NACLA Interview Creates Political Furor in Colombia While we like to think that our work has impact, we were hardly prepared for the uproar that our interview with former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala had in his home country, even before we went to press here in New York. Having read our Sept-Oct. 1982 issue containing some of Turbay's comments, a reporter for a Colom- bian radio network asked NACLA Associate Ramon Jimeno, who had 44 conducted the interview, for a tran- script. The resulting radio broad- cast to Colombia live from New York City on January 3, touched off a controversy that raged in the Col- ombian press for a week. During the three-hour interview, Turbay had made some rather sharp criticisms of current Presi- dent Belisario Betancur's foreign and economic policy and of the democratic opening Betancur is try- ing to effect. He also questioned the Betancur Administration's ability to preserve the country's democratic institutions. Reportedly planning a come back to national politics, Tur- bay found it politically expedient, after the radio report broke, to deny that the interview had ever taken place, calling it "imaginary," "false representation," or possibly pieced together from earlier conversations. The mainstream Colombian press, which had originally reported Turbay's comments as news, then began to question the authenticity of the interview itself. By now the radio station felt the need to prove its credibility, and broadcast, again from New York, Jimeno's tapes of the conversa- tion. Jimeno and Turbay were both connected by phone in New York City, but in separate locations. In this three-way interview, a flus- tered Turbay was forced to admit that the voice on Jimeno's tape aIA CRsportupdate * update * update update was indeed his, but said he did not remember what his opinions had been then and that perhaps he had changed his mind. Jimeno verified that he had conducted the inter- view in Bogota, at Turbay's own home, and that the ex-president had known it was being taped for inclusion in the NACLA Report. Happily, NACLA got a little free and unexpected publicity out of the incident. Cabot prize winning col- umnist Daniel Samper Pizano, of El Tiempo, referred to the NACLA Report as a" prestigious specialized magazine." We, and Jimeno, came out of it with our reputations intact. Can the same be said for ex-presi- dent Turbay? NACLA Staffer's Analysis Appears in New Left Review "If Nicaragua triumphed, El Salvador will win" goes a popular chant. "And Guatemala will follow," comes the reply. The pace of events in Central America and increasing strength of the opposition can easily lead to a kind of domino theory of the Left. We now talk of "the revolution" in Central America. While each country's political process is uni- que, something significant is hap- pening regionally. As each people forges its own path to change, it is always with one eye on neighbors on the isthmus. Ferreting out these regional trends and implications is the sub- ject of a recent piece by a member of the NACLA Central America re- search team. George Black's "Central America: Crisis in the Backyard" is the cover story in the September-October issue of the British publication, New Left Review (No. 135). Believing that "Central America is a crisis of imperialism potentially as threatening as the Middle East," Jan/Feb 1983 Black discusses the current situa- tion and offers informed specula- tion on future prospects. The article lays out the various layers of the crisis, exploring the interrelationship of political and economic factors and the way in which U.S. geopolitics have accel- erated and regionalized the crisis. Black discusses the loss of politi- cal control by the ruling elites and their incapacity to resolve intra- class schisms or deal with econo- mic recession. Their intransigent model has blocked reform initia- tives and destroyed the political center. Looking at revolutionary alter- natives, the piece points up the im- portance of Guatemala's aborted revolutionary process. Today's revolutionaries, he argues, are profoundly responsive to the com- plexities of national class forma- tions and ideologies. In defining their strategy, they build on lessons taught by U.S. counter- insurgency and by the successes and failures of foquista theorists. New geopolitics have extended the U.S. sun belt-politically, eco- nomically and ideologically-into Central America. Though Wash- ington must seek legitimacy for its policy internationally, there is no "doubt that it intends to prevail in the region, says Black. Never again will a popular movement en- joy the international correlation of forces that allowed the Sandinista victory. Finally, the article con- siders the Sandinista transition to socialism. A product of NACLA's ongoing work on Central America, "Crisis in the Backyard" introduces themes that will play a role in our research in the next few years. More specifically, we hope to pub- lish our research findings in book form in early 1984, concentrating on the Central American Left. 1984 Policy Alternatives Central America and the Carib- bean Basin were the subjects of a three-day conference in Atlanta, Georgia from December 9-11. Bill- ed as an opportunity for dialogue between progressive regional leaders and representatives of groups concerned about U. S. policy there, the conference was called by Ramsey Clark and Mayor Andrew Young. The two also hoped to coalesce support within the progressive community toward seeking policy alternatives for 1984 and after. Among the attendees from the region were Michael Manley, former Jamaican prime minister, Fabio Castillo of El Salvador's Democratic Revolutionary Front, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, editor of Nicaragua's Barricada, as well as leaders of the Guatemalan revolutionary forces. Held in the Martin Luther King Center, partici- pants heard presentations by Harry Belafonte, Coretta Scott King, Roger Wilkins, Clark and Young. Robert Armstrong and Janet Shenk attended the con- ference as NACLA's represen- tatives. Armstrong Heads West February will find NACLA staf- fers on the lecture circuit again. On February 19, Bob Armstong begins a week's tour in Akron, Ohio where he will speak on the current situation in El Salvador. From there he heads to Fort Col- lins, Colorado to begin five days of speaking on the Central American crisis in the Fort Collins, Denver and Boulder areas. His hosts in Akron are the Central American Support Association and in Col- orado, the Committee for Peace and Justice in Latin America of Fort Collins.
