"We must not be caught off guard by peace plan'
1987 1987-12Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 12 →
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Barricada International editor promotes paper No. it-s "1e.
AANT on Sept. 29, (continued from page 1: “U.S. steps up campaign for further contra aid”)
FSLN [Sandinista National Liberation Front] to disband its ruling National Directorate.
The U.S. government, likewise, has pressed the Nicaraguan government to broaden the agenda of the cease-fire talks to include political questions such as powersharing with the contras.
Top U.S. officials have also demanded that the Sandinistas release all political prisoners-including all the ex-Somoza National Guardsmen-and that they lift the state-of-siege law. Only then, government officials say, will they consider withdrawing their support to the contras.
In the meantime, the Reagan administration is asking Congress to provide an additional $30 million in "nonlethal aid" to the contras. The funds, which would be OLAS disbursed after Dec. 16., would be used for the "maintenance of the contras in the field," according to National Security Advisor Lieut. Gen. Colin Powell. These funds, administration officials openly admit, would be earmarked for continued military training and helicopters.
The U.S. government is anxiously seeking to put the onus on the Nicaraguan government for failing to comply with the peace plan. If the International Verification Committee, which meets in January, determines that Nicaragua has not complied with the treaty, the Reagan administration will have the justification to demand an additional $270 million in aid to the contras.
In this effort, the administration can count on the Democratic Party. Even liberal Senator Alan Cranston (D.-Calif) told NBC News on Nov. 13 that "if Nicaragua fails to comply with the provisions of the [Arias] plan, I will be the first to vote for contra aid."
But until the vote to condemn Nicaragua for allegedly sabotaging the peace plan can be secured—or as long as it can wrench further concessions from the Sandinista government—the U.S. government will continue to finance the contras through temporary stop-gap packages. As The New More than ever, it is necessary to organize mass demonstrations to demand an end to all forms of contra aid and an end to U.S. intervention in Central America. National and international protests in the spring of 1988 against contra aid are urgently needed to allow the Nicaraguan people to live in peace.
-The Editors Miranda Collet and Jeff Mackler Collet called on the radical movement in the United States to help promote Barricada Internacional, which "is one of the few direct sources of news and analysis about developments in Nicaragua and the region." She stated that as of next April the weekly will be published in Canada. "This means that The following are excerpts from an op-ed article titled "Beware the Arias Plan" that appeared in the November 1987 issue of Central America Report, the monthly newspaper of the Boston-based Central American Solidarity Association (CASA). The article was written by the El Salvador Committee of CASA. Copies of the Report can be obtained from CASA, 1151 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138.
The rise of peace plans has followed the defeat of the contras as a military force and the exposure of the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Less adventuristic elements in Washington, especially the Democrats who are interested in posing as pro-peace for the elections, see the need for a change of tactics without losing sight of their goal, which is the destruction of the gains of the Nicaraguan Revolution and the positive example that it gives for the rest of Central and Latin America.
They hope that a "political settlement" will force more concessions from the Nicaraguans than the contras have been able to win on the battlefield. While formally a plan of Central American nations, the Arias Plan clearly shows the influence of the United States. The United States will also try to use it for its own ends.
The successes of the anti-intervention movement have helped restrain the United States. Part of the aim of the United States in pushing peace plans is the confusion and demobilization of our movement.
We must not be caught off guard. Whatever our assessment of the Arias Plan, we should not depart from our basic principles that Nicaragua has the right to self-determination and that the United States has no right to interfere whatsoever.
We in the solidarity movement must remember that this is the best way to defend the revolution. It is especially important that we stick to this basic approach as we near election time, when people lose sight of basic principles in the search for "viable alternatives."
We must continue, then, on building a broad, powerful, independent against intervention.
The vast majority of U.S. people oppose aid to the contras. The more we can help bring out an understanding of the reality of Central America and the intentions of the U.S. government, the more anti-contra sentiment will be maintained as a general anti-intervention position.
Joe Ryan/Socialist Action Barricada Internacional will arrive in a more timely manner to U.S. readers," she said.
A six-month subscription to Barricada Internacional can be purchased for $20 (sent air mail from Managua).
Write to Barricada Internacional, Apartado Postal 576, Managua, Nicaragua.
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EMOO A PAZ TENDEN
York Times (Nov. 29) put it: "The Con- gress is unwilling to abandon the contras."
Larry Boyd/lmpact Visuals Bove