- MEXICO CITY - Central
American
politicians and human rights activists issued stinging criticism Thursday
of John Negroponte, nominated to become America's first intelligence
director,
citing the career diplomat's active backing for the Contra rebels and
support
for a government involved in human rights abuses.
-
- John Negroponte, now U.S. ambassador to Iraq, served
as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, a time of intense conflict
in Central America in which the United States played a central role. The
Reagan administration feared that leftist rebels were leading Central
American
countries toward totalitarian regimes.
-
- Negroponte assisted the U.S.-backed Contra rebels in
their attempt to overthrow Nicaragua's left-wing Sandinista government.
In the process, activists claim, he ignored human rights abuses by the
rebels and their Honduran hosts.
-
- The effort to oust Daniel Ortega's Moscow-leaning
Sandinista
regime produced a huge scandal in the United States when it was learned
the United States secretly sold arms to Iran and used the money to fund
the Contra operation.
-
- "What an outrage!" said Bertha Oliva, the
coordinator
of the Committee for Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras, an
independent
group representing civilians believed to have vanished while in government
custody. "The United States has invented a position to reward someone
who was a dangerous person."
-
- In Nicaragua, Tomas Borge, former interior minister for
the Sandinista regime and a current leader of the Sandinista opposition
party, said Negroponte "is the most efficient and ideal representative
for the Bush administration's primitive international security
policy."
-
- "He is faithful to Bush's excessive and ultra-right
policy in Iraq and other parts of the world," he said.
-
- Borge is the only surviving founder of the Sandinista
movement, and was in charge of domestic political control as the
Sandinistas
battled U.S.-backed opponents.
-
- The new U.S. intelligence chief has denied accusations
that his reports to Washington dramatically underplayed human rights
problems
in Honduras.
-
- During 2001 confirmation hearings for his U.N.
ambassadorship
- an appointment that was delayed for six months because of the controversy
over his tenure in Honduras - Negroponte testified that he did not believe
death squads were operating in Honduras.
-
- However, a 1993 Honduran government human rights report
said 184 suspected leftists had disappeared in government custody, many
of them at the hands of a U.S. trained Honduran army battalion.
-
- "It was obvious that he knew what was
happening,"
said Leo Valladeres, a law professor in Honduras who wrote the report.
"They used outlaw methods to kill ... and it is absolutely impossible
to believe that a diplomatic mission such as that of the United States
was unaware of the situation faced by Honduras and Central
America."
-
- In neighboring Guatemala, a U.S.-supported government
that was engaged in battle with left-wing rebels trained paramilitary
squads
that were found later to have committed large-scale civilian
massacres.
-
- In El Salvador, U.S.-trained army squads hunted down
leftist rebels in offensives fraught with human rights abuses.
-
- Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security
Archives in Washington, said declassified documents on the Iran-Contra
scandal also showed that Negroponte was involved in seeking more guns for
the Contras - "the role that normally would be reserved for the (CIA
station chief."
-
- Kornbluh also said the documents he cited showed that
Negroponte helped clear the way for a secret agreement under which the
United States would provide more CIA money to Honduran army generals and
additional military and economic aid to the country. In exchange, he said,
Honduras agreed to allow the Contras to continue operating on Honduran
soil.
-
- Ironically, Kornbluh said, the controversy surrounding
Negroponte's past helps qualify him for the job.
-
- "Someone who is a career diplomat ... on paper
doesn't
seem to have the intelligence background needed," he said. "The
fact that he certainly departed from his diplomatic role and was involved
in paramilitary operations against Nicaragua ... means he has had a
relationship
with covert operations in the past."
-
- Reporters Freddy Cuevas and Filadelfo Aleman contributed
to this story from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Managua, Nicaragua.
|
