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Central America Update: US Media 'Reality' Ignores Facts

By VVAW

In Nicaragua the government is smashing Contra raids (they can hardly be labeled offensives anymore) at will. U.S. isolation over the Reagan Administration's aggression against Nicaragua has increased with the formation of the Lima group (Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay) which supports the Contador group (Mexico, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela) in its attempts to reach a peace agreement in Central America. As the U.S. continues to try to sabotage the Contadora process it has come under violent criticism in Latin America. The Panamanian Foreign Minister even went so far as to warn Elliot Abrams, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Latin America, that "The time has come to show who is for peace in Central America, and who is for war."

The U.S. has been further embarrassed by the trial in the World Court where Nicaragua is suing the U.S. for damages. The Nicaragua legal effort is being spearheaded by American lawyers and several of the most damaging witnesses have been former U.S. employees have been form U.S. employees such as David MacMichael, ex-CIA Central America specialist, who testified the Nicaragua has not supplied arms to Salvadoran guerrillas for over four years, and Edgar Chamorro, an ex-leader of the Contras who testified about U.S. control of the Contras and about Contra atrocities.

It is against the background that the risks of a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua or El Salvador must be viewed. The U.S. would suffer a political bloodbath for such an act and the Nicaraguans have threatened, in the event of an invasion, to regionalize the war. There can be no doubt that there are tens of thousands of people in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica who would take guns from Nicaragua if they were offered. This and opposition at home has resulted in the in pass that the Reagan Administration is in.