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Originally Posted by cmac2012
I've met people who have also traveled extensively in Latin America who have a different opinion of our "civilizing" influence in Nicaragua. If you run across anything by or about Phil Roetinger, might be worth checking out. He was a CIA agent involved in the '54 overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala and was appalled by the aftermath of that as well as the Contra adventure.*
You're familiar with Arnoldo Aleman, aka "the fat man?" President of Nic. in the late 90s, it was discovered after he was voted out that he had looted his country, second poorest in the hemisphere, of $100 million. The same percentage of GDP in the US would be $144 billion.
Aleman was part of the crowd promoted to power by Schultz et. al. He's related to the Somoza family and apparently believed he was taking back what was rightfully his.
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Yep, been to Guatemala. Yep, they have had a long series of brutal governments since the Mayan civilization. Yep, the Spaniards didn't help matters. So there's this direct line history of autocratic brutality and in some fashion the USA has dealt with it. Sometimes with 'gunboat diplomacy' sometimes with naive love-fests sucking-up to murderers and dictators and both. Maybe we shoul dgo into that country and straighten them all out instead of dealing with them on their own terms. Right?
Mick Jagger was related to Samoza through marriage. Makes you think huh?
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(grammatical editing)