Nicaragua’s New Constitution

Assistant Secretary of State Abrams’ latest criticisms of the “totalitarian” Sandinistas are seen as pure hypocrisy when contrasted with the considerate and gentle pressures for change exerted by the Reagan Administration on far more repressive regimes, deemed merely “authoritarian” (Chile, Guatemala and South Africa come to mind here).

The restrictions enacted under the present state of emergency in Nicaragua are not unreasonable if we remember the CIA’s machinations in Chile, which resulted in the overthrow and death of popularly elected President Salvador Allende (and the ascension of Augusto Pinochet).

Abrams’ case is damaged further by the fact that even here, in “the land of the free,” in peacetime, we too suffer from government censorship. Thus, under the McCarran Act, we are “protected” from “foreign propaganda,” such as a Canadian documentary film showing the results of acid rain caused by U.S. smokestack industries.

It does not work to “blame the victim” here. Through the Contadora peace-seeking group, the Sandinistas have more than once indicated their flexibility on all issues except political suicide. They are supported by a majority of the supposedly repressed Nicaraguan people, who have resolutely refused to grant the President’s “freedom fighters” even a square meter of Nicaraguan territory.

Even today, the Nicaraguan people feel great affection for us, in the belief that most of us do not want to see them die to satisfy the needs of some in our government to “stand tall.” Our greatest challenge lies in living up to that belief.

BILL BECKER

Woodland Hills