U.S. Relations With Nicaragua

As Nelson mentions in his column the best way, I think, for the U.S. to help Nicaragua recover from the ravages of Hurricane Joan and the eight years of war would be to lift the embargo and end the war.

I am just back from that country after negotiating some good-will baseball games with the Nicaraguan minister of sport, Emmett Lang, and our Los Angeles-based organization, Bats not Bombs (we hosted the Nicaraguan national team to a California series with college teams in 1986). We found that visiting Americans who want to help build relations are respected guests in that Central American country.

But tiny Nicaragua can desperately use American help today in medicine, agriculture, and housing, to name a few areas. For example, the famous town of Bluefields on the central coast “is now only a reference point,” according to one Nicaraguan official. The construction of new homes is the critical area where the U.S. could make a difference.

With the new year let’s declare an end to hostilities, just as our government has apparently done to turn the Soviets into “friends.” Nicaragua will gain a great deal with our help. If a new attitude develops towards Nicaragua like that towards the Soviets, we stand to gain a lot ourselves.

ANDREW LIBERMAN

Los Angeles