150 years of U.S.
force in Nicaragua

By VICTOR CARROZZINO Backgrounder

and FRED WEIR

The United States has dominated
Nicaragua for almost 150 years, interced-
ing with military force on countless occa-
fj sions. The current intervention by CIA
forces is only the latest battle in a cen-
tury-and-a-half-old war to impose the
American will upon the people of
‘ Nicaragua. While the U.S. has benefitted
enormously from its control over the re-
gion, Nicaragua has been left among the
poorest and most backward countries in
the world.

A brief outline of American military
action against Nicaragua:

Central American army forced Walker to
flee the country. The U.S. Government
reacted to this by blockading Nicaraguan
ports and sending the Marines to occupy «|
the town of San Juan del Norte. In 1858, =|
the affair ended with Nicaragua forced to =
sign the humiliating Cass-Irisarri Agree- 5)
ment, which among other things granted |
U.S. citizens free and unrestricted 2}
movement within Nicaragua and total Z|
exemption from taxation.

1899: During the Spanish-American 2
War, the U.S. made a “‘demonstration’’ =

smi,

1846-1850: A flurry of interest in
Nicaragua as the site of the proposed
trans-oceanic canal (later built in Pana-
ma) sparked the first military interven-
tion. Under threat of invasion,
Nicaragua was forced to cede territorial
rights for the projected canal to the U.S.
in 1846. The next year, U.S. Marines
landed in the port of San Juan del Norte,
to ‘‘secure’’ the eastern mouth of the
canal. Three years later, in 1850, Ameri-
can troops attempted to land on the
northern coast as well but were repelled,
not by Nicaraguans, but by British forces
who had earlier seized the Costa de
Mosquitos for themselves.

1854: The U.S. Navy shelled the town
of San Juan del Norte in retaliation for an
alleged ‘‘terrorist’’ attack against an
American diplomat.

1855-1858: A band of American mer-
cenaries under an adventurer named Wil-
liam Walker landed at the port of
Realejo, and seized control of the
Nicaraguan government...In. 1856,
Walker declared himself president: his
first acts were to re-establish slavery and
proclaim English the official language.
Washington immediately recognized the

of military power to the Nicaraguans
which involved seizing and occupying
the ports of Bluefields and San Juan del
Norte.

1907: During a Nicaragua-Honduras
conflict, U.S. forces again occupied a
number of Nicaraguan towns “‘in order
to protect American interests”’.

1909: In an episode that bears an un-
canny resemblance to the current situa-
tion, the United States gave massive
military and diplomatic assistance to
“‘rebels’’ in Nicaragua who were fighting
against the popular liberal regime of José
Santos Zelaya. When this pressure failed
to bring results, U.S. Marines landed and
drove out the government. Nicaragua
was forced to sign the notorious Dawson
Agreement under which her railroad,
port facilities and postal service passed
to U.S. control in payment of alledged
““debts’’. :

1912-1925: The United States sent
eight warships and 2,600 Marines in 1912
to.crush the popular anti-American upris-
ing led by Benjamin Zeledon. Nicaragua
was forced to sign the Treaty of Bryan-
Chamorro, giving the U.S. territorial
rights over a number of coastal islands as
well as naval bases on the Gulf of Fonse-

Nicaraguan soldier briefs foreign press on U.S.-backed incursions into the country.

Honduras receives substantial U.S. and Canadian “aid” as a jump off point for anti-

Sandinista operations.

ca. American occupation forces re-
mained in the country until 1925 ‘‘to
maintain order’.

1926-1933: More than 5,000 U.S.
troops equipped with several aircraft re-
turned to Nicaragua to put down the
popular rebellion one of whose leaders
was Augusto César Sandino. So fiercely
did the Nicaraguans resist, however, that
in 1933 the new U.S. President, Franklin
Roosevelt, withdrew American troops
and permitted Sandino to enter Managua
in triumph.

1934-1936: Augusto Sandino was am-

bushed and murdered by the head of the.

Nicaraguan National Guard, a man who
had studied several years in the U.S. asa
recipient of a Rockefeller Scholarship —
““Tacho’’ Somoza. With American help,
Somoza launched a putsch in 1936, and
succeeded in making himself president.
The Somoza dynasty continued to run
the country as a virtual fiefdom until it
was routed by the Sandinista revolution
in 1979.

1953: One bad moment for the Somoza

regime came in 1953 when the old dicta-
tor seemed threatened by internal revolt.
The U.S. obliged by landing the Marines
at Porto Corinto, and seizing strategic
points around the country. The rebellion
was forestalled.

The situation of the Nicaraguan people
after 150 years of U.S. domination was
neatly summarized in the 1970s by a U.S.
Government study on Central America:

“‘The majority of (people) are hungry,
illiterate, infested with parasites, mal-
nourished, poorly housed, underem-
ployed and have little opportunity for
self-improvement . . . The majority of the
most fertile land is owned by a privileged
minority. This sector has emphasized
cash crops for export. By contrast, sub-
sistence food crops grown primarily by
the land-poor or landless, have been in-
adequate to feed the burgeoning
population.”’

No wonder the Nicaraguan people
fought back for a century-and-a-half, and
are fighting like tigers now to defend their
Revolution.

Walker regime. In 1857, a combined

Trade union role in peace fight

SOFIA — Representatives of 108 trade union organ-
izations from 71 countries gathered here Oct. 25-27 for
an international meeting and dialogue on ‘Peace and
Trade Unions.”’ ne

The meeting, in the capital of socialist Bulgaria, issued

an appeal to the trade unions and working people of the
World to unite and act for peace and disarmament. It also
declared the participants’ support for a future conven-
tion of a World Trade Union Conference on Disarma-
ment. :
_ The conference urged international trade union unity
in action: against the deployment of new nuclear missiles
in Europe and mutual balanced reduction of existing
nuclear arsenals; for a nuclear weapons freeze and the
8radual reduction and liquidation of existing nuclear
Stocks around the world; establishment of nuclear-
Weapons free zones; general and complete disarmament,
a ban on militarization of outer space; for peaceful solu-
tion of armed conflicts with the help of the United Na-
tions; and, for ending the arms race by channelling
Money and resources from military to socially useful and
Necessary civilian production, as well as aiding the social
and economic development of the third world.

“There are no loftier and more responsible goals for
trade unions today’, the appeal proclaimed. ‘‘We could
achieve these goals only if we are united, if there is unity
of action. Our weapon is the united trade union front of
_ Peace. A united front placed above political difrerences,

Ove prejudice, above distrust and the disagreements of
Secondary issues.”’ :

Peter Dyulgerov, chairman of the Central Council of

ian Trade Unions, which hosted the conference
Noted the contradiction between the common view held

by the World Federation of Trade Unions and the Inter-
national Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU),
that peace is the top-priority task for the labor move-
ment, and the inability of the two organizations to
achieve unity in action around these common goals.

‘Regrettably, communication, dialogue, common
platforms have not yet become a regular method of work
in the world labor movement’’, Dyulgerov told the con-
ference. ‘‘Even when we get together, we seem to be
more inclined to blame one another rather than look for
the things that unite us.”’

The Bulgarian labor leader called for a dialogue among
the national and international trade union bodies,
‘‘which will reveal the elements that unite us and not the
divisive ones; a dialogue which will give us a clear
perspective of our common task, of the best ways to
achieve it.”’

Working people the world over, he said, through their
peace actions ‘‘have put aside the differences which we
considered insurmountable.’’ There can be no question
of building a broad united front for peace without an
international trade union peace front, he stressed.

Bulgarian president Todor Zhivkov said that in the
current epoch “‘the attitude to peace and war is the most
immediate manifestation of the struggle between labor
and capital in the international arena.”’

U.S. deployment of Cruise missiles in Europe will
inevitably lead to an even more dangerous stepping up of
international tensions and the threat of war, he warned.
‘They are medium range but figuratively speaking their
political range is far greater, for they are instrumental in

pursuing global political aims.”’

The new U.S. missiles are also aimed directly at the

——

—

interests of Western Europeans, Zhivkov pointed out,
noting that politically their deployment represents an
offensive by the forces of reaction and militarism re-
stricting Western European independence in solving
their economic and political problems; militarily it turns
the peoples of Western Europe into nuclear hostages;
and socially it drags down the workers’ living standards
by channeling more funds into larger military budgets at
the expense of human needs and social services.

Canadian participants to the Sofia conference were
Jim Buller, secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Fed-
eration of Printing Trade Unions, and Steelworkers
union member Charles Nixon.

Buller noted the dramatic growth of the Canadian |
peace movement and of organized labor’s increased par-
ticipation, citing Canadian Labor Congress support for
the Canada-wide peace petition caravan against the
Cruise and for declaring Canada a nuclear-weapons free
zone.

The fight for peace in Canada and the rest-of the
western world, Buller said, would be greatly
strengthened if the ICFTU leadership would engage in
joint efforts with other international trade union bodies
around the world.

Fittingly the conference coincided with a massive
Paags by thousands of Balkan and Danubian
countries along the Danube River) women passing
through Sofia on a 12-day peace march demanding a
nuclear weapons free Europe and Balkans. The wom-
en’s peace march began in Nicosia, Cyprus passed
te Greece and Bulgaria and wound up in Vienna,

ts 245

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— NOVEMBER 16, 1983—Page 5