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

Free World Vignettes
These matters are considered of scant interest by US journalists in
Nicaragua or Honduras, who do not seek out or publish such testimony,
though it is permissible to concede that some unpleasant things may
have happened in the past while reporting that the contras now “vow to
end rights abuses . . . after reports that the insurgents in Nicaragua have
been executing Government soldiers, officials and village militiamen”—
not exactly the content of the testimony that has largely been
suppressed in the field. The same news item informs us that the contra
official placed in charge of human rights with much fanfare “said that he
had found only six ‘small cases’ of violations” so far and “suggested that
some apparent violations had been the work of Government soldiers
dressed as guerrillas.” Contra political spokesman Arturo Cruz said that
“it was ‘a delicate thing’ to persuade rebel fighters to respect the lives of
prisoners and pro-Sandinista civilians without demoralizing the
fighters,” 21 offering an interesting insight into the “democratic resistance”
that he seeks to legitimate and that is lauded by respected figures in the
United States (see note 19 above).
The foreign press has been less circumspect. There we can read of
“the contras’ litany of destruction”: the destruction of health and
community centers, cooperatives, kindergartens and schools with such
methods as these, described by one of the survivors: 22
Rosa had her breasts cut off. Then they cut into her chest and
took out her heart. The men had their arms broken, their testicles
cut off, and their eyes poked out. They were killed by slitting their
throats, and pulling the tongue out through the slit.
And we can learn of a 14-year-old girl who was gang-raped and then
decapitated, her head placed on a stake at the entrance to her village as
a warning to government supporters; of nurses who were raped, then
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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