THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW SERGIO RAMIREZ
Dreifus, Claudia
THE PROGRESSIVE Interview Sergio Ramirez The view from Managua BY CLAUDIA DREIFUS Editor's Note: Claudia Dreifus, whose interviews for The Progressive have included such subjects as Ralph...
...That's his idea of Nicaragua, so he believes this government must be removed and the Sandinista Front must be taken over...
...But many people would ask why you imprisoned both a Communist and a businessman...
...He was a National Guardsman from the elite Somoza forces who was captured at the National Guard installation on Tescopa Hill...
...And it will be still more difficult during the transition period, when he is a lame-duck President...
...I mention it to illustrate the weight such events have in his mind, and the way he lies about them...
...Twelve more corpses turned up in the streets of El Salvador...
...RAMIREZ: Yes, that's what we think may be coming...
...Q: I suppose it doesn't surprise you that even in its weakened position after Contragate, the Reagan Administration hasn't given up on its policy...
...Q: Had you imprisoned and tortured them...
...This is an example of the maniacal obsession he has about Nicaragua...
...Q: Do you feel that if you can outlast Reagan, you'll have solved your problem with the United States...
...Do you still believe that...
...Until the last day of his Administration, he'll cling to the most backward notions about Nicaragua held by the extreme Right in the United States...
...Q: But I'm sure you know, since it has been widely reported, that the Joint Chiefs of Staff oppose an actual invasion of Central America...
...As I mentioned, Reagan's mythical notions of Nicaragua hinder any reasonable understanding...
...What had happened, Reagan said, was that the Sandinistas had imprisoned three leaders of private enterprise in Nicaragua and were torturing them...
...Reagan's idea of Nicaragua is in his head—that this is a country that lives behind bars...
...But sometimes you find them in real life...
...Q: So far, who is your favorite Contragate character...
...I developed an affection for these kinds of films that have very poor plots...
...The U.S...
...television, via cable, the President giving a speech at a fund-raising dinner for the contras in Washington...
...He was tied up in his bed, gasoline was dropped around his bed, and they tried to burn him alive...
...RAMIREZ: I think President Reagan...
...It's very difficult...
...that we cook babies...
...Dreifus's latest interview with President Daniel Ortega is scheduled for publication in the November 1987 issue of Playboy...
...RAMIREZ: We have a strategic problem to resolve whether or not Ronald Reagan is President, but there's no doubt that time is on our side...
...And they appeared on the screen, the two of them, with Reagan holding up this man's hand...
...religious women have been found tortured and raped on a road...
...Four U.S...
...Q: Why do you think Reagan is so obsessed with you...
...THE PROGRESSIVE Interview Sergio Ramirez The view from Managua BY CLAUDIA DREIFUS Editor's Note: Claudia Dreifus, whose interviews for The Progressive have included such subjects as Ralph Nader, Gore Vidal, and Admiral Stansfield Turner, first met the Sandinista leaders in the spring of 1983, when she interviewed them for Playboy...
...He's been selling a bad product to the people of the United States for six years—and the worst of his products has been the contras...
...We did feel at the time that we were right...
...My uncle owned a movie theater in Masatepe, and I became very familiar with bad movies, which is what you always saw in a small town...
...he thought Soviet troops had invaded West Berlin or some other critical event had occurred...
...Q: When we met four years ago, you said that if the contras were defeated, the next step would be a U.S...
...It's a miracle that he survived...
...Twelve more union leaders and students have been assassinated...
...that this is a great concentration camp...
...The whole story that he was burned alive is an absolute lie...
...RAMIREZ: The Austrian foreign minister once told me an anecdote...
...She returned to Managua last spring, shortly after release of the Tower Commission's report but before the Congressional hearings on the Iran-contra affair...
...RAMIREZ: No, I wouldn't say so...
...RAMIREZ: It would have been reasonable for Reagan to tell the Austrian foreign minister, "What happened this morning is horrible...
...RAMIREZ: The president of COSEP [a business organization] and the secretary-general of the Communist Party had been imprisoned at the same time because they had violated the law...
...The headline reads, Reagan Aide Says Contras Can Fell Sandinistas...
...And what Reagan has done from the White House hasn't even been film-acting...
...Reagan has forged his policy on mythical elements, and mythical elements are not destroyed from one day to the next...
...RAMIREZ: No, that doesn't surprise me...
...Q: I thought you might want to comment on this New York Times article...
...She also spoke with Vice President Sergio Ramirez, a forty-five-year-old novelist whose collection, Stories, has just been published in the United States by Readers International...
...RAMIREZ: Well, we'd have to see whether the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would refuse to carry out the orders of the President of the United States...
...Direct intervention is the only alternative Reagan has in mind...
...When the Cancun Conference was held, he had an early-morning meeting with Reagan, and before they even sat down, Reagan asked, "Did you hear what happened...
...So by process of elimination, I say his decision would still be the same...
...RAMIREZ: It seems probable...
...I'm not saying the imprisonment of this leader of private enterprise is something for which we expect to receive applause, regardless of our motives for arresting him...
...Q: Do you feel you've been given a reprieve...
...I've always been fascinated by bad actors, ever since I was a small child...
...Government has been, piece by piece, setting up a whole scheme of intervention against Nicaragua...
...Though Ramirez occasionally lapsed into English, most of the interview was conducted in Spanish, with Charles Roberts acting as interpreter...
...invasion...
...Reagan mentioned the private businessman but not the Communist official...
...The foreign minister turned pale...
...But it's not an event that should seem so important to the President of the United States...
...If Reagan didn't invade us today, it will be a little more difficult to invade us tomorrow...
...It's obvious the Reagan Administration knows that the counterrevolutionary forces have been defeated, that they haven't got a chance...
...he's been selling vacuum cleaners, just the way he did for General Electric...
...The only other way would be negotiations, and he doesn't accept that...
...Q: I understand the point of the story...
...It's incredible that a country like the United States, which has produced great actors, has let itself be deceived for six years by such a bad actor...
...He was never a Baptist minister...
...RAMIREZ: I've seen it...
...Q: If Contragate hadn't happened, isn't it altogether possible that there might have been extreme military action against your government around December 1986...
...obviously it's not a world crisis...
...He's had the same smile and the same ease with which he sold vacuum cleaners...
...I recall seeing on U.S...
...In the middle of the speech, he said, "Now I want to present to you a religious leader from Nicaragua—the pastor of a Baptist church—who was captured by the Sandinistas because he was preaching the word of God in the mountains of Nicaragua...
...We're struggling against an elderly man's imagination...
...We really can't let down our guard...
...These are shots being fired by a retreating force...
...If he's thinking about invading us in October 1988, it will be more difficult because of the next elections...
Vol. 51 • September 1987 • No. 9
