<i> Contra</i> Comrade

I have spent months at a time over the last two years fighting alongside the freedom commandos of ARDE-Southern Front and wish to correct the massive and all-too-typical disinformation put out by Michael Fessier (“An American Contra,” May 31) about a country and war zone he has quite obviously never visited.

First and most important, the Southern Front is and will continue to be the dominant force in the south of Nicaragua. It consists of 4,000 young Nicaraguans who have been fighting for the last six years along with their commanders to expel the Cuban and Soviet military machine that is attempting to colonize Nicaragua through depopulation, mass murder, rape, imprisonment and, in the case of the southern Indians, genocide. Our combat zones were deep inside Nicaragua; the only people who used to hang out on the Costa Rican border were the less motivated or cowardly slugs who weren’t interested in fighting.

Steven Carr was in no way connected with the Southern Front but was part of yet another of the CIA’s efforts to replace ARDE (Spanish initials for “Democratic Revolutionary Alliance”) in the south of Nicaragua. ARDE is fighting for a true freedom. For this they will only work with the Americans as allies, never as vassals.

Steve McAlister

Palo Alto