"Reagan Reports New Latin Danger" was the headline of a front page New York Times article (1/25/85) in which the President defended his contra policy as "an act of self defense," citing a Sandinista terrorist link. Juan Tamayo of the Miami Herald (3/3/85) further developed the theme of Nicaragua as a terrorist haven, while a USA Today (7/9/85) photo spread, with head shots of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, Castro, Qadaffi and the Ayatollah Khomeini, graphically promoted Reagan's warning about "terrorist states" threatening the U.S. An October 1986 OPD report, "The Challenge to Democracy in Central America," conveniently cited news articles [...]
Oct
01
1987
Lie: The Sandinistas Won't Submit to Free Elections
Although rigged elections during the Somoza era raised hardly an eyebrow in Washington, Nicaragua's November 1984 election was pilloried by the White House and the mainstream media. Pre-election reporting was hostile, coverage of the actual balloting was hijacked by hysteria over phantom Soviet MIG jets in Nicaragua, and a few months later many journalists seemed to forget that elections had even taken place. A New York Times editorial (2/13/85) lambasted the Sandinistas, who garnered 67 percent of the vote, for refusing "to subject their power to the consent of the Nicaraguan people." Yet according to the vast majority of independent [...]
