Central America: Guns Of December?
UnpublishedSeptember/October
1982
Volume:
16
Number:
5
Article
Shortly before leaving office in July of this year, Colombia's President Julio C6sar Turbay asserted that his country's armed forces "cannot remain either inactive or indifferent; in case Nicaragua tries to crystalize its malevolent ideas, they must be prepared to offer a firm and categorical response."' So saying, he in- augurated a shiny new military air base (Combat Command No.
At night, in San Salvador, fire- fights can be heard in the distance but they last only a few short rounds. The black-outs are more disconcerting.
Jo-Ann Kolmes
The Grenada of the New Jewel Movement is in cultural upheaval. Grenadians have begun to examine and to counter both the cultural re- mains of colonial days and the re- lentless cultural pressure from the United States.
J.S.
The coup that brought General Rios Montt to power on March 23, 1982, came in response to fraudu- lent elections earlier that month, in which the government of General Lucas Garcia tried to prolong its rule. The coup was backed by most of the Army and by centrist and far- right parties who saw it paving the way for clean elections.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, for asking me to testify this afternoon.
G.B.
This summer, two NACLA staf- fers made separate trips to Central America, under circumstances that provided rare access to those who rule the bloodiest regimes in the region: Guatemala and El Salvador. George Black traveled to Guate- mala as a consultant to the British Broadcasting Corporation's Reli- gious Affairs Unit, preparing a doc- umentary on General Rios Montt's attempt to use evangelical Christi- anity as a vehicle for stabilizing mili- tary rule.
Thanks to Volunteers NACLA staffers found ourselves happily outnumbered around the of- fice by volunteers last summer. Our plea for help in the March-April Report brought an overwhelming response from readers in the New York area.
CUBA Pathfinder Press, Twenty Years of the Cuban Revolution and Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro (Pathfinder Press, 1979). $4, paper, 134 pgs.
E. Dominguez
After nearly a year of deceptive tranquility, following General Omar Torrijos' death in an air crash, Panama became the scene of far- reaching political shifts. Between March and September, the head of the National Guard was removed; the president was forced to resign; social democrats within the government were purged; and a new general emerged as the key contender for the strongman role left vacant by Torrijos.
I. BACKGROUND Value and Difficulty of Intelligence on Central America From 1978, when the Sandinista-led revolution against Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua gained momentum, until El Salvador became a major focus for East-West relations under the newly-elected U.