Portland Observer, February 27, 1985, Page 7
U.S. citizens in Nicaragua blast Reagan view of "freedom fighters"
by B ill Bigelow
In a recent radio address Ronald
Reagan was hard put to find enough
superlatives to describe the N ic a ra
guan co n tras. T h e y are '•fre e d o m
fig h te rs ” and ” our b ro th e rs " —
"u ltim ately their fight is our fig h t."
A few days later, testifying before
the House Foreign A ffa irs C o m m it
tee, Secretary o f State George Shultz
proclaim ed that the U .S . had a
"m o ral duty" to support the contras
in their fight against a Nicaragua
which had fallen "b e h in d the Iro n
C urtain."
The A d m in is tratio n 's strategy is
shifting. N o longer is Reagan pushing
aid to the contras by claiming that his
real goal is to interdict the supposed
arms flow to El Salvador. But with
that — always flimsy — pretext gone,
Washington needs a new story. Thus
we w ill be hearing a lot m ore from
the Reagan team about the new red,
white and blue freedom loving contras.
From Nicaragua, however, comes
a portrait o f a quite different reality.
Recently the Committee o f U.S. C iti
zens Living in Nicaragua (C U S C L IN )
put together a p ro file o f contra ac
tivities by collecting testimonies from
Americans throughout the country.
Below are some excerpts.
Sandra Price, Sisters o f N o tre
Dame de N am u r: " I am a pastoral
w orker o f the C a th o lic church in
Siuna, in the departm ent o f N o rth
Zelaya. I w ork w ith a priest and a
small group o f Nicaraguan religious
women in the form ation o f lay relig-
; ious ministers (Delegados de la
Palabra) and leadership training with
peasant w om en. Since N ovem ber
20, 1984, we have had in our care a
small infant ""ho survived a massacre
by the counterrevolutionaries.
“ The child was six days old when a
band o f counterrevolutionaries a r
rived at their isolated mountain home
in the night and opened fire on the
house. The fo ur year old brother
and eighteen year old aunt died im
m ediately. The fath er, m other,
uncle and eight year old brother were
wounded. The contras entered the
house, took out the inju red men,
»hot them, slit the throat o f the father
whom they accused o f being a Sandi-
nista, and left.
“ T h e surviving fo u r children
picked up the baby and fled to an
uncle's house, leaving the injured
mother in agony. Three children re
turned to the home in the m orning
and found the mother dead. They re
turned to the uncle's house and, a
few hours later, made a second trip
to thejr home. This tim e, all o f the
bodies had disappeared. They were
later found in the river. The women
had been stripped o f their clothes and
the mother's face had been flayed ”
Sister Joan Uhlen, M arykn q ll Sis
ter, and Sister Rachel Pinal, Presenta
tions Sister and M aryknoil Associate:
" O n June k, 1984, the contras a t
tacked O c o ta l, a northern tow n o f
about 21 ,000 people, killin g 14 and
wounding 34. We are two M aryknoil
nuns w ho live and w ork in O c o ta l,
and we walked around the town im
mediately after the attack
" W e began at the lumber yard; it
was bleak and shocking. A t the sight
o f it, physical pain clutched at R a
chel's stomach. W ords can begin to
w hen I heard that a group of TELC O R
volunteers had been attacked by
coqnt^revolutionaries w hile travel
ing on a truck. Survivors said that
the contras had loaded 21 o f their
dead and wounded victims baqk onto
the tru ck, doused the truck and
bodies, many still alive, with kerosene
and set it on fire. I checked with the
union and found that M arvin wasn't
among the victims.
" T h e next day, I was told that my
friend was in a hospital in Managua,
in critical co n d itio n ,
" W h ile w aiting outside the inten
sive care unit to visit my friend, I was
able to talk to other wounded N ica
raguans His face had been shot o ff,
and they had to rem ove his entire
describe the horror o f each place wfc
visited, but they cannot tell the whole
story. The pain in people's eyes tells
more o f that story, that what was
done here was not an attack against
m ilita ry powers. It was an attack
against people: m en, w om en, and
most sadly, children.
Ellen M oore, member, C U S C L IN :
" A close friend o f m ine, M a rv in
R am irez, a 21 year old co m m u n i
cations technician who works with the
government Telecommunications and
Postal Service (T E L C O R ), v o lu n
teered to pick coffee this year with a
group o f co-workers as he had for the
past three years, but knowing that this
year it was even more dangerous.
" I was at home on December 4
w ill never take the revolution fro m
us’ ."
The C U S C L IN report goes on to
catalogue the horrendous toll o f the
contra attacks in 1984 alone Last
year. 1890 teachers were murdered, 15
schools destroyed and 138 schools
abandoned due to repeated attacks
To express your opinion on the up
coming vote for renewal o f U .S . aid
to the contras, write:
Sen. Bob Packw ood, 259 Russell
Office Bldg , Washington, D C 20510.
Sen. M ark H a tfie ld , 322 H art O f
fice B ld g., W ashington. D C 20510.
Rep. Ron Wyden, 1440 l.ongwortn
Bldg , W ashington, D C 20515
Rep. Les A u C o in , 2159 R ayburn
Bldg . Washington. DC 20510
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(Continuedfrom Page /, Column 3/
end up w ith a subm inim um wage,
according to F L O C . The com m ittee
is also concerned about the return o f
child labor to the fields.
C am p bell's has responded to the
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lower jaw . He talked to me, but he's
d iffic u lt to understand, partly be
cause he has no ja w and p artly be
cause he tries to cover his mouth with
his hand, trying to hide his disfigure
ment. A fte r about a h alf hour, he
said suddenly, ' I saw m yself in the
m irror for the first time yesterday —
look at what they did to me ' As he
started to ro ll aw ay, another m an,
who, after 11 months in the hospital,
had just been told that they would
amputate his leg, said, 'W ait a minute
friend. Before you go I w ant to say
one thing. What they did to you, what
they did to all o f us is h orrible, but
even if they take away your uppers or
all the bones in your face, they can't
take awav what we fought for. They
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