U.S.-Sponsored Genocide

In the recent wave of mass uprising and consequent genocidal repression in Nicaragua the United States maintained its 45-year-old policy of acting in favor of the Somozas' interests and in opposition to the interests of the Nicaraguan masses. In the midst of the fighting, the U.S.:

--sent the guided missile cruiser Richmond K. Turner with 400 marines to Nicaragua's Pacific coast;

--maintained the "advisory" U.S. military mission in Managua;

--and oversaw the Central American Defense Council actions involving the use of Guatemalan and Salvadoran troops in northern Nicaraguan cities.

Earlier this year Congress approved a $12 million loan and the State Department sent $25,700 in military grants and $400,000 in grants for training the military and police. In June, President Carter sent Somoza a letter commending his human rights record.

Why does the United States government continue to support one of the bloodiest dictatorships in the world--thereby continuing in its role as an accomplice to the crimes and human rights violations perpetrated against the Nicaraguan people by the U.S.-created, U.S.-trained, and U.S.-armed Nicaraguan National Guard?

To answer this question, one must look back to the Cold War era and recall long-range U.S. strategy for the Central American and Caribbean region. This strategy is basically the same as it was a quarter-century ago: to prevent communist forces from rising to power, thereby keeping the doors open for U.S. multinational corporations, and maintaining the region under U.S. domination.

At that time Anastasio Somoza Garcia, father of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, was dictator. Somoza was brought to power by the marines in the early '30s and enjoyed Washington's consistent support. Somoza, a fervent capitalist who, like his son, never hesitated to use the state apparatus to augment his personal fortune, was logically enough fervently anti-communist. Given Somoza's anti-communism, Nicaragua's strategic position in the heart of Central America, and the possibility of building a second transisthmian canal through Nicaraguan territory, the U.S. was more than happy to prop up the Somoza regime both militarily and economically.

A U.S. military mission arrived in 1950 to help administer military aid and advise the National Guard. From 1946 to 1976 the Somozas received more than $29 million in direct aid through Military Assistance Programs, as well as more than $300 million in "economic" aid, much of which has been used to buy military equipment from the U.S. and other countries (particularly Israel in recent years).

What has Somoza done for Washington in exchange? Aside from repressing any domestic movement for popular power, the Somozas have had a strong regional anti-communist consciousness. In 1954, for example, the elder Somoza lent his private estate for CIA training of right-wing Guatemalan exiles led by Castillo Armas, and allowed U.S. bombers supporting the exiles to take off from Nicaragua. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Somozas began to develop tighter relations with right-wing Cuban exiles who, with the CIA, were plotting to overthrow the Castro government. In 1961, the Somozas' private lands were used to train the exiles; furthermore, the planes participating in the Bay of Pigs invasion took off from Nicaraguan territory.

Anti-Somoza forces increasingly turned to armed struggle in the 1950s. But the invasions of 1948, 1954, 1958, 1959 and 1960 all resulted in military defeat. The Cuban Revolution inspired many popular guerrilla movements throughout Latin America. The 1962 founding of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) represented a new and greater threat to the Somoza regime. The Sandinistas, many of whom were young intellectuals, soon began to work among the peasants of the north, where they began to gradually build a mass base.

To counter the new wave of armed opposition, the U.S. stepped up its military aid to Latin American governments in the early 1960s. A few statistics help illustrate the extent to which U.S. aid has propped up the Somoza dynasty over the years:

--between 1950 and 1976, 5176 Nicaraguan National Guard troops, of a total force of 7500, were trained by the U.S. military;

--in 1962, U.S. military aid per soldier amounted to $930, while per capita income in Nicaragua was only $205;

--in the mid-1970s Nicaragua received the greatest U.S. military aid per capita of any Latin American country;

--in the mid-1970s, Nicaragua received the largest sum of U.S. economic aid of any Latin American country.

Aid was stepped up again following the 1972 earthquake that destroyed Managua. At Somoza's request, 600 marines were flown to Managua the next day to protect lives and property and stabilize the Somoza regime. The determination of successive administrations to keep Somoza in power is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the U.S. government continues to violate its own laws in order to funnel aid to Somoza. Specifically, the 1974 Foreign Assistance Act prohibits aid to foreign police forces--but the National Guard is Nicaragua's police force. (It is also the army. But there is no real threat of foreign invasions; the only real threat is from the Nicaraguan masses.)

Aside from the massive infusions of economic and military aid, the U.S. has played a key role in the conception, implementation and operations of the Central American Defense Council (CONDECA). CONDECA, formally established in 1964, is a military pact between U.S.-supported right-wing Central American military dictatorships (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) for the purpose of preventing "communist subversion" in the region. CONDECA has direct links with the CIA, and is regularly advised by the Department of Defense via the U.S. Army Southern Command in Panama.

According to the CONDECA pact, troops from the different countries cross one another's borders when there appears to be a particularly strong threat of insurgency in one of the countries. November 1976 witnessed he presence of Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and, according to some reports, U.S. troops in Nicaragua. That operation resulted in the deaths in combat of two FSLN leaders. As recently as October 1977, U.S. military officials have been seen with National Guard patrols on counter-insurgency operations.

While Somoza has clearly served as Washington's puppet, he is also motivated by his own greed, which has resulted in the alienation of much of the bourgeoisie in recent years. In past years U.S. officials have had to intervene on the diplomatic level to overcome differences between the wealthy Conservatives, for years the only legal opposition party, and Somoza's National Liberal Party. The main U.S. concern has been for the bourgeoisie to present a united front against the Sandinistaled popular threat.

At present the State Department is again trying to mediate between Somoza and certain elements of the bourgeois opposition, and again the U.S. government is betraying the interests and aspirations of the Nicaraguan people. The people rise up in armed struggle precisely because they know that Somoza and the system of exploitation that he represents are their enemy and the principal obstacle to the possibility of any real democratic change in Nicaragua. Those most enthusiastic about negotiations are the business and financial sectors that have a vested interest in seeing certain aspects of the present social disorder preserved, while the people and their vanguard the FSLN know that the legal and economic structures must be totally overhauled if Nicaragua is to be able to use her abundant natural resources and national territory for her own development and thereby pull the country out of the poverty and oppression that have resulted from more than 40 years of imperialism and dictatorship.

In proposing itself as a mediator in the current war, the U.S. is trying to portray itself as a neutral third party. Clearly, this is far from the truth. As U.S. corporate interests dictate that whatever changes take place be not too radical, Washington will only advocate minor changes. But the people led by the FSLN will continue to fight until the entire National Guard is defeated and dismantled, and a new national army that really represents and protects the interests of the Nicaraguan people is formed. Until that day, Nicaragua will remain a tiny country caught in the clutches of U.S. imperialism.

Charles H. Roberts '79 is a member of the Nicaragua Solidarity Committee, a Boston area organization.