Nathanial Sheppard`s article ”Contra aid cutoff could leave U.S. with refugee crisis” correctly sets the context for discussion of continued contra aid. The refugee crisis is already upon us: If the refugees in Costa Rica are added to those in Honduras, no fewer than 300,000 ”Feet People” (15 percent of Nicaragua`s population) have fled the brutal repression of the Sandinista regime.
Because the U.S. played a significant role in giving Nicaragua to the communists in 1979, we have a moral obligation to help the freedom fighters win it back. Any solution short of a free and democratic Nicaragua for the refugees to return to would guarantee we will have a Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan and Mexican refugee crisis in the future.
Interestingly, by stating only 300 out of 15,000 contras are ex-national guardsmen, the quoted congressional aide concedes the contras are a genuine, popular liberation army.
