Arias's real plan

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"The only way to kill Dracula is with a crucifix." This is how Costa Rican President Oscar Arias described his role in the Central American "peace process" in an interview with The Washington Post (Feb. 7, 1986).

To quote Arias, who received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, Dracula is the "despotic, Marxist government of Nicaragua;" the crucifix is the Central American peace plan; and the killing is the pressure on Nicaragua to implement "cease-fires, a general amnesty, and democratic reforms.' MEXICALI, Mexico On Feb. 20-21, a Mexico-U.S. Conference in Solidarity with Nicaragua was held here with representatives from 12 organizations from both sides of the border.

Due to false illusions in the Arias Central American peace plan and the misguided euphoria over the Feb. 3 rejection of Reagan's contra-aid request, the conference was much smaller than expected.

Three resolutions were drawn up at the conference with the goal of strengthening binational solidarity and promoting the campaign, "Oil, Solidarity, and Peace for Nicaragua."

This campaign, designed to pressure the Mexican government to make oil available to Nicaragua at low or no cost, was of great significance for the majority of the activists at the conference.

They explained that a national campaign of "Oil for Nicaragua" would have a great effect in stimulating the Mexican people to action. (Mexico, one of the major oilproducers in the world, has withheld oil shipments in response to pressures from the U.S. government.)

Bipartisan war condemned The general resolution approved by the conference states:

"World peace continues to be menaced. The U.S. government is allocating an increasing proportion of its budget to stockpiling nuclear weapons and to promoting regional wars that could lead humanity to its destruction...

"Democrats and Republicans in the United States are about to approve more than $1 million a month in 'humanitarian' aid to the contras...The U.S. war on Nicaragua has not abated. On the contrary, it increases day by day, and the threat of direct U.S. military intervention cannot be excluded...

"Nicaragua's resources have been depleted. It faces the risk of paralysis. It no longer has any foreign currency. There are shortages of everything. Gasoline and electricity are rationed, with the situation having become critical after Mexico and Venezuela cut off oil shipments [in 1985] when Nicaragua, for obvious reasons, was no longer able to pay its bills...

"Mexico's oil production in two days AN WE TALK?

Arias said one reform by Nicaragua should be the abolition of the Sandinista government's "control over the armed forces, as demanded by its civilian opponents.

With this statement, Arias has now openly endorsed the key demand of the internal front of the U.S.-backed contras, the Democratic Coordinating Council, which is pushing for "constitutional reforms" aimed at undoing and ultimately destroying the Nicaraguan Revolution.

Yet, while he lambasts the Nicaraguan government for "failing to comply" with the peace plan, Arias has been all too would meet Nicaragua's oil needs for an entire year. The Nicaraguan Minister of Finances declared that the severe shortage of oil has made it virtually impossible to plan economic production. Shortages have paralyzed the productive and transportation sectors of the economy, which depend on fuel oil to generate electrical power...

"We call on Mexico to renew shipments to Nicaragua."

Campaign focus diluted

Unfortunately, despite the widespread support for the "Oil for Nicaragua" campaign, the final resolution dropped the call for free or lost-cost oil. It also failed to demand that oil be senteven if Nicaragua is unable to meet its payments.

The reason for this shift was the role played by representatives from the MexicoNicaragua Solidarity Committee in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city, who opposed placing any pressure on the Mexican government. They characterized the "Oil for Nicaragua" campaign as "naive" and "misguided" and claimed it would obstruct the material-aid campaign set forth by the Nicaraguan government.

After an intense political discussion and temporary walk-out by the Guadalajara representatives, a resolution was passed which met the concerns of the Guadalajara activists but did not remove the demand for oil altogether, as they had demanded.

The final resolution was politically significant. But its failure to make a clear, unconditional demand on the Mexican government represents a setback for the efforts of the conference organizers.

The conference was nonetheless important in helping to strengthen collaboration between the Mexicali Nicaragua Solidarity Committee, which organized the conference, and anti-intervention and political organizations in the United States.

One resolution, urging support for the April 30 demonstration in San Francisco, reveals the understanding by a majority of the conference participants of the need to maintain a mass-action strategy against the U.S. warmakers.

Carlene Sanchez represented Socialist Action at the Mexicali conference, where she presented greetings and gave an interview to a local radio station on the state of the U.S. antiwar movement. sympathetic to the U.S. government, which continues to bankroll the contras— in open violation of the peace plan.

Last December, for example, Arias said Daniel Ortega was "violating the Guatemala accord" when he said that Nicaragua would need a reserve army of 600,000 people to avert a possible U.S. invasion. (Even The New York Times was forced to admit that "the pact makes no explicit reference to limiting the size of armies.")

But concerning contra aid, Arias told the Times that "humanitarian aid is not against the spirit or the letter of the Guatemala accord." Arias pretends not to know what everyone else in the world knows, i.e., that humanitarian aid is just a euphemism for continued military aid to the contras.

And when the Democrats and Republicans voted $8.1 million in aid to the contras last Dec. 20—$4.5 million explicitly for anti-aircraft electronic devices— Arias said that "ultimately the issue of new contra aid is a decision to be made by a sovereign Congress, and I will respect whatever decision they make."

"Not against the plan"

On Feb. 23, the House Democrats disclosed their $25 million package of "non-military" aid to the contras. The next day, Oscar Arias announced through his foreign minister, Rodrigo Mariscal-Nieto, that this aid "is not in essence against the [peace] plan."

Arias also said that open U.S. military aid to the contras would be renewed if "the Sandinistas do not advance toward full compliance with the [peace] accord."

Arias's role could not be more transparent. It is to maintain pressure on the Sandinista government to make one concession after another to the contras— concessions which the contras were unable to win on the battlefield for lack of support among the Nicaraguan people.

If the U.S. imperialists-Democrats and Republicans—need a signed certificate that the Sandinistas have not implemented the "democratic reforms," they know they can always count on Oscar Arias.

Straight from the horse's mouth The following are excerpts from a revealing article titled "What Moscow hopes to gain by easing away from Managua" by Joseph C. Harsch. It was published in the Feb. 6, 1988, issue of The Christian Science Monitor.

One of the more interesting facts on the world scene now is that Moscow is not saving Daniel Ortega Saavedra.

Mr. Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, is in political retreat under the pressures that forced him to lift his "state of emergency," permit opposition political rallies, release some of his political prisoners.

None of this would have happened had Moscow given him the economic and military support for which he has repeatedly asked. The Soviets' biggest omission has been in the supply of oil.

His [Ortega's] economy is starving for want of oil. The Soviets are one of the world's three largest oil producers. If they had wanted to help him quickly, they could have put up the money to pay for Mexican oil. The Mexicans have plenty of oil and would be happy to sell it to Mr. Ortega for cash.

Soviet oil or Soviet money for oil would make it possible for Mr. Ortega to defy his neighbors and the Arias peace plan that he has been forced to accept. He has not been able to defy them.

His [Ortega's] weakness is not military. He could beat off the contra rebels indefiBrooklyr, NY 11240-4830 IMPACT Post Office Box 404830 ISUALS 2-966-9619 Affordable photos, cartoons, caricatures and illustrations for the movement and the progressive press IASINE ECONOMY Ermea Mande.

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Editorial (continued from page 1: “Palestinian revolt grows; defies Israeli terror drive”)

that the U.S. government is dead set in its objective of destroying the Nicaraguan Revolution.

But the warmakers can be made to pull back—just as they were forced to withdraw from the Vietnam War. A majority of the American people oppose contra aid and support the right of the Nicaraguan people to self-determination.

That sentiment must be mobilized in mass protest actions this spring.

No aid to the contras!

Hands off Nicaragua!

No U.S. intervention Central America!

Sandinista soldier: 'Peace Plan' will bring no peace to Nicaraguan fighters.

nitely, if his home front were not crumbling from virtual economic collapse...

Moscow is doing nothing anywhere to increase East-West tensions. It is doing many things that tend to relax East-West tensions. It is no longer possible to doubt that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is pursuing a deliberate, broad, and consistent policy of trying to be a "good neighbor" in the world.

Clearly they [Moscow] feel no...sense of obligation to Mr. Ortega. The Soviets must have concluded that he is not worth greater funding. This, of course, eases their relations with Washington.

•ternational JEWPOINT пало 130 November 23 1987 50&6 10 reach a Subscribe today to International Viewpoint! A biweekly magazine published under the auspices of the Fourth International. Introductory sub: 3 issues for $3. Six-month subscription: $25. One-year subscription: $47.

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