Article

Raul Borja
Ever since August 10, 1979, when young Jaime Rold6s was voted into power after nine years of dictatorship, Ecuador's democratic experiment has posed a difficult challenge. The country's first year of constitutional govern- ment is now past.
The recession had evolved into a full-blown de- pression by 1977. With the sole exception of Chile under Pinochet, no other country in Latin America's recent history suffered such economic devastation in such a short period of time.
Fund-raising NACLA hosted its first fund- raising party in November, for NY- area sustainers. Two hundred peo- ple came to hear guest speakers Ramsey Clark and Edmundo Desnoes (author of Memories of Underdevelopment).
Milton Jamail
In early October, a potentially, explosive week-long protest in Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast city of Bluefields was defused by the government. The demonstrators, who at one point numbered 2,500 (government sources cite a figure of 1,000 while the opposition claims there were more than 5,000), were met by a restrained but firm military presence, and a government which subsequently proved open to legitimate com- plaints.
Mario Benedetti
regarding political prisoners in Uruguay: "I don't know what we owe them, But what I don't know, I know is plenty..
Dear NACLA Editors, I have been reading and admir- ing your work for quite some time. I guess it may seem negative that I write only to offer criticism, but I was so upset by a passage in the Sept.
PERU Alan Angell, Peruvian Labour and the Military Govern- ment Since 1968 (London: University of London, In- stitute of Latin American Studies, 1980). Free, paper, 38 pgs.
Six days after the military sent Belafinde packing, they nationalized the $208 million IPC, stunning the business community and Washington. The company's oil fields were rather depleted, but the military used their seizure to harness broad civilian support for the structural reforms launched during the next five years.
Faced with overwhelming popular opposi- tion, Peru's military rulers handed over the reins ofgovernment to a civilian administration onJuly 28, 1980, after a dozen years in power. In a rather unexpected turn of events, the new president, Fernando Belafinde Terry ofthe cen- trist Popular Action party, was the very same manforced out of office by the military in 1968.