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STATUE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS,
right, in front of El Salvador church is
besmirched by revolutionary graffiti. Slogan says " Long Live the Progressive Cler·
gy. "Priests have been in forefront ofdemands for radical change in Latin America.
country to be used as a staging
area for Sandinista forces as well
as being a major trafficker of
arms for their cause.
T he biggest communist target
of all, of cou rse, is Panama. This
country is not communist, yet it
actively aided the Sandi nista
cause.
At stake is continued Free
World access to the Panama
Canal- t he "j ugu lar vei n" of
world commerce- now no longer
in exclusive U.S. control.
Advocates of the new canal
treaties claimed that the 66-year-
Apríl 1981
old man-made wonder was obso–
lete and was destined for greatly
reduced use. Instead , so many
ships are now using it that delays
of severa! days at each entrance to
it are common.
The relinqu ishing of U.S. sov–
ereign control of the Panama
Canal wi ll ultimately prove to be
the most serious U.S. blunder of
all in the spreading chaos in Cen–
tral America! (Write for Mr .
Armstrong's free book
The
United Stares and Britain in
Prophecy
to see why the
Eng lish-speaking world has been
losing out in critica) regions of
the world, including prophesied
strategic "seagates.")
Contradlctory Reasoning
Ambassador Kirkpatrick states
that it is time for the United
States to begin "thinking more
realistically about the politics of
Latín America, about the alterna–
tives to existing governments."
The previous administ ration,
she stresses, " underestimated the
fragili ty of arder in these societies
and overestimated the ease with
which a u thority , once under–
mined, can be restored... .
[It)
could not grasp the problem of
governments which became the
object of revolutionary vio–
lence."
Strangely, the Uni ted S tates
has asked other societies in the
hemisphere to accommodate
groups sworn to violence and
overthrow, that the United States
itself would not accept. Remem–
ber, Washington " repressed" so–
called "liberation armies" during
the chaotic l960s.
The Communist Goal
1
n conclusion, one fact must be
made crystal clear: resolving in–
equities that exist in many Latín
American cultures is not the rea–
son for Moscow's involvement in
so-called "popular movements. "
The primary communíst goal in
the hemisphere is not to produce
more just socíetíes, but to under–
cut U.S. influence in the re–
gion.
Central America is a strategi–
cally crucial piece of real estate;
made ever more critica] by the
loss of sovereign U.S. control over
the Panama Canal.
Central America in communist
hands would also cut North
America, including Mexico, from
South Amer ica, and lead to the
downfall-"liberation" in com–
munist terms--of conservative as
well as pluralist democratic gov–
ernments in the lower continent.
Thus, much is at stake. What
will be America's response to the
communist cha ll enge in the
months ahead? o
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