CENTAL AMERICA: THE TYRANNY OF OLD ORTHODOXIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201370002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 27, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201370002-8
fin LE APPEARED THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
~I 21' June 1983
Q U Frig f aE~~-Y
OPINION AND COM
By Arturo Cruz Sequeira -private, and cooperative sectors) and a commitment to social
While the Central American crisis deepens, both Demo-
c= and Republicans have been guilty of political posturing.
Yet at this point, thoughtful members of Congress have an
obligation to design an effective bipartisan policy toward Cen-
tral America - a policy which would recognize the internal
origins of the crisis, be based on a sober assessment of the
geopolitical factors, and, equally important, be consistent with
US political institutions.
President Reagan, in his recent address before the joint
session of Congress, did not put forward the needed new policy,
but rather took advantage? of the worn-out and - unrealistic
Marxist orthodoxy ottheSandinistas in orderto.justify his own
worn-out and equally unrealistic orthodoxiesabout.El Salva-
dor and Nicaragua itself-
But it-is-not only US-. conservatives who-cling~to unrealistic-'-
many liberals iaacademin and other sectorsof American soci ? -
ety;. President= Reagan=(the-defender-of the regime'of'Rios -
Montt in-Guatemala) also has-become the principal defender"
of the legitimate claims of ttie Nicaraguan- peasants and
Miskito Indians.
Senator.Dodd's speech, while it pointed out the obvious fal-
lacies of Reagan's address and was without a doubt more sen-
sitive to the internal causes of the crisis and the daily suffering
of the Salvadorean people, also fell back too often on solutions
of the past (in this case, those of the liberals of the 1960s).
Essentially, the senator recommended providing large
amounts of economic aid, thus, paradoxically, supporting an
external solution for what he himself described as a crisis
rooted in the internal dynamics of Central America. In any
event, neither of the superpowers would have the will or the
means to furnish the enormous amounts of aid which a purely
financial solution to the region's problems would require.
While Dodd correctly called for a political solution in El
Salvador, he neglected to look at the kind of government which
exists in Nicaragua today, failing to notice that only a revolu-
tion with a broad socio-political base can in the long run suc-
ceed in constructing a,, iable and relatively independent econ-
omy. Those of Senator Dodd's persuasion must learn to deal
with the reality that what is occurring in Nicaragua is under-
mining their case for El Salvador.
Traditional oligarchical societies existing throughout most
of Central America have failed to provide the vast majority of
their inhabitants with a decent life. Neither has Cuba with its
heavily subsidized economy provided a solution. The initial
novelty of the Sandinista experiment gave the region the hope
of a new solution, a hybrid revolution, which would have
placed a new form of-mixed economy (balancing the public,
change within the context of a politically tolerant system. The
Sandinista leadership has deviated from that promise by in-
creasingly moving toward a failed orthodox Marxist model,
which places most effective political and economic power in
the hands of a government bureaucracy that is inherently in-
capable of running the economy and that is repressive by its
very nature.
The true challenge for American policy is bow the US can
help Central Americans themselves to organize their societies
to be economically viable and socially equitable. Clearly, the
US cannot provide Central Americans with the solution, but it
can identify itself with and encourage those.of the region -
such as Archbishop?Rivera-y Damns from El`Salvador, Prime.
Minister Price: in Belize, .and under overwhelming limitations
the leader - of ? the Nicaraguan Independent Liberal Party
(PLI); Virgilio Godoy- who are seeking:new-answers rather
orthodo~des-I find. it highly ironic that.- owinggtathebmidity of ;=_ than: those locked intbe=pas "=
F utile CIA-sponsoredtclandestine operations-are- not going-
tam eet-the>challenge posed by Nicaragua and- the banner of
revolution it'has raised.: The-Reagan administration- policies
should not provide the excuse for further radicalization of the
Nicaraguan process. Nor should they serve as a convenient
justification for the Sandinista leadership to-avoid engaging in
a serious dialogue with honest and revolutionary dissidents
inside and outside Nicaragua. Eden Pastora is one example,
as long as be remains true to his commitments to noninvolve-
ment-with the so-called Frente Democratico NacionaL and to
continue searching for a political solution.
Finally, the Reagan administration policy must cease to be
the convenient bogeyman which the FSI N invokes to prevent
Nicaragua-'s Western friends (such as the European members
of the Socialist International and those of the Contadora
group) from publicly voicing their growing misgivings about
the direction in which the Nicaraguan revolution is moving.
If the US were to break away from its identification with the
Nicaraguan Somocistas, who totally dominate the guerrilla
leadership in the northern frontier, the Salvadorean oligarchy,
and the relics of Central America's oast, it would have the
legitimacy to then join with Europeans and other regional
forces to demand that the Sandinistas live up to their original
promise of the revolution. Such a stand would place the US on
the ideological offensive and also put it in a much stronger
position to counter excessive Soviet influence in the region. for
it would eliminate the contention that US pressure is forcing
Nicaragua into the Soviet camp.
Arturo Cruz Sequeira, a former Sandinista official. is
now a doctoral candidate at the School of Advanced later-
national Studies of the Johns Hopkins University '
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201370002-8
Central America.: the tyranny o oI orthodoxies