Trade Embargo on Nicaragua

Reagan’s trade embargo against Nicaragua serves as another example of our vain (in both senses of the word) attempt to make Central America over in our own image and keep it under our control.

Accompanied by threatening U.S. military maneuvers in next-door Honduras, U.S. building of seven air bases along the Nicaragua-Honduras border, previous U.S. covert aid to the contras and the CIA-supervised mining of Nicaraguan ports, Reagan cannot forever fool Americans as to who the real aggressor in Central America is.

The justification for the embargo? “Aggressive activities in Central America, supported by the Soviet Union and its allies, are incompatible with normal commercial relations.” The only aggressive activity Nicaragua can afford--and it can’t really afford that--is its costly defense against CIA-trained leftovers of the despotic Somoza’s National Guard.

Without U.S. aid, to whom can Nicaragua turn for help but the Soviet Union after inheriting an economy bankrupted by the late Anastasio Somoza and his followers? Are we not missing the opportunity to influence Nicaragua when we deny trade, aid and friendship? But we don’t want influence. We want control.

CHRIS GLASER

West Hollywood