NICARAGUA

S| Nicaragua signed in full a treaty

drafted by the Contadora peace group,
Sept. 21, which includes the countries of
= | Columbia, Mexico, Panama and Vene-
: zuela, Two countries have yet to sign the
treaty: Honduras and the U.S. “The sign-
ing of the treaty is another clear demon-
stration of Nicaragua doing everything
in its power to ensure a peaceful solution
to the crisis in Central America,” Pastor
Valle-Garay, Nicaraguan Consul-General
in Canada told the Tribune.

The signing of the treaty comes in the
face. of increasing attacks on Nicaragua
by U.S.-backed contras and CIA sup-
ported mercenaries. Daniel Ortega has
announced that the signing of the treaty
gives the U.S. an obligation “to bring an
immediate halt to the aggression against
Nicaragua.

The U.S. response indicated that the
Reagan administration was initially

eee ee nny

FEI OR aT

1 US. under pressure as Nicaragua signs pact

thrown off guard by the Nicaraguan
government’s action.

Part of the pressure on Nicaragua in
past months has involved demands from
Washington that the Sandinistas agree to
the Contadora principles.

But in a move that followed the patt-
ern set repeatedly by the U.S. in disar-
mament talks, the U.S. has advanced
new demands now that Nicaragua has
signed.

USS. Secretary of State George Schultz
said the draft treaty should now be
altered to change the procedures for
Nicaragua’s Nov. 4 elections, to place
restrictions on the Nicaraguan military
and to demand verification.

In developments frightening reminis-
cent of Grenada, the Reagan administra-
tion has announced that an airport being
built near Managua by the Nicaraguan
government is a threat to “U.S. security”

and part of a “Soviet plot to control the
Panama canal.” The Nicaraguan govern-
ment has responded by inviting journal-
ists to visit the airport, take photographs
and interview the workers. While Nica-
ragua has only one airport capable of
receiving international traffic, the U.S.
has constructed 14 airports in Honduras,
all with military capabilities.

Despite Nicaragua’s signing of the
treaty, the Reagan administration is
moving ever closer to direct military
intervention in Central America. Last
week the U.S. moved warships equipped
with combat aircraft into Nicaraguan
waters.

“It is now up to the U.S.,” Pastor
Valle-Garay said, “to demonstrate its
willingness to see that a peaceful solution
to the crisis takes place.”

t — ee ee

Tools for Peace, which has already sent
more than $1 million in material aid to
Nicaragua, was well on its way to filling
another boat Wednesday as guitars, type-
writers, tools and other equipment poured
into the First United Church to kick off the
new campaign.

And from the podium, former CIA ana-
lyst David McMichael urged Canadians to
pressure the new Tory government to disso-
ciate itself from what he called “the disas-
trous Reagan policy in Central America. . .the
atrocious means used to carry that policy
out and the fallacious justification for it.

“You do not want to-associate your
country in any way with that policy,” he
declared to applause, i ae
“More than 250 people packed the church
to hear McMichael and to launch officially
the Tools for Peace campaign which has
already gathered thousands of dollars in
medical and other equipment in a ware-
house donated by the city of Vancouver.

McMichael, a professor of history, was
hired by the Central Intelligence Agency in
April, 1981, in an attempt to document U.S.
claims that arms were flowing from the
Sandinistas in Nicaragua to the Farabundo
Marti Liberation Army (FMLN) in El Sal-
vador. For two years, he worked out of CIA
headquarters in Langley, Virginia, analys-
ing intelligence data coming from Central
America: .

But his findings not only belied the Rea-
gan administration’s claims, they also set his
own career in a different direction.

“While I was there, I became struck by
| the paucity, in fact, the almost total absence
mn of any arms flow from Nicaragua to El
Salvador — and by the complete absence
of any proof that arms were going to the
0 EMLN,” he said.
at He added that he is now using that
d information “to attack the credibility of
ct U.S. foreign policy and, I hope in some
ls small way to change that policy.”
of — Although his contract with the CIA was

| not renewed, McMichael is still bound by its
pe secrecy restrictions and even his address
® Wednesday had to be cleared by the agency.
pe Despite that, he was unequivocal in con-
ced demning the Reagan administration for its

' “mendacious, arrogant and bullying” pol-

icy. And that policy is justified on the basis
of a non-existent arms flow, he said.

_ “For three years, Reagan has justified his
P: policy of supporting the contras operating
pl out of Honduras on the basis that arms are
ov! going to the FLMN and that the contras are
on necessary to interdict those arms,” he said.

“But there is not one demonstrable piece

un’ of evidence to support that claim.”
cai Various documents havd been produced
over those three years in an effort to provide
that evidence — one infamous background
_, paper based much of its claim on a vital
paragraph that had been significantly
3" altered from an advance copy to the final

Exes RAE CCRT SWINE nti Soekce / CAEIIMMC RD peg oe 88. VE EDEN ay SINNER EN eee a ety 8 MON NP

2S

. ‘Dissociate Canada from U.S.

.
2

policy’

DAVID McMICHAEL_
ground paper.

draft — and top administration officials
attempted during a press conference in
May, 1984 to prove the connection. But
even they were forced to concede that they

“did not have the smoking gun or the silver
bullet.”

In fact, their evidence consisted mainly of
Bulgarian small arms ammunition and an
Soviet AK-47 rifle,” he noted.

“I don’t think I would be divulging any
state secrets to tell you that I would not have
to leave Vancouver to procure an AK-47
rifle — and I could have it before morn-
ing,” McMichael commented.

He told his audience: “It should be clear
that the contras are not there to interdict
arms shipments.

“The administration’s purpose is to over-
throw the Sandinista government.”

Within that overall objective, the U.S. is
also seeking to provoke Nicaraguan forces
into cross-border raids so it can charge
aggression; to pressure the Sandinistas into
invoking internal repression; and to desta-
bilize the Nicaraguan economy and to force

the government to divert more resources to
defence, he said.

But finally, if Reagan is frustrated in his
efforts to achieve his objective by indirect

means, he warned, “he may drag the U.S.
into a war in Central America.”

McMichael emphasized that he was

optimistic that an invasion of Nicaragua ~

could be averted and even that a majority in
Congress could be won to a position of
blocking any further funding of the contras.

“Why should the U.S. continue to funda
war the public justification for which has
been proven to be false?”

Although he contended that an invasion
“is not a high probability,” it is a possibility

-with copy of Reagan admini

istration’s contrived back-

and because of that the Nicaraguans must
remain prepared, he said.

Adding to that danger has been the vir-
tual elimination from any authoritative
administration post of anyone who does
not support the Reagan policy.

“We have in the U.S., in the foreign pol-
icy area, people who for 25 years have
thought only in terms of controlling Latin
America,” he said.

“When they get.up in the morning they

-think: ‘How can we get that bastard Cas-
tro? And they go to bed with the same
thought.

“Tt skews their whole view of the world.”

The period of the next several months is
critical, McMichael noted, warning that the
U.S. would probably “rachet up its mean-
ness against Nicaragua — and that could
lead to an invasion. .

“The possibility is real — and that’s why
I'm here.” :

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