Contra Aid and Arias Peace Plan
The naivete of your editorial makes me wonder whether the writer reads the news. Assuring the demise of the Contras by withholding all U.S. aid only assures more bloodshed in the other Central American countries.
Daniel Ortega claimed for years that the Nicaraguans were not supporting other revolutionary groups in El Salvador and Honduras. Then, earlier this year, he admitted Nicaragua had been supporting those groups but was no longer doing so. Now Humberto Ortega, thanks to the defection of one of his brother’s closest aides, blatantly says that Nicaragua is still sending military “advisers” and war material into those countries. Nicaraguan-supported guerrillas are devastating parts of El Salvador despite the efforts of President Jose Napoleon Duarte to improve the lot of his countrymen. Peace in Nicaragua means escalated war in El Salvador, Honduras and, undoubtedly, their neighbors at a later date.
Nicaragua already has the largest army in Central America, and its plans to increase the army’s size to 600,00 and obtain Soviet MIGs doesn’t seem so peaceful to me.
NOELLE DONFELD
Pacific Palisades
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