DONA VIOLETA

Here is a woman who is trying to change the face of a desperate, corrupt, poor, problematic banana republic, and Boudreaux describes her as nothing but a mother figure, someone he thinks should be sent back to the kitchen, I suppose.

In another article in The Times, she was commended and praised for having continued to publish La Prensa after her husband’s assassination. She was drawn as a strong, bright woman with the bravery and conviction to try to present some truth and freedom to a public caught in a battle of corruption and propaganda. She was called noble and courageous to do so even though half of her children, her own flesh and blood, sided with the opposition.

And now Boudreaux is citing secondhand instances in which Chamorro could not come up with the “right” answer (like Daniel Ortega) and in which she has deferred to her aides. Does any president make decisions on his/her own without consulting experts and officials elected for that very purpose? Our own Presidents Reagan and Bush have won acclaim in the realm of wit and avoidance when they have resorted to snappy nonanswers for the press.

I am certain that a woman with her background, experience and integrity is more than a brainless figurehead.

AMIE BERNSTEIN

Pacific Palisades