Taking Note
STICKING TO THE SCRIPT ON JANUARY 14, IN SUB-ZERO TEMPERAtures, three members of the U.S. Marine Band fainted on the South Lawn of the White House. The photo made the front page of The New York...
...His refusal to join the dutiful chorus against Nicaragua, and the presence of Daniel Ortega at his inauguration...
...Solutions are reached through dialogue, especially if there is mutual respect...
...All Febres Cordero had to do was play to the script...
...The only apparent inconsistency in this little piece of theater was the date of the White House meeting...
...Finally, Febres Cordero put the icing on Reagan's cake by declaring that the Sandinistas were "involved in subversion in Ecuador...
...Ecuador's Vice President, Blasco Pefiaherrera, declared that the security forces had uncovered "an extreme leftist conspiracy to carry out deeds of violence...
...Its only significant action has been the August 1985 kidnapping of Ecuadorean financier Nahim Isaias, honorary chairman of the Miami Republic National Bank...
...The other shoe eventually dropped when Febres Cordero arrived in Washington in January...
...A series of apparently unrelated events last fall may help explain...
...banks" to resume large-scale lending...
...Reagan hailed the Ecuadorean as a model Latin American leader, and praised his "brave struggle" against international terrorism and Nicaragua's "oppressive" government...
...The date was October 8. Ecuador immediately offered outspoken support for the Baker Plan, and just two days after the Seoul speech-the day before it broke ties with Managua--Quito announced that it had received "spontaneous offers from big U.S...
...It has to do with finding common ground...
...Initially arranged for January 8, it was postponed without explanation to January 14...
...First, on October 3, Ecuador announced that it was joining the "Lima Group," formed by Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay to support the Contadora peace initiative...
...He added cryptically that "the pretext of the foreign debt payment will be used for seditious actions...
...I do not have problems with the Nicaraguan government, President Ortega or Sandinismo...
...The photo made the front page of The New York Times...
...The major media, however, decided that terrorism makes much more satisfying copy than dialogue, and preferred to bring you freezing Marines and charges of Nicaragua subverting yet another Latin American country...
...The Febres Cordero visit is a textbook illustration of this rule in its Latin American variant: whatever the story may seem to be about, chances are it is really about Nicaragua...
...Hazarding an answer means remembering a basic rule about how Reagan's Washington handles the media: the real subject of a story is rarely what it seems to be...
...Five days later, Febres Cordero declared that there would be no peace in Central America "until there is a legitimate popular election in Nicaragua...
...It would be naive, of course, to draw any sweeping conclusions from this brief exchange, which also included some acerbic disputes on the nature of democracy...
...Daniel Ortega: I believe that dialogues are always good, even though we have differences...
...T HE ENTERPRISING MICROPHONES OF THE Mexican state news agency, NOTIMEX, captured an interesting exchange at the Cerezo inauguration...
...The consortium of Ecuador's bank creditors, meanwhile, indicated that Febres Cordero was a "model debtor" and would probably receive as much as $500 million in new commercial bank loans...
...I do not have them and I will never have them...
...The group takes its name from Eloy Alfaro, assassinated leader of Ecuador's liberal revolution of 1895...
...As we said, all roads do seem to lead to Managua...
...But the fact that the conversation took place at all is noteworthy...
...The meeting was fixed for January 8. The same day as the invitation was issued, the plot thickened...
...We must hold dialogues in order to gradually find solutions...
...That just happened to be the day of Vinicio Cerezo's inauguration as president of Guatemala, and Reagan's embrace of the loyal Febres Cordero entirely eclipsed the perfunctory handshake and small talk bestowed on the new Guatemalan leader by Vice-President George Bush...
...Why such an extravagant welcome for such an obscure figure...
...Forty eight hours later, on October 11, Febres Cordero took the astonishing decision to sever diplomatic ties with Nicaragua-a step no other Latin American government has taken...
...M EANWHILE, AT THE JOINT WORLD BANK- IMF meeting in Seoul, South Korea, Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III unveiled his "Program for Sustained Growth...
...Treasury Secretary Baker announced that Ecuador was pursuing "just the kind of policies we wish to encourage," and another senior official said that Ecuador would be "the first country to benefit, really, from the Baker Plan...
...If we have respect and communicate, we will achieve peace...
...Cerezo's offense...
...Jos6 Napole6n Duarte: El Salvador can live, can coexist with a socialist Nicaragua if this is selected by the majority of the people...
...If we achieve this, it will be in favor of peace and tranquility in the region...
...The Marines had been pushed beyond their limits of endurance by a protracted state welcome, with full military honors, for a foreign dignitary-Ecuador's right-wing civilian president, Le6n Febres Cordero...
...On September 2, Isaias and his five captors all died when Febres Cordero ordered police and Army commandos to storm the house in the port city of Guayaquil where the banker was being held...
...All this was music to Washington's ears, and on October 24, the White House announced that it had invited Febres Cordero to pay a visit...
...Next day, October 9, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused Washington of using Ecuador in its effort to undercut Contadora...
...The only candidate for sedition in Ecuador is a minute local guerrilla group that rejoices in the name of Alfaro Vive, Carajo (picturesquely translated in the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service as Alfaro Lives, Dammit...
...We think it is worth reporting, since it is a safe bet that you did not read about it in your local paper...
Vol. 20 • January 1986 • No. 1
