Avoiding A “Munich In Our Time” In Central America

(Washington, D.C.): The Center for Security Policy today denounced the agreement signed in Tela, Honduras last week that calls for the immediate disbanding of the Nicaraguan Resistance forces. In a paper entitled, Resisting A "Munich in Our Time": Why President Bush Must Reject the New Central American "Peace" Plan, the Center notes a striking historical parallel: The Tela accord is unsettlingly reminiscent of the agreement fifty years ago that abandoned a free people to totalitarian aggression and postponed, rather than prevented, the outbreak of war.

"Once again, those who would resist totalitarian oppression by force of arms are being betrayed by others are all too willing to accept any pretext for accommodating it in the name of ‘peace,’" said Frank J. Gaffney, director of the Center. "Unless President Bush repudiates the Tela agreement and offers an alternative course more likely to foster democracy in Nicaragua and peace in the region, the stage is set for disaster in Central America."

The Center’s paper recommends the following as the key elements of a more prudent and effective U.S. policy approach:

• Continue U.S. assistance to the Nicaraguan Resistance until free elections have been held in Nicaragua and full democratic rights are established, and jettison the constitutionally-suspect deal on funding the Contras made with the Congress last February;
  • Insist that the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance receive no less favorable treatment than that accorded the Marxist FMLN of El Salvador; and

   

  • Stipulate that termination of the USSR’s military support for the Ortega regime and for other subversive elements in the region is a litmus test of Soviet intentions and the prospects for improved relations between the superpowers.

 

 

"The president must adopt such a course of action if he is not to become a party to the betrayal of those who have fought and died to bring democracy to Nicaragua. In so doing, he will also affirm that American foreign policy during his administration will be the product of the dictates of an appeasing, left-wing congressional faction, a group whose threats to cut off U.S. aid to Honduras and El Salvador were determinative of the outcome in Tela," Gaffney added.