Customer Reviews

The Real Contra War: Highlander Peasant Resistance in Nicaragua

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When career American diplomat Timothy Brown was assigned to oversee the Contra war against the Sandinistas in 1987, he believed, along with everybody else, that the counterrevolution had been started by defeated Somocistas with arms and money from Ronald Reagan.
The war had, by then, been going on for five years, he thought.
In 1990, when the Sandinistas were voted out of office, the Contras were disarmed by an agency of the Organization of American States. OAS was astonished to find itself dealing with more than 10,000 fighters -- they called themselves Comandos, not Contras -- and 80,000 unarmed supporters.
These could not possibly have been ex-Somocistas, as there had never been so many. But it did not seem to occur to anyone else but Brown to ask, who were they?
Brown, now at the Hoover Institution, surprised himself with the answer.
Contrary to the "Black Legend" of the Contras as a small band of mercenaries, Brown discovered that the counterrevolution was started by Chibcha Indians who make up 52 percent of Nicaragua's population, that the revolt started in 1979, that it continued for almost three years before outsiders and ex-Somocistas joined and that it had the unanimous support of the highlanders.
"Alone among the major antagonists in Nicaragua's recent wars, the MILPAS (the name the rebels gave their combat units) of 1979-82 had no foreign military support. . . . The much-feared and widely demonized 'Contras' turned out to be only poor dirt farmers from Nicaragua's equivalent of Appalachia, historically marginalized but insistently independent mountain 'hillbillies.' "
Brown traces this revolt back more than a thousand years, to the collision of Nahua Indians expanding from Mexico to Nicaragua's Pacific lowlands and Chibchas expanding from South America to the highlands.
Though the Chibchas were defined out of existence following a revolt in 1881, when it became national policy in Nicaragua to claim that there were no more "indios," only mestizos and "espanioles," the Chibchas themselves knew who they were.
In oral interviews, Brown discovered that the anti-Sandinistas identified themselves as "indios" or even "indios puros," versus the mestizos and "whites" of the lowlands.
The question arises: Can the analysis of a Reaganista be trusted?
The answer is yes. Brown conducted a sociological-ethnological inquiry using standard academic research protocols, and the documents are on deposit at Hoover for inspection.
Some of the most important points can be cross-checked with outside, even with Sandinista publications.
Of all the proofs Brown offers, the most extraordinary and persuasive is the question of the Literacy Brigades.
We know from many studies of peasants that in societies divided between literate and illiterate, peasants will extend a great measure of goodwill to a regime that teaches their children to read, even if the regime is harsh otherwise.
Observers as various as the historian Alexander Werth writing of Stalinist Russia and University of Hawaii sociologists Geoffrey White and Lamont Lindstrom writing of Micronesians under Japanese rule have commented on this phenomenon.
Thus, the admission of the Sandinista regime, in a broadcast on April 9, 1980, that it had sent soldiers and special militias to the mountains to protect the teachers from their students suggests an extraordinary popular revulsion against the revolution.
This is understandable, as the Sandinistas came in murdering, raping and robbing.
No one, from any political position, thought it necessary to ask the indios what their opinion was. Oxfam America, in a document called "A government we can work with," explained that the Sandinistas were committed to "empowering" poor women.
Poor men who saw their wives and daughters molested by Sandinista soldiers and cadres did not agree, and they took to the jungle.
If the Sandinistas had had any knowledge of the history of their own country, they would have left the independent farmers of the highlands alone and turned their energies to the many problems of the lowlands.
But they were Marxist-Leninists, and their intention was to instruct history, not be instructed by it.
Later, after a genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign in the Atlantic lowlands, other indios (Miskito, Rama, Sumu and so-called "Black Creoles") joined the rebellion.
With five separate armies in revolt, the Sandinistas lost at the polls in 1990.
Even then, according to Brown, the new Conservative President Violeta Chamorro united with the Sandinistas against the indios, who were Liberals.
They were Liberals in the 19th century sense, individualists; they had nothing in common with the statist views of American Democrats.
The Sandinistas, with Chamorro looking the other way, continued a campaign of murder against the indios leaders until the election of 1996, which both the Conservatives and the Sandinistas tried to rig by faking the census and refusing to register the highlanders.
International observers thwarted that plot, and the indios voted 90 percent for Liberal Arnoldo Aleman, who won the presidency, the first peaceful change of power in the country's history.

La odicea del pueblo nicaraguense ha sido de explotacion,terror y muerte,recuerdo cuando estudiaba en nicaragua,recien despues del 16 de julio,agosto 1979,mi padre organizo una busqueda de restos humanos en un lugar de las segobias montanas de nicaragua,su padre ( mi abuelo),junto con aproximadamente 95 personas casi todos familias fueron asesinados por la genocida Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua,enterrados en fosas comunes en las montanas silenciosas de las segovias,"ninos,mujeres enbarasadas,ancianos...su delito,muchos inocentes,otros como mi abuelo,por luchar por la livertad del pueblo de nicaragua...
Los verdaderos y primeros cobatientes o contras,fueron hombres honestos,valientes heroes ..que vieron antes del triunfo de la revolucion sandinista el camino que sus dirigentes maximos estavan tomando,caminos equivocados rumbo al marxismo leninisno comunista,..hombres que no aceptaron las ofertas de trofeos de guerra que los comandantes ortegas y compania ofrecieron a muchos comandantes de zonas despues de la guerra
(haciendas de los Zomosas...etc...),Algunos heros murieron misteriosamente como Carlos Fonseca Amador, EL TIGRE,EL DANTO ...TODOS ellos fueron hombres honestos humildes pero de gran valor MORAL, Hacia su Nacion,Gracias Mr TImothy C brown,todavia puede seguir escriviendo sobre estos hombres y su biografia...atte juan martinez

In Nicaragua, as in the United States, there are still holdout areas of Marxists, still waiting for the Great Revolution to show the world that communism should be the way. In Nicaragua, it is in Leon where there are still murals of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas on many buildings. In the US, it's places like Seattle and college faculties.

But for those who don't find it "reactionary" to hold the belief that communists are the bad guys, this book is a great source. Instead of still fighting the war for the Sandinistas, this book offers a well-researched and documented history.

Having a brother that is married to a Nicaraguan from Corinto, where the CIA mined the harbor, it has been surprising to learn how much the majority of Nicaraguans appreciated Reagan's decision to fight the communists in their country.

For those who don't remember, when the Sandinistas were forced to hold elections, the US media and most of the world had predicted a resounding Sandinista victory. They are still bitter that they were wrong, and that the Nicaraguan populace kicked their fellow leftists out of office.

For those interested in a rational view of the Contra war and the Sandinistas, this book and Glenn Garvin's "Everybody had his own Gringo" are the best bets. For those who still aren't sure which side to believe, do a little research on what the Sandinistas did to the Moskito indians. And to see who it was in the US that supported, and still supports, the Sandinistas as well as Castro's dictatorship, read "Covert Cadre" by S. Steven Powell.

The MILPAS Highlanders who forged the original anti-Sandinista
forces crossed into Honduras in mid-late 1981 to obtain
ammunition. If the Honduran forces had simply provided
the rebels w/the supplies they needed, then there would
not have had to have been the CIA intrigue of creating
a counterrevolutionary force from the scraps of a defeated
army. The National Guard had been defeated in a
campaign similar to the one the MILPAS rebels were
involved in.

The CIA selected the Guard officers to lead the FDN
most likely for the fact that many Guardsmen were
trained or schooled in the US and had contacts with
many US military officers and CIA agents. The
Highlanders did not have any such advantage.

Mr. Brown has done a good job bringing forth the peasant base of the Nicaraguan Contra movement, and comparing it to previous "contra" movements - the Cristeros of Mexico, the Escambritos of Cuba. I would even add my own comparison, the Antonov "green guerrillas" of Tambov, Russia, in 1920-21. Yet these movements did not grow like the Contras, nor last ten years, and the reason is obvious, although discounted in Mr. Brown's book.

And that is because the original hypothesis - of being financed and controlled by the CIA and rich exiles - is still valid. Without the Somocista command structure, the money coming in from Miami and Washington, these Segovian highlanders would have been flattened like their historical predecessors and reduced to mere academic footnotes.

As the only American to serve three tours of duty (86, 87, 88) with ARDE-Frente Sur I am delighted that a second noted author(first was Glenn Garvin) is finally setting the record straight.
Under the war name Peregrino I starved, sickened, sweated, fought, and by the grace of God eventually won with those brave men and women. Never have I met a tougher, more self sacrificing and noble collection of people than the "Contras" and their supporters. Which were 99% of the campesino popluation of Nicaragua. - Peregrino

I'd like to refer to this:
"Brown makes an interesting case, but also neglects certain issues. For instance, while he writes in detail on Sandinista human rights abuses against the highlanders, he has nothing to say on Contra abuses except that they did occur. Without such discussion, this remains a partial, though important, account of the complex phenomenon of the Contras. B&w illus."

In the movie Braveheart, who were the good guys and who were the bad guys? Did Wallace commit abuses against the English? Yes. Was it anything like the systematic oppression and brutality offered by the English? No.

This book is about peasants who were fighting for their freedom. Read it, and you will get a glimps of what really went on in Nicaragua.

For years, the Media in the United States has portrayed the Contras in a very negative light, focusing on half-truths and lies. While the Sandinistas were murdering thousands and thousands of people, and exiling over 1/2 million people out of the country, the Contras became Nicaragua's first line of defense against this abuse. The American media, looking to hurt Mr. Reagan, who supported this freedom fighting group, engaged in a massive campaign to destroy them.

The fact is that a large portion of the Contras were FORMER SANDINISTAS, and the majority opposed the Somoza dictatorship. These people felt betrayed that what was supposed to be a democratic revolution in 1979 turned out to be a bait-and-switch communist take-over.

The vast majority of the contras were fighting to once and for all liberate the country from dictatorship and get out of the battlezone between east and west that was destroying the country. They came from all walks of life. From Mr. Calero, who led the contras without a wish for political office after the conflict, to the thousands of Mizquito indians who led the fight in the Atlantic coast.

What is amazing is that they won, but they have never been acclaimed as winners in the US media. Nicaragua has been a democracy for the last 13 years. As the contra detractors claimed that Mr. Calero wanted to become the next dictator, he graciously vowed completely out of politics, as did comandante zero and other heros of the resistance. Those freedom fighters have let the democratic process work, and have watched as the country takes root in democracy, and fights on to get rid of the legacy of the last two dictatorships: heavy debt, poverty, and corruption.

It's about time someone told the truth!

but a bunch of self-rationalizing and self-deceptive propaganda to ease his guilty conscience for the genocide he and we have done. Here is the guy who sanctified and forgave the brutal murder of American engineer Ben Linder by his own contra forces, identifying the murderers and realeasing them on their way. Read the book on Ben Linder available here on amazon.

I too lived in Nicaragua during the years in question and personally met with many such people examined here. This man is mistaken.

And the recent re-election of President Daniel Ortega of the FSLN should prove that, after years of US puppets like Chamorra and the next still under house arrest for his extensive corruption. Bolonos whom I often met was a wise and perceptive businessman who just plain got old. And now once agian we have Ortega as people, tired once again of colonialism under US powers, seek peace, justice and equality the Sandinista way thwarted and sabotaged twenty years ago by the contortionist contra writer of this book.

Please note where other contra liason have wound up, especialy the career of Negroponte.

For a professional and objective and comprehensive reporting of bungling and genocidal US international policy against Nicaragua in those years, get the book Banana DIplomacy.

The lies of the Reagan administration just keep coming in this book that attempts to justify the terror of the U.S. proxy Contra forces. For people who want a serious analysis of how the U.S. empire has brutalized Nicaragua, here are a couple resources: Washington's War on Nicaragua and Solomon's House: The Lost Children of Nicaragua.