Taking Note
ITEM: DECEMBER 4, 1980. SANTIAGO NON- ualco, El Salvador. Four U.S. churchwomen are abducted from their Toyota van, raped and murdered by a group of Salvadorean National Guardsmen. What was...
...The answer is unequivocal...
...SANTIAGO NONualco, El Salvador...
...The Americas Watch re- port has uncovered congressional testimony from the U.S...
...First, on the issue of culpability, U.N...
...The complete text of this admirable report is available from Americas Watch, 36 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036...
...What was the response of the Reagan Administration, which came to office the following month...
...He declared that, "The trigger was pulled by the Sandinista leadership in Managua...
...We spotted grandmother on the roof in a brief UPI wire story about Peru...
...Zona Rosa, San Salvador...
...Reagan again: "We and the Salvadorean leaders will move any mountain and ford any river to find the jackals and bring them and their colleagues in terror to justice...
...And what of the character of the Americans who died in the Zona Rosa...
...Under this amendment, which is rarely invoked, any country that falls more than a year behind on debts to the U.S...
...Even then, convic- tions had to wait until Reagan had vetoed legislation mak- ing U.S...
...We have learned that the Nicaraguan government is sup- porting the persons participating in these terrorist ac- tions...
...Report on the Americas will be keeping a careful eye on developments, and publishing a special issue on conditions in Peru early in 1986...
...We recommend readers to watch for further signs that grandmother is on the roof in Peru...
...MIDST THE DIN OF DEMOCRATS AUDITION- ing for parts in the Congressional production of Rambo, it was refreshing to see Rep...
...And what awaited those responsible for the attack...
...We were lucky enough on the same day to pick up an advance copy of the new Americas Watch report on human rights in Nicaragua, entitled Reagan, Rhetoric and Reality...
...At a fundraising luncheon for Sen...
...No, I don't think the government was responsible...
...In case the point was too subtle, we had this from Secretary of State Alexander Haig: "Some of the investigations would lead one to believe that perhaps the vehicle the nuns were riding in may have tried to run a roadblock . and there may have been an exchange of gunfire...
...Item: June 20, 1985...
...Marines are shot and killed at a sidewalk restaurant by members of El Salvador's Central American Revolu- tionary Workers Party (PRTC...
...The reasons for the name are too arcane to explore here, but the phrase has something in common with glimpsing the tip of the iceberg, or perhaps waiting for the other shoe to drop...
...government may find U.S...
...In the case of the churchwomen, we witnessed a tor- tuous four-year battle to bring a prosecution...
...On the grounds of the PRTC's supposed connection with Managua, the National Security Council seriously considered the option of punitive airstrikes on Nicaraguan targets...
...And we're never good enough to them . .. No one can treat such men and women as they deserve, be- cause what they give us is beyond our powers to repay...
...The nuns were also political activists...
...CIA lore has it that when the attentive agent spots a small story and knows there is a lot more to come, he will allegedly mutter, "Ah-hah, grandmother is on the roof...
...military assistance to El Salvador conditional on bringing the killers to trial...
...Then there is the question of bringing the guilty to jus- tice...
...The message of retribution was clear...
...That was from a diplomatic note sent to Managua on July 17...
...But the problem for Reagan is that the refugees have not been flooding out of Nicaragua...
...Kirkpatrick again: "The nuns were not just nuns...
...Peter Kostmayer of Pennsylvania savage the Administration's hypocrisy on the four nuns and the four marines---doubly satisfying be- cause Kostmayer's adversary was the contemptible Elliot Abrams, Reagan's new Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs...
...Bureau of the Census on June 27, which shows that, "On balance, since the Sandinistas came to power, despite the military conflict and the hardships resulting from it- deaths, forced relocations, economic shortages and an unpopular draft-Nicaragua has absorbed more former refugees than it has created new ones...
...One particularly striking section contrasts the Ad- ministration's inflammatory treatment of the refugee issue with some sober new facts...
...The Admin- istration eventually complied only because Congress made it impossible for it to duck the issue...
...This may be a technicality, but in the case of Peru it looks more like a first warning shot across the bows...
...Jeremiah Denton in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 6, Reagan declared with passion that, "As the refugees come flooding out of Nicaragua, it becomes harder and harder not to hear their cries of anguish, not to see the suf- fering of their shattered lives...
...The exchange came on PBS' MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour--on the evening of July 19, appropriately enough, sixth anniversary of the Sandinista victory...
...And if we reach, or when we reach, Heaven's scenes, we truly will find it guarded by United States Marines...
...We ought to be a lit- tle more clear about this than we actually are . . . They were political activists on behalf of the Frente...
...President Reagan, in his funeral oration, said, "When a serviceman dies, we feel a special an- guish...
...citizens who died...
...Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick: "I think it's meaningful to ask: Do you think the government [of El Salvador] was responsible or brought about the murders...
...The hyperbole from House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel was even worse...
...aid suspended...
...And what of the character of the U.S...
...What was the Administra- tion's response this time on the question of responsibility...
...It concerned a State Department decision to invoke the obscure Brooke-Alexander Amendment against the new government of Alan Garcia...
...ON AUGUST 2, WE CAME ACROSS WHAT some members of the intelligence community colorfully call a "Grandmother-on-the-roof" story...
Vol. 19 • July 1985 • No. 4
