gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger) (11/01/85)
Diana Spalding writes:
Most people in Nicaragua have never lived nearly as well as
they are living now. . . . . most of the people are living
*much* better now than they did under Somoza.
This may have been true a year or so ago. The actions of the
Sandinistas in the areas of land reform and economic policy greatly
increased the economic well-being of the average person. Unfortunately,
the state of the war in Nicaragua has caused most of these gains to be
lost. The resumption of U.S. aid to the contras has caused the level of
the war to be stepped up to the point where the Nicaraguan government now
has to put some 60% of its budget into defense. Consequently, most of the economic gains that the people of Nicaragua made under the first five
years of the Sandinista revolution have slowly been lost.
This is not the fault of the Sandinistas. No serious inquiry into the
causes of the economic erosion in Nicaragua blames the Sandinistas
economic or social policies. The economic upheaval is clearly the
result of the sustained military and economic policies of the U.S.
government.
--
Gil Neiger
Computer Science Department
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
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