Guerrillas in Latin America

This letter carries a message that I hope might stir a reaction. I see a greater challenge for the President of the United States and the many organizations trying at the moment to help the brave people who are fighting for democracy and freedom in Nicaragua.

On June 20, a very interesting article appeared in The Times, “Colombia’s M-19 Guerrillas Becoming a Major Force in Urban Slums,” where correspondent Juan de Onis informed us about the organizing role that the M-19 movement is fulfilling.

From my own experience in a different Latin American country, I can say that there are other movements similar to the M-19 accomplishing similar tasks. They usually identify themselves with leftist ideals, which they transmit to the people living in the slums. But it is important to understand leftist movements and their different degrees of extremism to evaluate their intentions.

In any case, almost always the pro-left propaganda is accompanied by anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist propaganda. For years, at least three generations, most of the foreign investments in Latin America have come from the United States and other Western allies, so these are the imperialists and capitalists for Latin American people.

It is also important to recognize that these movements are seeking some kind of social justice badly needed for national stability in those countries. At the moment a synonym of social justice for the slum inhabitant might be just a good meal, a day without having to lose human dignity.

Of course the United States should not be blamed for local problems in Latin America. Those problems are a consequence of an outdated pseudo-feudalist system, corruption and plain bad administration by the local governments.

The challenge for President Reagan, and the rest of the United States, is to intervene now but in a different way. Do not send American weapons to those countries. Send American ideology and know-how to spread throughout the Latin American slums. Compete with the Marxist ideology on the same grounds. Try to construct in a fair way, paying attention to local needs. Do not destroy. Give people a choice for the sake of the American way, and if you want to throw a few million dollars in, it will not hurt anybody. Work with the people more than with the governments. Teach the people to organize themselves. Teach them about competition and supply and demand. They all cannot come to America, so why not try to take America to them?

GINO A. ZOLEZZI

Chatsworth