[Dialogue] Right, left, and with elections coming up in Nicaragua, we can't resist meddling.

[Ann Shafer]

Jim, Where does Jenny stand on this? Ann Stewart Shafer

 

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From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of James Wiegel
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 2:06 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: [Dialogue] Right, left, and with elections coming up in
Nicaragua,we can't resist meddling.

 


Losing Nicaragua, Again


By Robert D. Novak

Monday, October 30, 2006; Page A17 

Oliver North and his associates were leaving Managua last Tuesday on a
private plane after a dramatic surprise visit when they heard news they
could scarcely comprehend. The State Department had just issued a "public
announcement" that, in effect, warned Americans not to travel to Nicaragua
because of the prospect for "violent demonstrations" and "sporadic acts of
violence" leading up to the Nov. 5 presidential election there.

The North group had seen nothing in Nicaragua to justify a travel advisory,
normally issued when life and limb of visiting Americans are at risk. U.S.
and Nicaraguan security officials alike are dumbfounded, and the State
Department did not explain it to me. That buttresses suspicion that the U.S.
government wants to keep away meddling Americans like North, who seek to
influence an election that now appears likely to return Daniel Ortega and
the Sandinistas to power after an absence of 16 years.

The seemingly unavoidable outcome of next Sunday's election is a Nicaraguan
tragedy, losing at the ballot box what was won two decades ago by the blood
of contra fighters and the risking of Ronald Reagan's presidency. Because
the anti-Sandinista vote is split, Ortega figures to return his
Marxist-Leninist party -- now backed by Hugo Chávez's Venezuelan
petrodollars -- to the presidential palace. Apart from the misery to be
inflicted on the Nicaraguan people, this reflects the deterioration of U.S.
influence in the Western Hemisphere under the Bush administration.

Nicaraguan law permits the election of a president with as little as 35
percent of the vote if he is five percentage points ahead of his nearest
competitor. That now seems probable with the anti-Sandinista vote divided
between two major candidates: former vice president Jose Rizo and banker
Eduardo Montealegre. The former contras blame this state of affairs on the
Bush administration in general and, specifically, on the U.S. ambassador in
Managua, Paul Trivelli.

The looming political fiasco in Nicaragua comes as no surprise. Adolfo
Calero, a Washington-based contra leader in the '80s, returned to the U.S.
capital in April to issue a warning. He asserted that tacit U.S. support for
Montealegre and opposition to Rizo was a horrendous political error and that
the only hope to hold off the Sandinistas was to support Rizo. But official
doors were closed to Calero. The occasion of Calero's visit was a reunion of
contra leaders, their former CIA handlers and Ollie North, who as a Marine
lieutenant colonel ran the Nicaraguan account at the Reagan White House. The
festivities were marred by fear and frustration over the coming election.

North went public in his syndicated column of Oct. 6. He contended that
"official U.S. policy in Nicaragua has been blind to the realities of
Nicaraguan politics." He said Ambassador Trivelli "has to stop pressuring
private sector leaders with potential reprisals" for backing Rizo and his
Liberal Party. North called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit
Managua and meet with all anti-Sandinista candidates -- including Rizo.

In Washington, North was ignored. He and his colleagues paid a hastily
arranged visit to Managua Monday, Oct. 23, and publicly pleaded with
Nicaraguans to reject the Sandinistas. The apparent U.S. reaction was
Tuesday's official U.S. government warning that implies Americans would do
well to stay away from now until April 18. By urging "American residents and
visitors in Nicaragua " to be "vigilant," the U.S. government was telling
the old contras to keep hands off.

Dewey Claridge, the famous CIA contra handler, put it bluntly in an e-mail
to associates: "Just when you think the State Department's level of
stupidity has reached bedrock and can go no further, it comes up with this
nonsense, probably the [work] of Trivelli and his paranoia that Oliver
North's visit to Managua to receive a testimonial and lay a wreath at the
tomb of the fallen . . . is the Contra War II."

State Department spokesmen would not elaborate on the basis for the travel
advisory, but the department's security personnel and Nicaraguan police
privately said they saw none for such a warning. The real warning should be
about the return of the Sandinistas, in league with Havana and Caracas,
thanks to another failure in U.S. policy.

© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.




Jim Wiegel
401 North Beverly Way Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401
+1 623-936-8671 jfwiegel at yahoo.com

In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.
Albert Einstein

  

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