Thanks for Nothing

Not content with funding a covert war against Nicaragua, the Reagan Administration wants to use the human suffering caused by Hurricane Joan to further its aims. Rarely has the cruel nature of its bankrupt Nicaragua policy been so clearly illustrated.

Several private charitable organizations say that the Administration has refused to assist their efforts to deliver food, medicine and other relief supplies to eastern Nicaragua, where last month’s hurricane left more than 100 persons dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. Worse, some U.S. officials have been hinting darkly that certain items that relief agencies want to send to Nicaragua, like housing materials and electrical generators, may be declared illegal under the Administration’s economic embargo against that country.

Private relief officials say that it is the first time they can recall the U.S. government refusing to provide at least minimal help in getting supplies to a foreign disaster area. U.S. officials can usually be counted on to help ferry relief supplies aboard government planes, if nothing else. In this case the U.S. government is sending supplies to neighboring Costa Rica, where hurricane damage is not as severe, but withholding any form of aid from Nicaragua.

Apart from the sheer cynicism of the decision, the move may also be counterproductive. For the Nicaraguan city hardest hit by the hurricane, Bluefields, is the center of a region known for its anti-Sandinista sentiment. Hurricane victims there even told a Times correspondent that they would welcome U.S. aid.

When disasters strike, political litmus tests should be set aside. If the Administration doesn’t want to extend a helping hand to human beings in need, so be it. But it should at least allow the generous people who want to help to do so without interference.