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Castro and Carter: Undoing Democracy in Central America
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10036 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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4 / 1986 |
2,871 Words |
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Sheila Louise Rees
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As the year began, there was an optimistic feeling among many sectors of Central American society that the democratic process in their region was alive and well. There were even indications of some enthusiasm for a collective move by the Central American governments to alter the course of the Nicaraguan dictatorship. But as the year has progressed, the democratic forces have been losing ground to the machinations of Cuba and the communist forces.
As the final round of presidential elections was completed and elected presidents took office in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, they joined with President Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador to provide a more liberal and democratic cast to the area's governments. But the greatest regional problem remained the lack of economic development due to the export of revolution by the Cubans and their Sandinista allies.
In recent meetings, Communist party members and the Castroite Left from the Caribbean and Latin America drafted a plan for an escalation of revolutionary activity in the region. From the proceedings, it is apparent that the U.S. government's policy of talking tough while walking soft has convinced Havana and Moscow that they can win a prolonged "war of attrition" against the democratic governments because the United States will not provide the hardware, training, and investment to crush the insurgents militarily and build a thriving economy.
Ubiquitous Castro-speak
The Third Party Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) droned to a close this past February, as it had begun, with the inevitable speeches by Fidel Castro. More important than Castro's acting out his accustomed roles as Cuba's president, first secretary of the PCC, masterplanner of revolution, and bearded scourge of "Yankee Imperialism," were the side meetings of "combatant" Communist parties and terrorist groups.
Furthermore, the program adopted by the Communist Party of Cuba proposed the assassination of American political and military leaders and sabotage in the United States should the Cubans decide the United States was considering "imperialist aggression" in any of its forms or variations. These the Cubans enumerated as air attacks, naval blockades, a war of attrition, or even an invasion.
Claiming these tactics are necessary for the "defense of the socialist fatherland," the Cuban communists emphasized that they will call on all their resources to "make the enemies' lives impossible and to prevent them at all costs from establishing their imperialist order."
One of the key points of Cuba's military strategy is the need to perfect measures that will "avoid the element of surprise," and deliver "strong blows" against the United States from the "earliest indications" of any of those actions, "causing them the greater losses." Countries the size and strength of Cuba do not issue threats to unleash their SPETSNAZ (the Russian language acronym for "special operations troops") against a neighboring superpower without the full backing of their patrons in Moscow.
Making the world safe for communism
The second
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