Kudos to the New York Times for publishing a front-page article (10/8/09) about the U.S. advisers and lobbyists who have been working (in one form or another) on behalf of the coup government in Honduras. But the piece glosses over the U.S. history in the region. Reporters Ginger Thompson and Ron Nixon write that the coup government
has also drawn support from several former high-ranking officials who were responsible for setting United States policy in Central America in the 1980s and ’90s, when the region was struggling to break with the military dictatorships and guerrilla insurgencies that defined the cold war.
When “the region was struggling to break with the military dictatorships and guerrilla insurgencies”? A little more clarity is needed there. The U.S.—to take two examples—supported a thuggish military government in El Salvador and created a “guerrilla insurgency” to try and defeat a left-wing government in Nicaragua. In other words, while “the region” may have wanted one thing, U.S. foreign policy sought to bolster violent, anti-democratic force. Stating these facts clearly would give readers a better sense of of the context–and demonstrate that people like Otto Reich and Roger Noriega are still on the wrong side.
right on !
disgraceful and orwellian, how little we remember, isn’t it ?
remember liberation theology in El Salvador ? Our tax dollars paid to kill priests and nuns who were had a simple Christ-like message – workers in multinational plants and on banana,etc haciendas deserve a wage that feeds them and their children. and they deserve a few rights, like the ability to organize. if we hadn’t allowed these same rights in the US, we’d be back in the 1880’s when big industry and rail owned our government and children worked in coal mines for pennies a day.
I chuckle every time I see or hear the unthinking comments about how much better off the former communist countries are since they embraced capitalism. I suggest this “anticommunism” deserves a little more serious research.
East european countries like Romania, Hungary, Checks and E Germans had free medical, adequate housing at equable prices, free education, reasonable and dependable pensions. These are now all gone, and the majority of people will tell you they have returned to the desperation of the post war period.
US ideology is showing along with your media ignorance. Any immigrant will tell you why these eastern european people want to return the communist governments. Their educational standards were far and away better than the west. We see professors here constantly complaining university students cannot even write clear English. University students!