Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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contribution to the war against Nicaragua. 122
A letter by Chamorro to Congress was distributed by House Speaker
O’Neill before the vote to provide renewed military aid in June 1985; in
it, Chamorro described the FDN as an antidemocratic CIA front and
opposed granting it “humanitarian” aid. The former spokesman for the
FDN stated that it “is in the hands of the ex-National Guard who control
the contra army, stifle internal dissent, and intimidate or murder those
who dare to oppose them,” and that it “has been subject to excessive
manipulation” by the CIA. The letter had no effect. 123
We also learn a good deal about the status of the “freedom fighters”
by considering the fate of Edén Pastora, who was ditched by the
Northern boss because he refused to subordinate himself sufficiently to
US goals. Pastora was the only leading figure among the contras who
could claim any popular support, apart from the business classes. His
forces quickly collapsed and virtually disappeared when CIA control and
assistance were terminated. “Since refusing to follow US demands,” the
press reports, “Pastora has been cut off from all CIA funds and from
most funding by wealthy conservative individuals. The military situation
of the troops he controls has deteriorated correspondingly.” “The general
skeptical response [to Pastora] from former comrades . . . and from the
Central American public . . . was perhaps best illustrated by a remark of
his older brother, Felix, who belongs to a different contra faction in
Costa Rica . . .: ‘If you people want to find my brother, go look for him
in the bathroom of his house. . . . He wants to cover up his failures with
lies’.” With financing from the US government and the private
corporations to whom the CIA had directed him at an end, Pastora was
compelled to search for funds from Cuban exiles in Miami, the fascist
murderer d’Aubuisson in El Salvador, and others like them. 124
One might usefully compare the fate of Pastora’s forces with that of
the Salvadoran guerrillas, facing vastly greater military force and never