Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 27)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 27)
- المحتوى
-
Ahronot, stated, «The Israelis may be seen as American pro-
xies in Honduras and Guatemala».'®* Estimates of Israeli arms
sales to Central America vary widely. One source reports 1981
sales to Central America of $1.2 billion.'8° Others report only
$20 million in 1982 with increases to $50 million expected. '®
The New York Times reported Reagan administration officials
saying, «Israel was assisting the United States in Central
America...to oppose the Soviet Union, to combat reported PLO
support for Nicaragua, and to expand the market for Israeli
arms».'®8”? In January 1983, a special meeting of the
Nonaligned Nations in Managua denounced the increasing
support provided by Israel to the American policy of interven-
tion in Central America. '®8
Nicaragua
During dictator Anastasio Somoza’s last year in power in
Nicaragua, U.S. President Carter cut off overt aid to his regime.
Six months before Somoza’s fall, the Israeli government prom-
ised the U.S. government to cease arms sales to Nicaragua. '®°
But Israel took up the slack and supplied 98 percent of
Somoza’s arms.'%° The Carter administration decided not to try
to stop Israeli arms going to Somoza '*' until two weeks before
he fell.19? A man who described himself as a commander in the
Israeli army lived in the bunker of Somoza’s army commander
and was employed by the local agent for an Israeli arms export
firm.'93 The Israelis even bought $75 million in Nicaraguan cot-
ton which Somoza was unable to sell. Later they claimed they
were repaying an old debt;'* Somoza’s father had sent them
arms in 1948.19
In his last two years, Somoza’s national guard killed
50,000 people, bombing the slums of Managua primarily with
Israeli-made Arava and Westwind planes.'%° At the symbolic
moment of Sandinista victory, a guerilla held his captured Galil
assault rifle high. The Sandinista government assumed all
Somoza’s debts to foreign banks except $5.1 million due Israel
and Argentina for arms.'9”
Jaime Wheelock, the Sandinista government's minister of
agrarian reform, accused the United States of wanting «Israel
to intervene in Central America as the right arm of the United
States». Opposition sources in Honduras, including Christian
Democrat Moises Velazquez Nazzar, share this view point and
see a «tight link» between the Reagan and Sharon visits to
Honduras in December 1982, visits serving to tighten the
clamps on Nicaragua."
Now that the Nicaraguan people are again under armed
attack, the Israelis are back supplying the attackers with arms
seized from the PLO and Lebanese resistance in Lebanon.
The United States has offered to pay the shipping costs.
Reagan administration officials were reported as saying, in the
New York Times, that «the administration wanted to establish
new lines of support to Nicaraguan rebels in case Congress
approved legislation that would cut off covert support for the
insurgents». '%
El Salvador
In the 1960s, high officials from thirteen countries in Latin
America, including El Salvador and Guatemala, were given
specialized instruction in paramilitary programs intended for
youth. These «civic action» programs were funded by the U.S.
Agency for International Development and were intended to
counterbalance Cuban influence. From 1970 to 1979, El
Salvador purchased 6 percent of Israel's worldwide arms sales
which put it in third place after South Africa and Argentina. The
air force includes 18 Dassault fighters, 17 Arava transports,2'
and 6 Fouga Magister Trainers, all purchased from Israel.2°
Some Salvadoran soldiers are armed with Uzi submachine
guns and Galil assault rifles. The PLO’s ambassador in
Nicaragua, Marwan Tahbub, reported about one hundred
Israeli advisers stationed at a secret base near San Salvador
and instructing Salvadoran officers in counterinsurgency tac-
tics.2°3 In 1979, the New York Times had reported an earlier
charge by Shafik Handal, General Secretary of the El Salvador
Communist Party, that Salvadorans had been sent to Israel for
training with Israeli military advisers also arriving in El Sal-
vador.*™ In 1981 President Reagan wanted to send 21 million
dollars to El Salvador but the funds in his foreign aid budget
had been used up. Israel loaned the United States the money
from its own aid funds. In 1982 the 21 million was tacked onto
another U.S. aid to Israel.2°°
In.the 1970s Israeli advisors trained the secret police (AN-
SESAL). Roberto D’Aubbisson, now president of the Con-
stituent Assembly, served as ‘a minor ANSESAL officer. His
friend Colonel Ochoa, also from ANSESAL, staged a rebellion
against former Defense Minister Garcia in early 1983. Ochoa
credits his training in Israel for his prominent advancement in
the ranks.*°° Arnaido Ramos, U.S. representative of the Demo-
cratic Revolutionary Front (FDR), reports that an Israeli-instal-
led computer system has been installed in San Salvador, an
allegation confirmed by Rene Guerra y Guerra, deputy interior
minister in the first junta in 1979.2"? Between 1972 and 1980,
when the United States was not shipping arms to El Salvador,
83 percent of El Salvador’s arms came from Israel.?° In August
1983 the Salvadorean government announced it intends to
move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem around Sep-
tember 15. At the same time the Israeli embassy in San Sal-
vador, closed since 1979 for security reasons, will be
reopened.”°9
Guatemala
Guatemalan-lsraeli relations date back to 1948; one of the
three United Nations commissioners who have helped set up
the Israeli state was Guatemalan.?'° Guatemala received all its
arms (including Aravas)*"' from Israel between 1977 and 1981,
again at a time when the U.S. stopped all arms transfers.?'2 In
1980, the Guatemalan army was fully reequipped with Galil
rifles costing $6 million.?"9
27 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 5
- تاريخ
- سبتمبر ١٩٨٤
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed