IF THEY HAD A HAMMER
Peter, Paul and Mary are singing the praises of Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, despite its shutdown late last month of La Prensa, the last opposition newspaper in the country.
The veteran folk group has been in Managua performing public concerts. Among the attendees: President Daniel Ortega and about 100 Sandinista soldiers (they got in free).
“As the daughter of two journalists, censorship is something I abhor,” said the trio’s Mary Travers. “It signals a great disturbance and it is not good for any society. But I believe that the government of Nicaragua has a war on its hands. I believe that the aggressor of that war (the Contras) is funded by the United States. I also believe La Prensa has a history of publishing things that are likely to destabilize the government. It has supported the American aid to destroy the government.”
During one performance, the singers stunned internationalistas --as persons from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries are called here--as well as Sandinista dignitaries with a stanza from the song “El Salvador.” It compares U.S. involvement in El Salvador to the Soviet Union’s involvement in Poland.
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