territory, in violation of its sovereignty.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to feed a cooperative media every imaginable fabrication concerning Sandin -ista "atrocities" and contra "rèspect for human rights and democracy." These "free -dom-fighter" contras are notorious for raping, torturing, and killing civilians.

But while military and economic aid to the contras has been stalled in the House of Representatives for some time-and will not be taken up again until mid or late May—it is no secret that the Democrats will give Reagan part, if not most, of what he has requested.

As Omar Cabezas, a leading Sandinista commander, noted, concerning the congres -sional debate over contra aid: "Some want to kill us one way, others want to kill us another way. They only differ on how or when to give the aid."

On April 19, an estimated 25,000 people marched in San Francisco against the foreign and domestic policies of the U.S. government. [See story pp. 8-9.] A major focus of the demonstration was opposition to U.S. aid to the contras, but numerous