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

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rights abuses by contra forces in Nicaragua”; as Cruz knows, the
“damnable atrocities” are not merely “alleged” and will continue in the
course of a war waged by a mercenary army lacking any program other
than restoration of the traditional order. While fronting for the terrorists
attacking Nicaragua from Honduran bases, Cruz proclaims in the New
York Times that the Sandinistas “will also, in time, provoke conflicts
with their neighbors in order to justify ever more repressive measures at
home”; in his view, Constable reports, “the central issue is the ‘mistrust’
they have aroused among Central American leaders.” 28
We return to Cruz’s “democratic credentials” and his claim that he
was excluded from the 1984 election—while secretly on the CIA payroll.
Edgar Chamorro writes that since 1982, the war “has left more than
12,000 Nicaraguans dead, 50,000 wounded and 300,000 homeless.”
The figure of 12,000 dead was also given by Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega, including civilians and fighters on both sides. In an
affidavit to the World Court given little notice in the press, Chamorro
said that contras “would arrive at an undefended village, assemble all
the residents in the town square and then proceed to kill—in full view of
the others—all persons working for the Nicaraguan government,
including police, local militia members, party members, health workers,
teachers and farmers” on government cooperatives, actions which made
it “easy to persuade those left alive to join” the contra forces. In the
same affidavit, he testified that the FDN had been advised by the CIA to
“murder, kidnap, rob and torture,” and stated that he had been given
funds by the CIA to bribe some 15 Honduran journalists to write procontra
articles calling for the overthrow of the Sandinista government. 29
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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