Social Enterprise
Making a DifferenceFall 2006
Letters to the Editor
Reader Forum
To the Editor:
Your recent focus on elections in the hemisphere and prospects for the region was well timed and thoughtful. The articles successfully added to our understanding of a dynamic and important time in the Americas, and struck the right tone of optimism levened by a realistic assessment of the daily difficulties of democratic governance from Mexico to Argentina. Nonetheless, I was disappointed with the article on Nicaragua, which was less a discussion of the elections in Nicaragua and more a broadside against the United States since the private exploits of William Walker in 1853. Unfortunately, in the author's haste to condemn US policy while promoting strange conspiracy theories (e.g. leading nations will begin to dump the dollar as a reserve currency if Nicaragua fails to submit to US rule-huh?), she serves up a tired analysis that is years out of date. To suggest, for example, that the Bush administration, following "a long line of US administrations," is "obsessed with controlling Nicaragua" is simply ludicrous given Iraq, Afghanistan, upcoming November mid-term elections, and 1,000 competing priorities in Washington, to say nothing of higher priorities in Latin America itself. Most disturbing, though, is the author's gratuitous and wholly inappropriate suggestion that former Ambassador to Honduras John Negroponte brought torture tactics with him from Honduras to Iraq and "secret prisons around the world." What credible evidence is there to support this breathtaking assertion? A more balanced and effective article would have discussed the election itself, with a forward looking analysis including a discussion of how Nicaragua's electoral outcome will impact its weak global competitiveness. Regretably, the inclusion of this article with these and numerous other flaws mars an otherwise solid edition of Revista.
Sincerely,
Eric Farnsworth
Mr. Farnsworth was a State Department Nicaragua Desk Officer in 1993 and served as the policy director to the White House Special Envoy for the Americas from 1995-98.
July 13th, 2006
To the Editor:
Mr Coatsworth, in his Director's Letter in the Spring/Summer issue of 2006, says that "a quarter century ago [in Latin America] only Costa Rica and Venezuela were still holding regular, peaceful democratic elections". That statement ignores the fact that Colombia, one of the most stable democracies in the region, has hold regular, peaceful democratic elections ever since a short-lived military dictatorship in the mid fifties was peacefully overcome.
Colombia has suffered from an endemic political and drug-related violence, that makes it all the more important to have been able to maintain a well established and strong democratic tradition throughout very difficult moments in its troubled history.
Sincerely,
Jorge Acevedo
Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
Box: Letters to the editor are welcome in English, Spanish or Portuguese! Please send your comments, suggestions and complaints to: June Carolyn Erlick, 1730 Cambridge St., Rm. 206, Cambridge, MA 02138. http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu