Democrats in Congress vote new aid to contras

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On April 13, the Democratic-controlled Congress voted $49.8 million in "non-military aid" to the contras. This vote was not unexpected.

Three weeks earlier, the Bush administration had signed a policy accord with Democratic Party leaders that would continue aid to the contras at the rate of $4.5 million a month through February 1990, when presidential elections are scheduled in Nicaragua. House Speaker Jim Wright strongly endorsed the contra plan, calling it a "peace program, not a war program"—typical Democratic Party "double-speak."

The Sandinista government correctly denounced the U.S. contra-aid agreement as a violation of the regional accord that had been signed on Feb. 14 by the five Central American presidents at Tesoro Beach, El Salvador.

Under the agreement, the contra bases in Honduras would be closed in return for "open elections" in Nicaragua. As part of the accord, the Sandinista government agreed to release most of the 3000 former Somoza National Guardsmen still in prison.

Nicaragua also agreed to a four-month period during which opposition parties would organize, followed by a six-month campaign, culminating in presidential, legislative, and municipal elections on Feb. 25, 1990. Finally, it agreed to allow opposition political parties full access to the press, television, and radio.

Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry official Alejandro Bendaña Rodríguez warned that "The U.S. Congress and the American presidency cannot have the contras as a military force on one end and pretend to be supportive of the Central American peace plan on the other."

Costa Rican Oscar Arias, Partial list of classes:

The Nicaraguan Revolution Ten Years Later,' by Alan Benjamin, author of upcoming Walnut Publishing Co. book Dynamics of an Unfinished Revolution, and Nicaraguan economist Rolando Urrutia. Report Back on Soviet Tour: The Meaning of Gorbachev's Ref 'Marxism and Feminism,' (teachers to be announced). 'Marxist Economics and the Current Crisis of Capitalism,' by Lynn Henderson. 'Marxist Dialectics and Application by Cliff Conner. however, did not agree with the Sandinistas' assessment of the proposed contra aid. After a meeting with President Bush in Washington, D.C., on April 4, Arias hailed the new U.S. president's willingness "to give diplomacy a chance" in Central America.

According to The New York Times, "Mr. Arias went out of his way to say that the Bush administration's plan to continue aid to the contras was not at odds with the most recent regional agreement, reached by the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, in Tesoro Beach, El Salvador, on Feb. 14."

It was therefore no surprise when White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called Arias "a very valuable ally to whom we look for leadership as we try to apply diplomatic pressure Nicaragua promises.

Secretary of State James Baker spelled out the meaning of this "diplomatic pressure." He said that without the "contra option" there would be little pressure on the Sandinistas to enact the 17 constitutional reforms demanded by the contras and hold elections that would turn power over to the internal capitalist opposition front.

House Speaker Jim Wright explained the need for contra aid in similar terms: "This vote says to Nicaragua that we are very earnest about you fulfilling these commitments that you made to internal democratization."

By "internal democratization," the U.S. warmakers mean only one thing: the reversal of the Nicaraguan Revolution. That is why they want to keep the contras on the back burner. The latest contra-aid vote, according to the Los Angeles Times, "gave [President] Bush and Secretary of State James Baker ... an assurance that the contras will be kept intact for at least 10 months."

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