No memorial service in Managua

[Jabbery]

Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Central America are looking back and remembering the lives of their family members and friends who were murdered by death squads armed and paid by Ronald Reagan's administration. In Managua today, there is sadness, but not for the death of Ronald Reagan. The poor nations of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala were subjected to so much American-sponsored evil during Reagan's tenure that they have never recovered. The people of Costa Rica were victimized by the corruption foisted upon them by Reagan's secret government - a corruption intended to exploit Costa Rica's strategic value and pacifist culture, a corruption that W. Bush encourages today.

Ronald Reagan wrought nothing but destruction and poverty and death on an entire region of the world in the name of "anti-communism." His crusade was a lie, and untold numbers of totally innocent people were violently murdered as a direct result of his despicable and evil foreign policy.

Communism never took hold in Central America not because of Ronald Reagan, but almost in spite of him. For almost 100 years, the US ignored Central Americans' cries for freedom, and the US cluelessly funded and propped up brutal right wing dictators. In a hopeless situation like that, Socialists and Communists start looking good compared to the brutal and violent alternative. That's the only reason insurgencies flourished. Reagan was not supportive of the cause of freedom and local capitalism in Central America. He wanted only to support the entrenched and corrupt dictatorships.

Ther good news is that the Costa Rican government has recognized the destructive nature of US Republican foreign policy, and has mostly stopped cooperating with the US military. The bad news is that the three nations Ronald Reagan cruelly attacked are still facing a massive poverty rate.

Today in Managua, San Salvador, Guatemala City, and San Jose, like every day, it is a day of mourning. It is a day to remember the hundreds of thousands of innocent people Ronald Reagan murdered.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/11/MNGHM74MBE1.DTL