Washington’s Useful Fools AN UNACCUSTOMED SPOTLIGHT FALLS this month on Costa Rica. In recent weeks, talk of the “Switzerland of Central America” has given way to speculation that Costa Rica is being “Honduranized.” In early August, Public Security Minister Angel Edmundo Solano emerged from a heated cabinet meeting to tell the press of rumors of an imminent military coup. But Solano had only what The Washington Post later called “vague, unverified in- telligence” that something was afoot on the far Right. Solano had long been seen by the Costa Rican Right as a crypto-communist who was suspi- ciously soft on the Sandinistas; within three weeks of his outburst to reporters, the Right had Solano’s head. His replacement is a pliable conservative named Benjamin Piza Carranza. Costa Rican domestic politics have been distorted by Washington’s demand for surrogates in its crusade against Nicaragua–a role the Costa Ricans have so far played with deep ambivalence. Solano had made a special enemy of U.S. Ambassador Cur- tin Winsor. Solano’s particular sin in the eyes of Winsor and the Right was his disquiet about the Costa Rica-based exploits of Ed6n Pastora’s ARDE. But that is now largely academic, since the CIA has decided that the ex-Sandinista is an expendable asset. Honduras already faces the problem of how to deal with redundant contras. Now, northern Costa Rica is awash with ARDE deserters, selling off their CIA surplus stock. A recent visitor to the town of Quesada could have picked up arms at bargain-base- ment prices in any local hotel or restaurant: an M-79 grenade launcher for just $500, or an M-16 for a fraction more. S NE POLITICIAN WHO MIGHT PONDER Pastora’s abrupt decline is Arturo Cruz, who has left his self-imposed exile at the Inter-American Development Bank to head the rightist Democratic Coordinating Committee (CDN). For those familiar with his background, Cruz’s decision is puzzling. He chose to part ways with the government in late 1981, but not, he claimed, with the revolution. His initial criticism was restrained, a plea for tolerance of the revolution’s mistakes. “We can hope,” he wrote in one op-ed, “that [the United States] will be open-minded and will not let its misgivings lead into irrational action.” But two and a half years later, Cruz is hailing the “revolutionary vocation” of the Honduras-based FDN contras. He has declined to hook up with his old party, the Democratic Conservatives, who are gearing up for a fight at the polling booths in November. Instead, as Tony Jenkins points out in his feature article in this issue, Cruz’s demands for concessions seem less like negotiating points than deliberate obstacles to justify a CDN election boycott. Cruz seems set on ruling himself out of the very solution that all the pressure is ostensibly desig- ned to bring about. His own motives are a matter for speculation. The more interesting question concerns Washington’s motives. These seem far removed from the publicly declared goal of “democratizing” Nicaragua. In- stead, they appear designed to push the revolution into fulfilling the prophecy of “totalitarianism,” en- listing one dissident after another as useful fools in the campaign. Only Alfonso Robelo was ever shrewd enough to recognize the appointed role of the dissident as political cannon fodder. Back in 1981, he protested that U.S. policies were creating a climate that undermined the very private sector in- terests that Washington claimed to support. Robelo, Pastora, FDN leader Calero-what future do they have? Each man has been discarded as soon as he outlives his usefulness. Why should Cruz be any dif- ferent? A ND FINALLY, THIS RECENT MESSAGE from the FMLN’s Radio Venceremos. “Whereas Atlacatl, Atonal, General Ram6n Bel- loso, General Manuel Jos6 Arce and the Lencas are part of our historical background and of our ances- tors, who fought against foreign intervention and to defend the country: We declare that henceforth the misnamed Atlacatl Battalion will be known as the Paul Gorman Battal- ion; -the Ram6n Belloso Battalion, as the George Shultz Battalion; -the Atonal Battalion, as the Henry Kissinger Battalion; -the Manuel Jos6 Arce Battalion, as the John Di- mitri Negroponte Battalion; -the Bracamonte Battalion, as the Thomas Pic- kering Battalion; -the Cuscatlin Battalion, as the Jeane Kirkpat- rick Battalion; -the Morazin Battalion, as the Caspar Wein- berger Battalion; -and the Ronald Reagan Battalion, which re- ceived this name from Colonel Adalberto Cruz and has not won a single battle against the FMLN, will keep its name: the Ronald Reagan Battalion.”
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