mendel@utcsrgv.UUCP (Alberto Mendelzon) (11/30/84)
Here is an excerpt from a letter to the editor of Canada's The Globe and Mail, November 29, 1984. The author is Susan Johnson, Central America Projects Officer for OXFAM-Canada. -------------------------------------------------------- I would like to bring a bit of reality to the recent reports about the CIA's manual for contras operating in Nicaragua, in which they ae encouraged to eliminate Sandinista officials. At first glance your readers could think this refers to the top leadership of the FSLN, perhaps the nine members of the National Directorate. Instead, the daily targets of this policy are the hundreds of health-care workers, adult educators and agricultural technicians who work in the rural areas of Nicaragua trying to bring these vital services to the poorest of the poor. ... When an OXFAM-Canada study tour visited the northern agricultural co-operatives in February, we visited the El Coco co-operative, where the charred remains of simple homes and a burned-out tractor were all that was left after the contras attacked. Thirteen people were killed there, two of them young girls who were hiding under thier mother's bed, where they were shot. Literacy teachers told us they had to hide their texts in hope of avoiding attacks from contras. These are the "freedom fighters" of whom U.S. President Ronald Reagan is so proud. -------------------------------------------------------------- -- Alberto Mendelzon