Nicaragua and Terrorism
NicaraguaThe following is the definition of terrorism as defined by the FBI: "theunlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce agovernment, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in thefurtherance of political or social objectives" (FBI, 2003). It is the aimof this essay to determine whether the actions of the United States inNicaragua in the early 1980s fit this American definition of terrorism, andto compare those actions with the actions of regimes that the United Statesgovernment has been critical of in recent months to establish if suchcriticism may be seen to be hypocritical.Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821, along with the rest ofCentral America. It was a part of Mexico for a brief time, then part of thethen Central American Federation. Nicaragua finally achieved completeindependence in 1838. Soon after, Britain and the USA both became extremelyinterested in Nicaragua and the strategically important RA-o San Juannavigable passage from Lago de Nicaragua to the Caribbean. In 1848, theBritish seized the port at the mouth of the RA-o San Juan on the Caribbeancoast and renamed it Greytown. This became a maj
Neither is the workof a "training school" at Fort Benning, Georgia, whose graduates would bethe pride of any global terrorist (Pilger, 2003). Apipeline inside Nicaragua was sabotaged and U. Two-thirds of the country's population earned less than $300 a year, whileSomoza's personal wealth was placed by a U. " ("The CIA in Nicaragua", 2003)In September 1983 a contra bombing raid on a civilian airport narrowlymissed killing two U. Under the heading 'SelectiveUse of Violence', the manual advised the contras to "neutralize carefullyselected and planned targets such as court judges, police or state securityofficials, etc. Senators on a fact-finding mission to Nicaragua. Somoza ruled Nicaragua as a dictator for the next 20 years, amassing hugepersonal wealth and landholdings. Contra raids caused extensivedamage to crops, silos, irrigation projects, farm houses and machinery. In 1984, elections were held in Nicaragua, in which Daniel Ortega, theleader of the Sandinistas, won 67% of the vote. The contras blew up bridges, civilian power plants and schools; they burnedfields of crops and attacked hospitals. One use that Obando put themoney was "religious instruction to thwart the Marxist-Leninist policies ofthe Sandinistas. These,together with hundreds of covert operations, have been systematicallycovered up by a system and a veritable tradition of state-sponsoredmisdirection and lies that reach back to the genocidal campaigns againstNative Americans and the attendant frontier myths. They waged a massive education campaign which reduced illiteracyfrom 50% to 13%, and introduced an immunization program which eradicatedpolio and reduced infant mortality to a third of the rate it had beenbefore the revolution.
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