Helms and Nicaragua

Here's a bit more on Jesse Helms' tireless advocacy on behalf of freedom as he tried to undermine Violeta Chamorro's democratically elected government in Nicaragua in the interests of prompting a new round of civil war.

Comments

So you are claiming that Helms was a racist liberal fascist?

Jonah Lucianne's head is exploding as we speak.

Posted by gregor | July 5, 2008 1:14 PM

Since Ms. Chamorro's electoral victory was widely seen on the right as a vindication of Reagan's Central American policy and Ms Chamorro herself was seen by her opponents as an American puppet, this shows just how truly out of the mainstream Helms was.

Posted by JonF | July 5, 2008 3:12 PM

This obituary by Mario Benedetti--Uruguay's most renowned poet--written originally for Reagan, seems appropriate as a memory for what Helms did for Nicaragua and Latin America, for torture, disappearance, death...

Obituary with Cheers
(Translation: Louise Popkin)

Come on, let's celebrate
everyone's invited
the innocent
all the victims
those who cry out at night
and dream by day
and bear the burden of their bodies
and harbor ghosts
and walk barefoot
and blaspheme and burn
the frozen poor
those who love someone
and never forget
come on, let's celebrate
everyone's invited
the villain is dead
the fiend is gone
the rotten thief
he's gone for good
hurray
everyone's invited
come on, it's time to celebrate
not to say
that death wipes the slate clean
purifies everything
on any given day
death erases nothing
we've still got scars
hurray
the scoundrel is dead
it's time to celebrate
not to grieve out of habit
let his counterparts do the weeping
and waste their tears
the monstrous magnate is gone
he's gone for good
it's time to celebrate
not to tone it down
remember, not just anyone has died
it's time to celebrate
not to soften up
don't forget this dead man
was a real S.O.B.

Posted by Angela Carballino | July 5, 2008 5:49 PM

It would be a stretch to call Ms. Chamorro 'democratically elected'. She was elected by a Nicaraguan people that had suffered six years of US-backed terrorism, US mining of the harbors, and a crippling economic blockade. It had become clear to the Nicaraguan people that voting in a US puppet was the only alternative to six more years of embargo and terrorism. That election was roughly as 'fair', and 'democratic', as the late 1940s elections in Poland or East Germany that established Stalinist regimes. An election under duress is no election at all.

Posted by Hector | July 5, 2008 5:52 PM

Enough with the Helms posts, Matt. The fucktard is dead. Forget about him.

The Transhumanist view is that once you're dead, you're irrelevant.

Start dealing with the now and the all the fucktards still breathing.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 5, 2008 9:57 PM

RSH: Not to be dramatic...but never forget.

Helms had a real impact (large and small--poor Bill Weld), and he needs to go down in history as am evil person.

Yes, an evil, malignant force.

Posted by Andruw | July 5, 2008 10:42 PM