Problems Facing Nicaragua

It was hard to keep from crying after reading Marjorie Miller’s sad article (July 7) about the economic problems the people of Nicaragua are suffering.

I remember well how, only a few years ago, the whole world looked at what was happening in Nicaragua as a model for developing nations. Child mortality was lessened. Illiteracy was fading away.

Somewhere in the midst of this progress the United States decided because democracy, as we know it, wasn’t being practiced--and because Cubans and Soviets were in the area--the social strides made by the Sandinistas were invalid.

And rather than joining the Cubans and Soviets in the schools and hospitals and fields of Nicaragua (a perfect opportunity for dialogue and peaceful coexistence) our government chose another avenue. It chose to mine Nicaraguan harbors. It chose to place an embargo on the struggling nation and bad-mouth it in the world press. It chose to finance the contras’ war against the Sandinista.

The contras have, in turn, knocked out power stations and created havoc and fear in the countryside.

Is there any wonder why Nicaragua’s economy is shot, why food is scarce in Managua? Have the Sandinistas any choice other than to commit their resources to defend their revolution?

The revolution in Nicaragua, we must always remember, was well on its way to healing the wounds inflicted by the dictator, Anastasio Somoza, before the United States interfered. That our government is responsible for so much hardship and suffering is what made reading Miller’s article such a sad experience for me.

ERNIE McCRAY

San Diego