> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Gautam Mukunda
[snip]
> Not true _at all_. I think you're basically buying generations
> of Communist
> propaganda here, Alberto. It's simply not true. While the
> economy was not
> nearly as good in Latin America (well, depending on where you
> were) in just
> about every country political freedom was considerably greater than it was
> in Eastern Europe. Nor, for that matter, was it entirely, or
> even largely,
> an American responsibility. Take some responsibility for your
> own region of
> the world, for goodness sake. We aren't omnipotent. The greatest part of
> the destiny of any country lies with the people of that country.
Are you truly familiar with the recent history of Latin America -- El
Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, in particular? Guatemala has one of the
worst human rights records ever. We finally cut off military aid in the
'80s, I think, after decades of abuses that followed our overthrow of a
democratically elected government in 1954. But so-called economic aid
continued (that was the basis of my joke to Alberto) and was often used for
military purposes. For example, we gave the government trucks supposedly
for agriculture, but which actually hauled troops around.
In El Salvador, we have supported another government whose death squads
killed thousands of its citizens, as well as nuns and priests, even
Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose funeral was televised around the world as
soldiers fired guns and dropped hand grenades into a peaceful crowd in the
central square of San Salvador. Romero is one of my heros and it pains me
greatly to see the principles he stood for labeled communism. But that's
what gets U.S. aid into those countries -- the supposed communist threat.
You know what fits the definition of communism in these countries?
Education, especially Christian education. Romero changed from a man who
didn't rock the boat to a radical after one of his friends, Father Rutilio
Grande, was murdered by soldiers because he was teaching lay people how to
lead church services (part of the Delegates of the Word program that began
just over the boarder in Honduras). In Guatemala, the government
systematically murdered catechists out of opposition to teaching.
Sure, there are communists in Latin America. If your government said that
education, labor organization and other essentials to bettering yourself is
communism, then communism looks darned attractive. It is a self-fulfilling
neurosis.
Forgive the long and passionate post, but I've been there, talked to the
people, been deeply frightened by realizing that my activities could result
in torture or death. I will never look at the world the same again. Nor
will I accept the lame excuse of fighting communism when what's really going
on is the United States propping up deeply corrupt leaders.
Nick
