80's Redux: Lunatic Fringe going bonkers over Central America!

[mumon]

First, from the NewsMax: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/9/2/225540.shtml:

The Communists Return to Nicaragua
Gerald Brant
Wednesday, Sept 3, 2003
The way history reads, the U.S. defeated the forces of the evil empire in Central America -- liberating them from the Left for a new era of democracy.
But the truth shows that in places like Nicaragua and El Salvador, communism is not only a vibrant force, but poised to take power once again.

Back in the 80s, hotspots like Nicaragua were on the front pages with “Contra” rebels battling the Cuba backed Sandinista government as President Reagan implemented his doctrine to “roll back” Communism from the Western Hemisphere. ...

<irony alert>

It’s also worth noting that Sixty percent of Nicaraguans are age 25 or younger, and the voting age in that country is 16. Most of the voters never knew pre-Sandinista Nicaragua and have no idea what Sandinista Nicaragua was like...

Next...

From the Miami Herald:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/andres_oppenheimer/6581757.htm

U.S. wary of a 'nightmare' in Central America

Here goes a ''nightmare scenario'' that some senior Bush administration officials are worrying about: the possibility that rightist and leftist candidates with dubious democratic credentials will win upcoming elections in Central America, and unleash a new cycle of violence in the region.

In Guatemala, former dictator and current president of Congress Efraín Ríos Montt, 77, has won a legal battle to become the ruling party's candidate in the Nov. 9 presidential elections.



Ríos Montt, a former army general whose 1982-1983 military regime was marked by massive human rights abuses against Guatemala's Indians, had been banned from running for office by a 1985 rule that bars former coup plotters from participating in presidential elections. But a constitutional tribunal earlier this month ruled in Ríos Montt's favor, in a decision that critics say resulted from intimidation by the former dictator's followers.

Asked about Ríos Montt's candidacy, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with the Univisión network earlier this month that ''we have serious reservations about his candidacy.''

Fundamentalist Christian Montt, btw, was responsible for the murder of tens of thousands. One fith of the country voted with their feet while he was the Reagan puppet.

And from the centrist SF Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/08/21/international1616EDT6387.DTL

FMLN candidate says would restore El Salvador ties with Cuba

Presidential candidate Shafick Handal told reporters on Thursday that he would restore El Salvador's diplomatic relations with Cuba and China if elected next year.

In a meeting with foreign reporters, the candidate of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front promised "open relations with all the countries of the world, independent of their economic or social system."

Handal, a former guerrilla commander, was recently chosen as presidential candidate for the Front, which holds the largest number of seats in Congress and which has won the mayorship of San Salvador three times running.



You don't suppose the "War on Terra" is getting really sucky, so the right is thinking on beating up -yet again- on the folks down south "in our backyard..." Nah, they couldn't be THAT cynical.

Anyhow, if they stir this crap up, they better realize that we'll bring up Oscar Romero, death squads, and all kinds of crap they did.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. reminds me about the great 1980's

"Bloom County" about the "Sandinista Horde"

[webtrainer]

2. Nicaraugans haven't elected Ortega yet . . .

after his running for President I think three times in the post-Sandinista period. They aren't going "communist" anytime soon, plus Ortega is more like a euro-style Christian Democrat than anything else.

I was there six months ago and the people I spoke with did remember the Sandinista years and the men especially don't want them back in power. They had lots of hardships after Reagan embargoed them and they had to resort to USSR/Russian goods, which of course, are not good quality.