CENTRAL AMERICA-CRY HALT!
Howe, Irving
You don't have to be radical to see that a major disaster is building up in Central America. You only need some common sense. Nor do you need to be a subtle thinker to recognize that the...
...In such a case, the one certain loser would be democracy—never a big winner in Central America...
...Are these statements sincere...
...Summer '82: p. 285, Juan E. Corradi, "Argentina: A Story Behind a War...
...a] person could get food...
...had run out of food stamps and 88 percent of the programs surveyed reported those served asked for aid because their stamps did not provide enough food to last the month...
...now to help the remnants of the National Guard, which the thug-dictator Somoza used to terrorize the people in Nicaragua, is politically and morally obscene...
...The legacy of Reaganism in domestic affairs will be bad enough, but, after all, it will also be remediable through strong social action and legislation...
...We might as well admit, not very likely...
...But we see no other way of averting a catastrophe...
...p. 280, Malcolm Coad, "Murder in Guatemala...
...But if the Reagan policy in Central America continues unchecked, it will lead to a disaster that cannot help but evoke the memory of Vietnam...
...New York Times, May 25, 1983 280 (e) to prepare for a genuinely democratic election in which all the contending parties can participate without fear of death...
...And let there be no doubt about it...
...troops, there seems little chance for achieving that total "victory" for which the Reaganites lust...
...As the civil war grows more bitter, the possibility for serious negotiations grows smaller...
...Winter '83: p. 114, Mark J. Osiel, "Church Politics in Latin America...
...Everyone in Central America knows this, everyone resents it...
...friendship with a military junta in Guatemala that spills quantities of blood (see the appalling details in Allan Nairn's "The Guns of Guatemala," New Republic, April 11, 1983...
...By a "good" solution I mean something more or less within reach for that tormented nation: a modest democracy, a modest social reform...
...propping up a government in El Salvador that tolerates (or fails to suppress) the terrorism of its own army...
...El Salvador does have some genuine democrats, but they are frightened and, worse yet, their ranks are split between the two opposing camps in the civil war so that, at most, their influence is limited to checking extremists and killers on both sides...
...Nor do you need to be a subtle thinker to recognize that the architect of this disaster is the Reagan administration—which reveals its deeply reactionary bias nowhere more clearly than in Central America: A barely disguised and probably illegal intervention into the affairs of El Salvador and Nicaragua...
...After surveying 181 emergency food programs, the center reported in more than half, the number of people served grew more than 50 percent from February 1982 to February 1983...
...The U.S...
...Even a short-range military triumph would bring disastrous political consequences...
...all that needs to be done now is to put down a few conclusions: • If there is one part of the world where U.S...
...an effort to work out a modus vivendi with its government—one in which a turn by that government to easing domestic repression and adopting a nonaligned foreign policy could be met with substantial economic aid from the U.S...
...record in that part of the world —popularly and justly known as Yankee imperialism —is one of shameful bullying and exploitation...
...Simply, by now, to keep proposing negotiations and "dialogue" between the contending forces in El Salvador may be inadequate...
...But both the El Salvador government and the Reagan administration have brushed aside such proposals, including those that came from adjacent democratic countries such as Mexico and Costa Rica...
...Twothirds limited the number of times...
...The consequences are frightening...
...See ad on the back cover...
...Short of sending U.S...
...With regard to Nicaragua the proper course is relatively simple: an immediate end to every kind of intervention...
...In El Salvador time is running out...
...And a third possible consequence is that in such countries as El Salvador, where neither side can win a clear-cut military victory, the bloodletting will continue endlessly—a sheer hell on earth...
...p. 352, Phillip Berryman and Gabriel Zaid, "An Exchange on El Salvador...
...For the U.S...
...This leaves one, admittedly frail, possibility: that the democratic countries of the area—Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela—be called in temporarily to El Salvador, with the consent of both sides, in order (a) to supervise a cease-fire, (b) to oversee the retirement of the army to its proper sphere in the barracks, (c) to arrange for the disarming of the terrorist gangs, (d) to make certain that neither side uses the truce in order to destroy the other, and Washington, May 24 (UPI)—The number of people served at soup kitchens and similar emergency food programs in the United States grew dramatically last year, the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities reported today...
...Many of those seeking help...
...Another possible consequence is that, as the "mere" shipment of arms and money to the right-wing juntas does not bring the "victory" for which the Reaganites pant, the U.S...
...Such a policy can have only one result: it will rally support for the Nicaraguan * Summer 1981: p. 285, Irving Howe, "Looking into El Salvador...
...Fall '82: p. 402, Octavio Paz, "Latin America and Democracy" (an excerpt...
...p. 141, Stanley A. Gacek, "Repression in Brazil...
...Winter '82: p. 13, Gabriel Zaid, "Enemy Colleagues: A Reading of the Salvadoran Tragedy...
...And there would not be a sign of lasting peace...
...More than 80 percent of the agencies reported more people seeking help because their stamps had run out than a year earlier...
...It's also an example of that deep stupidity which pervades the reactionary mind...
...The U.S...
...But there are also obvious similarities with Vietnam...
...One possible consequence is that Central America will be engulfed in a transnational civil war, with right-wing juntas backed by the United States fighting against authoritarian leftist guerrillas backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba...
...How likely is this course...
...Nearly 25 percent...
...intervention is especially intolerable, it is Central America...
...5.00...
...There's a way of finding out, and that's to enter negotiations while setting in place a military truce...
...will be tempted to send troops...
...This survey documents dramatic increases in the number of Americans needing food aid and suggests that hunger and inadequate nutrition may again be a growing problem in this country, Robert Greenstein, the director of the center, said...
...See also: Democracy and Dictatorship in Latin America, an ES.I.S.1...
...As in Vietnam, it seems unlikely that—with a deteriorating situation—there can be a "good" solution in El Salvador...
...88 pp...
...The process of polarization would be sped up...
...Spring '83: p. 151, Juan E. Corradi, "Reagan's Disasters in Latin America...
...Over the past two years we have printed a good deal of analytical material in Dissent about Latin America.* In this brief comment I don't propose to repeat that analysis...
...Fall '81: p. 425, Leon Wieseltier, "The Many Trials of Jacobo Timerman...
...and a scheme for "destabilizing" a leftist regime in Nicaragua, which has indeed violated civil liberties (and refused to schedule elections) but is not yet a Castroite authoritarian dictatorship and looks like a spotless model of Jeffersonian democracy when compared with military juntas in Latin America to which Washington gives money and arms—all these are the familiar elements...
...pamphlet devoted entirely to the voices and opinions of Latin American writers...
...279 regime among prodemocratic elements of the population, which, in more normal circumstances, might be sharply critical of its political methods...
...One is that, when the Reaganite policies falter dramatically, there will be growing demands from within the government and the political right that we send troops in order to "Stop Communism...
...Large numbers of Central American patriots would in desperation shift allegiance to the guerrilla forces, if only because they wanted to resist Yankee intervention...
...For the past two years or so, moderate elements within the opposition—especially the Social Democrat Ungo who heads its political branch in exile—have kept saying they are prepared for unconditional negotiations...
...would have to maintain garrisons indefinitely if it hoped to maintain its domination...
...Now that the guerrillas have become militarily stronger, their price for a truce will no doubt be higher...
...Now it would be facile to see the situation in Central America as merely a repetition of Vietnam...
...75 percent of the programs reported serving more families with children than a year earlier...
...More than a third of the programs surveyed doubled in size...
...had] to turn people away...
...p. 217, Mark J. Osiel, "Agonies of Abertura: Brazil Moves, a Little, Toward Democracy...
...Spring '82: p. 139, Emanuel Geltman, "El Salvador: Talk or Big Talk...
Vol. 30 • July 1983 • No. 3
