riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (05/04/85)
> The Soviet navy will gain use of the Pacific port of Corinto, comple- > menting the Atlantic coast port access that navy already enjoys in Cuba. > This seriously complicates, even compromises, the strategic security > of the US in its OWN hemisphere. Bye bye, Monroe doctrine! > > The Cubans already maintain a small military base & port in (I think) > San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, which I believe is also on the Pacific > Coast. That's funny -- just this weekend I heard a funny story about San Juan del Sur from a minister and his wife from Clear Lake City, Texas, who were speaking about Witness for Peace, the organization that sends people to Nicaragua to observe the conditions there and the consequences of the U.S. war against the country. When they returned from Nicaragua they gave a press conference in Houston talking about their trip. A columnist for one of the Houston papers responded by listing San Juan del Sur as one of the places they "obviously" hadn't visited, because if they had they would have seen a 6000 ton drydock that the Soviets had built their for repair of spy ships cruising the U.S. West Coast. Unfortunately, the journalist seemed to have some of his facts wrong: the group had spent several days in San Juan del Sur, had been all over the place, and had seen only what was there: a sleepy little town with a very minor port, lacking even docking facilities for ships of any size -- the few freighters that stop there must anchor out in the bay and unload their cargo into small open boats which transfer it to shore. Needless to say, they saw no 6000 ton dry dock. Of course, they wrote a letter to the paper, correcting the columnist; of course, the paper didn't print it. When they finally reached the columnist by phone and asked him to explain himself, all he could say was that the Russians must have moved the drydock when they heard Witness for Peace was coming! Unfortunately this is all too indicative of the quality of some of the damning "facts" about Nicaragua distributed by administration sources and eagerly repeated by certain elements of the press. Of course, you can choose to believe the columnist and his unstated source of information -- I'll believe people who've been there and seen things for themselves. --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle --- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally
orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (05/06/85)
> > That's funny -- just this weekend I heard a funny story about San Juan del > Sur from a minister and his wife from Clear Lake City, Texas, who were > speaking about Witness for Peace, the organization that sends people to > Nicaragua to observe the conditions there and the consequences of the U.S. > war against the country. > > When they returned from Nicaragua they gave a press conference in Houston > talking about their trip. A columnist for one of the Houston papers > responded by listing San Juan del Sur as one of the places they "obviously" > hadn't visited, because if they had they would have seen a 6000 ton drydock > that the Soviets had built their for repair of spy ships cruising the U.S. > West Coast. > > Unfortunately, the journalist seemed to have some of his facts wrong: the > group had spent several days in San Juan del Sur, had been all over the > place, and had seen only what was there: a sleepy little town with a very > minor port, lacking even docking facilities for ships of any size -- the few > freighters that stop there must anchor out in the bay and unload their cargo > into small open boats which transfer it to shore. Needless to say, they saw > no 6000 ton dry dock. > > Of course, they wrote a letter to the paper, correcting the columnist; of > course, the paper didn't print it. When they finally reached the columnist > by phone and asked him to explain himself, all he could say was that the > Russians must have moved the drydock when they heard Witness for Peace was > coming! > > > --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") It has been reported in the New York Times that one of the next steps being considered by the Reagan administration is banning all US travel to Nicaragua. That should take care of those "peaceniks" who go down to teach the peasants how to read and report back on what they actually *saw* in Nicaragua. The same policy has been in effect towards Cuba. Where are our civil rights? Is this a free country? tim sevener whuxl!orb
rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (05/06/85)
I don't see how the facts (or "facts") I mentioned are compromised by the phantom Soviet drydock: I'm surprised people claim the Soviets ALREADY have a drydock in Nicaragua. I said the Cubans maintain a small military base: I think it's naval and I think it's in the town of San Juan. I heard it all on the radio as it whizzed by. The source, NPR's "All Things Considered" is hardly a Reagan administration Office of Disinformation. I'm surprised to hear Prentiss, who's usually very scrupulous in his postings, use some of the same breezy and stock dismissals that pollute debate about Nicaragua (unfavorable news about Nicaragua must be US propaganda). El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido? Ron Rizzo
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (05/15/85)
>I'm surprised to hear Prentiss, who's usually very scrupulous in his >postings, use some of the same breezy and stock dismissals that pollute >debate about Nicaragua (unfavorable news about Nicaragua must be US >propaganda). > Ron Rizzo Not so much US propaganda, since many US citizens do try to tell the truth about Nicaragua, but Administration propaganda. Is it surprising that people might query information that comes from the US administration, when so much of it is shown to be simple lies? One's first reaction to ANYTHING that comes from this administration (and many others of both political stripes) is that here is an item that suggests something is there to be known: now find out what is the truth of the matter. They may tell the truth or they may not, but you can be sure that what they tell you will be slanted support their intentions. Of course there are unfavourable truths about Nicaragua, but they are hard to see when the US administration is presenting so many "factoids" about the place, all of them unfavourable. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt