Pages

United States and the Latin America


 United States  and the Latin America
1.      Kudeta Allende oleh Pinochet /  The  Coup of Allende by gen.benga Pinochet
Kejatuhan Salvador Allende, presiden Chile 1970-1973 oleh Kudeta jendral Augusto Pinochet Ugarte pada 11 September 1973. Salvador Allende salah satu penderi Partido Socialista de Chile. Dia membantu campaign dari Presiden Pedro Aguirre Cerda yang kemudian menunjuk dirinya sebagai Menteri Kesehatan. Kampanye presidennya Tahun 1952 hanya mengumpulkan 6%, 1958 29%, 1964 39%, dan 1970 36.2% dari koalisi Unidad Popular Coallition. Programnya yang sangat mencolok dibidang reformasi sosial, nasionalisasi tambang tembaga, dan industri strategis lainnya. Akhirnya di kudeta oleh Pinochet benga dengan dukungan CIA. Mirip2lah Soekarno oleh Soeharto.

(Salvador Allende Gossens, President of Chile in 1970–73, In 1933 he was a founder member of the Partido Socialista de Chile. he helped organize the presidential campaign of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, who appointed him Minister of Health. in 1952 he obtained only 6%. In 1958 he won 29%  and in 1964 39%, but it was only in 1970, when he obtained 36.2%, that he was elected as President as the candidate of the Unidad Popular coalition. he immediately launched a far-reaching programme of social reform, including nationalization of the copper mines and other strategically important industries, and a programme of land reform, which, however, soon got out of control as the country became increasing polarized). on 11 September 1973 he was overthrown in a military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. After the air force had bombed La Moneda,the presidential palace, and had set it on fire.)

2.      Alianza para el Progresso: Alliance for Progress
Program paket bantuan ekonomi AS pada tahun 1961 oleh Administratsi John F.Kennedy  untuk Amerika Latin untuk mengcounter pengaruh Fidel Castro.
 Programme of economic aid for Latin America launched in 1961 by the (John F.)Kennedy Administration in the USA, intended to counter the influence of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. The Declaration of the Peoples of America and the Charter of Punta del Este, which established the alliance, were formally adopted by the Economic and Social Council of the Organization of American States on 17 August 1961. The US Government was committed to funding about one-half of the US $20,000m. over 10 years that was to be devoted to long-range development plans submitted by member states, with emphasis on land reform and land-tax changes. Political changes, however, meant that few governments availed themselves of this funding, and after 1963 the impact of the programme gradually fell away. ckckckk

3.      Ally with Argentina
Argentina merupakan negara dengan sejarah perjalanan konstitusi yang begitu dinamis dan kondisi ekonomi dengan track cukup tidak baik. Silih bergantinya Jenderal menjadi Presiden. Pada tahun 1853 di coba bentuk pemerintahan Federal tetapi menuai banyak konflik persaingan di province2. 4 dekade kemudian keadaan transformasi ekonomi  dipengaruhi oleh Investasi British dan Imigrasi dari Eropa. 1916 dipimpin Hipolito Yrigoyen. 1929 depresi terjadi. 1930 ipimpin oleh pensiunan jendral Jose E.Uriburu. 1946 dipimpin ole Juan Domingo Peron dengan wanita yang terkenal itu (istrinya) Eva Duarte de Peron (Evita Peron) . 1974 dipimpin Gen.Jorge Videla dengan kasus perang sipil “la Guerra sucia” (diperkiran 30.000 jiwa mati). 1981 dipimpin oleh sayap kanan Gen.Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri (presiden Junta). 1982 berusaha mengambil Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) dari British. 1983 pemerintahan sipil di bawah Raul Alfonsin.

Pada awal 1989 IBRD (World Bank) menghentikan bantuannya karena inflasi-defisit. 1989 Carlos Saul Menem. Mengangkat Domingo Cavallo sebagai menteri Ekonomi dengan program mendekatkan diri ke AS. Program “dollarization”, “privatization”. Ketika Menem berkunjung ke AS pada bulan November dia diselebrasikan sebagai “leading free market reformer and US Ally”. Pada Maret 1992 dapat pengurangan utang dari the Brady Initiative. Tetapi kedekatan ekonomi ini membuat krisis ekonomi tidak mereda, tahun 1995 dan 1997 merupakan tahun dengan resesi yang besar ditambah lagi dengan korupsi. 1997 dipimpin oleh Fernando de la rua. Pada December 2001 perekonomian memburuk (tampaknya nda pernah baik,hehehee) dan terjadilah chaos di kota2 yg diperkirakan menewaskan 25jiwa. Rua mengundurkan diri 20 Desember. Pada 2003 harapan Argentina muncul di bawah pemimpin populis Nestor Carlos Kirchner Ostoic sampai sekarang oleh pelanjutnya Christina Kirchner.


4.      Asociación Nacional Republicana—Partido Colorado (ANR—PC), National Republican Association—Colorado Party, Paraguay
Ini Golkarnya Paraguay gan. Si Lugo di impeachment oleh si ini. Berhaluan sayap kanan (red party) di bentuk 1887. Pada 1946 USA put pressure on the regime to oust fascist sympathizers. The military coup of 5 May 1954 marked the beginning of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner’s

5.      Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) / United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia
Program counter terrorist dari sebuah konfiderasi right-wing parliamentary. Konter terrorist ini mengafirmasi program USA pada 2001. AUC ini disinyalir contributor signifikan bagi meneingkatnya tingkat kematian/pembunuhan dengan “self-styled AUC”. Yang menjadi sasaran gempur ialah ke FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia ) in January 1999, right-wing death squads rampaged through villages across the country killing some 150 civilians. Pada 2002 Carlos Catano regrouped AUC dan mendekatkan diri secara nyata ke USA.

6.      Balaguer, Joaquín. (Presiden Dominika 1960-62, 1966-78, 1986-96). after the US intervention in 1965, he re-emerged as a candidate of the right and was elected as President in 1966. He was re-elected in 1970, after a term marked by steady economic growth and limited social reforms, and re-elected again in 1974. The elections in 1970 and 1974 were boycotted by the left, but with their participation in 1978 Balaguer was
defeated. He returned to power in 1986 and though by this time almost completely blind, was re-elected in 1992. Salah satu pemerintahan penuh korup dan penipuan.


7.      Bananas Conflict through WTO aka Pisang (konflik pisang perusahaan AS dengan petani pisang Amerika Latin lewat WTO)
In 2002 Ecuador was the second largest banana-growing country in the world (after India) and the largest in the Western hemisphere, producing 6m. metric tons. Brazil was a close second, followed, at some distance, by Costa Rica and Mexico. Bananas are the main cash crop in St Lucia, Martinique, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras and Costa Rica, and are usually the second largest source of export revenue in Colombia after coffee.

Most (70%) of the bananas from the Windward Islands are exported to the United Kingdom and those from Guadeloupe and Martinique to France. However, in September 1995 the USA (which, unlike the European Union (EU), is not itself a banana-producer) lodged with the newly formed World Trade Organization (WTO) a formal complaint against the EU quota system for bananas from the Windward Islands, in support of the US companies which trade in bananas from Latin America. In 1999 the WTO, for only the second time in its history, authorized the USA to levy punitive sanctions on the EU and it was not until 2001 that a compromise was reached, allowing Latin American producers a larger share of the European market. (biar pisang di sikat juga gan)


8.      Cuba
in 1960, the US Government cut the Cuban sugar quota, the Soviet Union stepped in to take it instead. On 6 July 1960 the Castro Government decreed the expropriation of the US-owned sugar mills. In October Cuban enterprises were also nationalized. Then, in April 1961, the Kennedy Administration in the USA sponsored a landing by US-trained exile forces at the Playa de Largos (Bay of Pigs), on the south coast of Cuba. Castro seized the strategic moment and declared his revolution ‘socialist’ on 16 April. On 1 December 1961 he stated publicly: ‘I am a Marxist-Leninist and I shall continue to be one until the last day of my life.’ In April 1961 the Soviet Union formally recognized Cuba as being engaged ‘in the construction of socialism’ and shortly afterwards agreed to send intermediate-range ballistic missiles to Cuba, thus triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.


9.      Coup attempts in Venezuela
In April 2002 the US Government greeted with enthusiasm a coup to displace Chavez. This, however, was ultimately unsuccessful. Subsequently, a coalition of business and trade union interests concentrated on trying to force a referendum to oust Chavez


10.   Coca
The coca plant, erthroxylum coca, is a hardy shrub which grows naturally and is legally cultivated in the Andes. Since the 1980s the US government has preferred to try to prevent the illegal cultivation of coca in South America rather than to stop it entering the US A. At a meeting with US President George Bush at Cartagena, Colombia, in 1989, therefore, several Latin American Presidents were forced to agree to the presence of US anti-drug squads on their territory and to the use of aerial crop-spraying and other methods to destroy illegal coca sites and processing laboratories. This policy, which still continues, has been conspicuously unsuccessful and has earned the USA a disproportionate amount of ill will, especially in poverty-stricken Bolivia. Coca ini klo ditambah huruf –ine ( cocaine :D ).


11.   Cocalero / Association of Coca-growers
Under the US-led campaign to end illegal coca cultivation in Bolivia (the ‘Dignity Plan’), coca production for the manufacture of cocaine was drastically reduced during the 1990s. There was, however, strong opposition to the policy from a combination of indigenous groups and small farmers, resulting in rural unrest and demonstrations, the issue meshing with a range of other grievances, and protests continued after the new government of Jorge Quiroga took office.

On 15 January 2002 farmers at Sacaba, Department of Cochabamba, attempted to reopen a coca leaf market closed by presidential decree; subsequently, at the end of January, seven people were killed in a clash nearby. On 9 February, after mediation by religious leaders, the Government agreed to allow the markets to stay open for legal dealings in coca leaf. Meanwhile, legislators had voted on 24 January to strip the president of the Cocalero (coca-growers’ association), Evo Morales, of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution for alleged incitement.

However, in response to increasing military activity in Chaparé, there were clashes between troops and cocaleros, which led the Government to transfer coca eradication efforts to the National Police. Morales, running as the candidate of the Movimiento al Socialismo, subsequently took 20.94% of the vote in the presidential election held on 30 June 2002, winning strong support from the indigenous peasant class. In his campaign he pledged to expel US Drug
Enforcement Administration officers from Bolivia and US government officials warned that aid to Bolivia would be cut off if he were elected. hehee ngancam tp terpilih :D.


12.   Colombia
Sebagai sekutu utama USA di Latin America. Colombia is a member of the United Nations, the
Organization of American States, the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA—Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración), the Andean Community of Nations and the Rio Pact. In its foreign policy it has traditionally followed the lead of the USA and it has only one unresolved boundary dispute, with Venezuela, offshore in Lake Maracaibo. In 2002 the USA was the greatest purchaser of exports, followed by Venezuela. The USA was by far the greatest supplier of imports in that year, followed by Venezuela.



13.   Conaie
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador / Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de Ecuador

Conaie merupakan salah satu grup gerakan sosial di Ecuador. Conaie founded in 1986 to give a voice to indigenous Ecuadorians, who form one-third of the population. As a pressure group in 1989 it obtained an agreement with the Ministry of Education on the establishment of bilingual, bicultural education. It adopted direct action in 1992 as part of the general increase in indigenist awareness throughout the continent of the impact of globalization.

Conaie began a campaign of civil disobedience. Following elections in 1994, a new right-wing majority attempted to reverse 30 years of slow land reform through a Land Development Law passed on 13 June. This led to massive protests from Conaie. Conaie later joined with other Indian organizations, trade unions and grassroots activists of the Patriotic Front in protesting against the economic policies of President Jamil Mahuad Witt, elected in July 1998. In response, on 11 March 1999 the President proclaimed a state of emergency, a partial freeze on bank withdrawals and a tough austerity programme which, following the withdrawal of support from the Partido Social Cristiano on 15 March, passed Congress with only a meagre majority and in revised form. During 1999 Ecuador, which owed US $16,000m., defaulted on interest payments to its international  creditors, who indicated that they would not provide further bail-outs
without structural reform, and there was hyper-inflation.


On 18 January 2000 Conaie mobilized its largest demonstration against Mahuad and his neo-liberal economic policies, which included a highly controversial project to adopt the US dollar as the country’s currency. on 21 January supporters of Conaie seized the Congress and Supreme Court buildings. While President Mahuad abandoned the Palacio Carondelet and took refuge in a nearby air force base, a ‘junta of national salvation’ was proclaimed, consisting of the Conaie leader, Antonio Vargas, and the former president of the Supreme Court, Carlos Solórzano, as well as Col Gutiérrez.  Following strong representations from the USA and other American states, however, on 26 January Congress declared that Mahuad had abandoned his post and Vice-President Gustavo Noboa Bejarano was duly sworn in as President, thus preserving constitutional forms.


The new Government decided to go ahead with both the privatization and dollarization proposals, and, after further widespread unrest, on 4 September 2000 Conaie announced an indefinite general strike. Though plans for the privatization of Petroecuador were suspended, the dollar replaced the sucre as the national currency on 8 September.However, serious popular protests erupted again at the beginning of January 2001 starting among indigenous peasant farmers who were soon joined by public-sector workers and students. The protests, once more led by Conaie.


Eliminating subsidies would have meant that the cost of liquid propane gas (LPG) would double, at the end of a year in which inflation had reached 91%. The increases had been made in order to reduce the budget deficit in accordance with the requirements of the International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment package. Finally the Government did negotiate an end to the ‘great national mobilization’, lifting the state of emergency on 2 February 2001 and restoring the subsidy on LPG. In November 2002 Conaie’s decision to support the candidature and social programme of former Col Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa was undoubtedly a major factor in his decisive victory in the second round of the presidential elections held towards the end of that month. He thus became the first member of the indigenous community to hold the country’s chief office.


14.   COSEP - Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada
Higher Council of Private Enterprise, Nicaragua

F. 1972, COSEP has been a powerful lobby group for free-market solutions to Nicaragua’s economic problems. It includes organizations representing all the major sectors of Nicaraguan business and is a member of the Coordinadora Democrática Nicaragüense.



15.   Cuba
Negara sosialis ini punya sejarah cukup nyata, berat, melelahkan dengan intervensi ekonomi, politik dan militer, kekonsistensian negara ini walaupun di pukul dengan kebijakan embargo tetapi tetap bertahan. Sekarang merupakan negara dengan pelayanan publik dan sosial yang baik dan leading dalam perkembangan teknologi dan pelayanan Kedokteran di Latin America khususnya bedah dan mata :D.


 In 1902 Cuba became nominally independent, therefore, but under the terms of the Platt Amendment the USA maintained its tutelage over the island, and when the first President, Tomás Estrada Palma (1902–06), sought re-election, the Conservatives rose in revolt and the USA intervened again. Though in 1909 self-government was restored, resentment grew at the continued presence of US Marines, who protected Mario García Menocal (1913–21) when he sought re-election in 1917. However, when Calvin Coolidge chose not to intervene in 1925 he was blamed for the rise to power of the dictatorial Gerardo Machado y  Morales, who dominated Cuban politics from 1925 to 1933, when he was overthrown in a popular revolt. This paved the way for the rise of Fulgencio Batista, who rose from the rank of sergeant to become Commander of the National Guard in 100 days. In 1934 he shunted aside the enthusiastic but ineffective Ramón Grau San Martín and nominated a more pliable President. In 1940, under a new, semi-parliamentary Constitution, with a Prime Minister as head of government, he became President himself and constitutional government was maintained until 1952. Then, although he had promised a free election, Batista seized power for himself.


Fidel Castro, was as a result imprisoned for only a year before being released, when he and his brother fled to Mexico, from where they sailed in the last days of 1956 to organize a second insurrection in Cuba. In 1958 the regime swiftly crumbled, and at the end of the year, as a guerrilla victory coincided with a popular uprising in Havana itself, Batista fled to the USA. in 1965 Che Guevara left Cuba to try to spread the Cuban model of guerrilla warfare abroad, only to be killed in Bolivia in 1967.


With the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as US President in January 1981 relations took a turn for the worse. In April 1982, contrary to the trend in the rest of the hemisphere, the US authorities prohibited both trade and investment in Cuba by US citizens. US intervention in Grenada in 1983 resulted in the death of a number of Cuban construction workers, and the clandestine US war on Nicaragua heightened tension on the island. From 1986 the government began a process of ‘rectification of errors and correction of deviant trends’. The electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua left Cuba isolated within the hemisphere. Ironically, it was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which plunged Cuba into economic crisis, that the USA again tightened the economic embargo on the island by the Cuban Democracy (Torricelli) Act, 1992, and the Cuban Liberty and Solidarity (Helms-Burton) Act, 1996.


With the end of the Cold War US pressure on Cuba was stepped up and the embargo intensified. In 1992 President George Bush closed US ports and airports to third-country vessels suspected of carrying goods or passengers to Cuba and the US Congress passed the Cuban Democracy (Torricelli) Act. This Act reduced economic assistance to countries that traded with Cuba, increased punitive action against individuals who violated the embargo and prohibited US subsidiary companies abroad from trading with Cuba. Upaya untuk menakuti setiap negara yang trading dengan cuba. 



16.   Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN)
National Liberation Army, Colombia

Gerakan ini muncul dengan melihat kondisi objektif negaranya (Colombia) yang sangat berada di kaki tangan USA (elit negara dan kesemuanya).  Established in January 1965, the ELN at first operated in the department of Santander (north-eastern Colombia) under the leadership of Fabio Vasquez Castaño and with the support of a (pro-Chinese) Workers’ Students’ and Peasants’ Movement. Earlier, on 7 January 1966, Fr Camilo Torres Restrepo, a former Dominican priest who had advocated a ‘Christian revolution’ to overthrow the existing social order, disclosed that he had joined the ELN, explaining that, as all lawful means of obtaining redress were barred to the people, he would pursue the armed struggle in the country until the people had gained power; however, on 15 February 1966 he was killed in a clash between guerrillas and an army unit. Torres’ memory continues to provide inspiration for the movement.


On 22 November 1983 ELN members kidnapped the brother of President Betancur, and made several demands, including an increase in the monthly minimum wage, a price freeze on consumer goods, a reduction in public service prices, the release of political prisoners, the arrest of suspected members of Muerte a Secuestradores and the demilitarization of
rural areas. The hostage was later released unharmed.



17.   Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN)
Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Mexico

Salah satu gerakan pembebasan yang  begitu terkenal di Latin America maupun di penjuru dunia lain, melihat kondisi objektif negara mereka yang sangat kuat di steer oleh AS para elit korup penjual negara, keterpurukan nyata ekonomi politik dan sebagainya,  reaksi atas munculnya skema pasar bebas amerika utara (NAFTA) yang kemudian menjadi trigger. Gerakan ini sangat berani karena Mexico berada tepat pada halaman belakang USA. 


On New Year’s Day 1994 the previously unknown EZLN seized control of three towns in  the southern Mexican state of Chiapas: Ocosingo, Altamirano and Las Margaritas. Its agents also attacked a fourth town, the historic tourist site San Cristóbal de las Casas, where they ransacked the Palace of Justice and set fire to it before retreating into the mountains. The former Governor of Chiapas, Gen. (retd) Absalón Castellanos Domínguez, was seized at his cattle ranch and abducted as a hostage. In its manifesto, ‘Today we say enough!’, the EZLN made clear the reason. The regional authorities (of whom Castellanos was the most hated representative) had, they said, stolen their lands from them. ‘We possess nothing, absolutely nothing,’ the EZLN went on, ‘no home, no land, no work, no education.’ 


The Government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, which was celebrating Mexico’s entry, on 1 January, into the North American Free Trade Agreement, was greatly embarrassed by the insurgency. Within a week, the guerrillas had extended their control to the towns of San Miguel and Guadalupe Tepayac, the country was on nationwide alert, one-fifth of Mexico’s army had been deployed to the Chiapas region. 


The choice of the name ‘Zapatista’ for the new movement was significant Though Emiliano Zapata, the celebrated Mexican revolutionary, had no connection with the state of Chiapas, his name had long been used by the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional to legitimize its virtual monopoly of political power. Chiapas was the poorest state in Mexico and the insurgents wanted investment, land reform, and the opportunity to choose their own political leaders. On his release on 16 February 1994 the former Governor agreed that the social injustice which was the root cause of the revolt really existed. One-third of the households had no electricity, while 40% had no running water. The state ranked last on major indicators of literacy (in Spanish). It was also the Mexican state where allegations of human rights violations—in particular the use by landowners of pistoleros to drive the Indians off their traditional lands. 



Though the movement demanded for the native Indian population its traditional rights, however, its charismatic leader, ski-masked ‘Subcomandante Marcos’ (actually Rafael Sebastian Guillén Vicente, a university teacher and son of a well-to-do Tampico furniture dealer), made use of portable computers and the internet to circumvent government blocks on communications. During the summer, while the Government was preoccupied with the presidential election campaign, there was an effective stand-off between insurgents and the army and parts of Chiapas fell into near-anarchy. On 19 December 1994 the guerrillas, who by this time controlled about one-fifth of Chiapas state, demonstrated their ability peacefully to slip through the army cordon by erecting roadblocks, proclaiming ‘liberated zones’ and occupying the town of Simojovel and, it was claimed, 37 other municipalities.



18.   Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)

The US Administrations of President Bill Clinton (1993–2001) revived hopes for pan-American economic integration. Leaders of 34 countries of the Americas convened in Miami, Florida, USA, in December 1994, at Clinton’s invitation, to discuss a draft hemispheric free-trade agreement. They agreed to accept in principle a programme of biennial summit meetings that would lead to a convergence of existing trade blocs and to the establishment of an FTAA by 2005. In 1995 the 12 presidents of the Rio Group (the permanent organization which, in 1987, succeeded the ad hoc Contadora Group), reaffirming their commitment to democracy and the elimination of corruption, asserted their support for the proposal. Elsewhere there was some concern that successful subregional co-operation might be prejudiced. Hence formal negotiations did not begin until the Second Summit of the Americas at Santiago de Chile in March 1998. No agreement on the order of negotiations was reached. Nevertheless, the Third Summit of the Americas, held in Québec, Canada, in April 2001 reaffirmed the target date of 2005.



19.   Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN)
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, El Salvador

Satu lagi gerakan gan anti hegemon. The Front was formed in 1980 in Cuba to consolidate a number of pro-Cuban guerrilla groups. It took its name from Agustín Farabundo Martí, the first leader of the Salvadoran Communist Party. A political wing, the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, was formed at the same time. On 10 January 1981 the FMLN launched a widely heralded ‘final offensive’ intended to secure a decisive victory before the Reagan Administration assumed power in the USA. Within a week, however, it was clear that the nation-wide uprising that had been envisaged had not occurred, though the armed forces, having sustained heavy casualties, had failed to inflict significant losses on the guerrillas.


  
The peace agreement was signed at Chapúltepec Castle, Mexico, on 16 January
1992, and the demobilization of the guerrillas was achieved so swiftly that the conflict was formally declared ended on 15 December, when the FMLN registered as an official political party. Since that time the FMLN has been the principal opposition party in El Salvador, though its  effectiveness has been severely impaired by its division into three main
factions. In the presidential elections of 1994 the FMLN candidate, Rubén Zamora Rivas, obtained 32% of the votes cast, and the party went on to make significant gains in the legislative elections of 1997. In 2000 and 2004, however, it failed to make much impact on ARENA’s vote.



20.   Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC)
 Colombian Revolutionary Armed

in April 1966 set up the FARC under the leadership of Marulanda. By September 1999 the conflict had spread into Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Panama, all of which mobilized forces to contain it. The new factor was the emergence of a right-wing ‘death squad’ organization, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia.

On 30 April 2000 the FARC made a second attempt to relaunch itself as a political party, the Bolivarian Movement for a New Colombia. Talks resumed with the government but were suspended by the FARC on 18 November in protest at the USbacked ‘Plan Colombia’. Later, on 29 December, Diego Turbay, president of the Congressional peace commission, and six of his colleagues died in an ambush in the FARC zone. Negotiations continued throughout 2001, without success



21.   Fuerzas Democráticas Nicaragüenses (FDN)
Nicaraguan Democratic Forces

In November 1981 US President Reagan authorized National Security Decision Directive 17 which allowed for a clandestine force to be formed for the purpose of launching a counter-revolutionary guerrilla campaign in Nicaragua from bases in Honduras. This force soon became known to its opponents as contras (short for counter-revolutionaries) and the name endured, though the anodyne title chosen by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was Nicaraguan Democratic Forces.


In its initial stages the covert war against the Sandinistas did not go well. Focusing on so-called economic targets in the northern half of the country, the insurgents gained little popular support and were unable to establish bases within the country. When the movement seemed on the point of stalling, however, the Reagan Administration intensified its campaign. On 3 January 1984 irregular forces co-ordinated by a US warship attacked oil facilities at Puerto Sandino. On 25 February similar attacks on the Atlantic port of El Bluff and the Pacific harbour of Corinto were accompanied by the laying of mines which damaged four freighters, one of Soviet registration. On 5 April the USA vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the mining of the ports. Meanwhile, at a press conference, President Reagan had complained that the Nicaraguans were ‘exporting revolution’ and stated openly, ‘We are going to try and inconvenience the government of Nicaragua until they quit that kind of action.


The failure of the FDN to make headway against the Provisional Government stemmed from three causes. First, the personnel of the FDN, mostly former members of Somoza’s National Guard, were chosen largely for their opposition to communism. They were not particularly competent and, after the assassination of Somoza in Paraguay in 1980, lacked leadership. Hence, the CIA sponsored a second opposition movement in the south of the country, the Alianza Revolucionaria Democrática (ARDE). ARDE, led by a disaffected ex-Sandinista, Edén Pastora (‘Comandante Cero’), began operations in September 1982. Pastora had the popular appeal that the members of the FDN lacked.


US troops were deployed in Honduras and US helicopters were used to transport contra forces. In late March 1986 an incursion by Nicaraguan troops into Honduras was used by the USA as a pretext to inflame opinion against the Sandinista Government. Continuing Sandinista confidence in ultimate victory made it easy for the US Administration to gain support in the US House of Representatives in June 1986 for a vote to transfer $100m. in economic and military aid to the contras. In Nicaragua this was regarded as a declaration of war and was followed by the closure of the opposition newspaper, La Prensa, and the expulsion of the conservative Bishop Pablo Antonio Vega, who had argued in favour of aid for the contras.


Nevertheless, when the disclosure of the Iran-Contra affair caused a scandal in the USA in November 1986, the most acute danger to Nicaragua had in fact already passed. Thereafter the contra forces were held in their camps in Honduras while US forces conducted a series of exercises on Honduran soil that were intended to impress the   Sandinistas. The final phase of the insurgency, in 1986–1990, consisted of a series of negotiations between Nicaragua, the USA and other interested parties. A final resolution of the conflict came in 1990 as a result of the election victory of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and the formal demobilization of the contras under UN auspices.






to be continued …….











No comments:

Post a Comment