I remember Reagan being villified by the left in the 1980s
for fighting communism in Nicaragua,
El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America.
I myself bought the line that everything Reagan was doing in Central America
was wrong.
I supported communist Nicaragua, for example
(even though I did not support the Soviet Union).
It is true that America supported
right-wing anti-communist dictators,
and that war crimes and democide
were committed by anti-communist forces
(see estimates for democide below).
But Reagan was largely proved right by history.
Today, communism in the region
is largely defeated,
and Central and South America is
an oasis of freedom and democracy
in a world full of tyranny.
Europe's
"backyard" - the Middle East and North Africa - is today a mess - a dark region
of tyranny and no human rights that threatens the world.
But America's "backyard" - Central and South America - is today largely a region
of democracy, freedom and
tolerance.
Precisely because of Reagan's strong stand.
It worked.
The left was proved wrong again.
Rummel estimates
that the authoritarian/military anti-communist government of El Salvador
killed 12,000 people in democide in 1979-84.
Supporting this government must count as
one of the crimes of the west.
America did somewhat make up for it by stopping the communist rebels,
ending the authoritarian government,
and introducing democracy to El Salvador,
which is now rated as
"Free"
by Freedom House.
The old dictator Somoza - killed 15,000 people in democide,
probably mostly in putting down the 1978-9 rebellion.
The communist Sandinistas - killed 5,000 people in democide,
when in power 1979-87.
He does not yet have figures for 1987-90.
The anti-communist Contras - killed 500 people in democide.
Remembering Sandinista Genocide
by Jamie Glazov -
summary of human rights under the Sandinistas.
The Sandinistas persecuted Nicaragua's tiny Jewish community,
and carried out what can only be described as genocide against
the native Moskito Indians.
Grenada years later
- article by Roger Franklin.
"It was a rescue mission. Mr. Reagan saved us." -
says one of the grateful locals.
"Somewhere on Grenada there may have been someone on Grenada who didn't like Reagan,
but I couldn't find him."
Reagan and Thatcher helped bring
freedom and prosperity to
Central and South America
The liberation of Grenada, 1983
and
the liberation of the Falklands, 1982
were the two great turning points in the spectacular (and unexpected)
late-20th century
rise of democracy on earth.
After the dark age of the 1970s, the free world (under Reagan and Thatcher)
finally fought back.
This was the beginning of the end for both communist tyranny
and Latin American tyranny.
Freedom
Once a dark region of tyranny, juntas and dictators,
Central and South America
is now a region of freedom and democracy,
with only a sole surviving dictator
(Cuba,
though
Venezuela
may also be heading that way).
See Freedom House's
map of world freedom
to see how healthy
Central and South America now is.
Thatcher helped bring down
the Argentine military dictatorship,
and this
was a major cause
of the South American democratic revolution.
Oddly enough, Thatcher is one of the greatest friends Argentina ever had.
She liberated Argentina.
"During the Reagan administration, all this changed. No more nations fell into the clutches of the Soviet bear.
Capitalism and democracy began to advance around the world. On Reagan's watch, dictatorships collapsed
in Chile, Haiti, and Panama, and nine more countries moved toward democracy:
Bolivia (1982), Honduras (1982), Argentina (1983), Grenada (1983), El Salvador (1984),
Uruguay (1984), Brazil (1985), Guatemala (1985), and the Philippines (1986).
Fewer than one-third of the countries in Latin America were democratic in 1981;
more than 90 percent of the region was democratic by 1989.
In Nicaragua, shortly after Reagan's second term ended, free elections were held,
and the Sandinista government was ousted from power. Apartheid ended in South Africa,
and a black-majority government was elected. All these changes occurred relatively peacefully."
Prosperity
South Of The Border
by Mark Steyn notes that:
"Central America in the first half of the Eighties
had negative GDP growth: minus 1 per cent. In the second half,
there was annual GDP growth of 2 per cent;
in the Nineties, 5 per cent."
D. J. McGuire
calls the Reagan Central American policy
"the greatest and least known success in recent American geopolitical history".
How Reagan brought freedom to Central and South America after 1980.
Trends in freedom in North (includes Central) and South America, 1946-2007.
From the Polity IV Project.
Red = Autocracy.
Black = "Anocracy" (a state with weak or non-existent central authority).
Blue = Democracy.
Cuba is the only remaining autocracy, according to them.
Chavez' law against criticism of his regime:
"Anyone who offends with his words or in writing or in any other way
disrespects the President of the Republic
or whomever is fulfilling his duties will be punished with prison of 6 to 30 months
if the offense is serious and half of that if it is light."
Hugo Chavez quotes Noam Chomsky.
Left-wing dictator-coddlers all over the world love him.
"We're gratified to know
many of the same left-wingers who denounce us as "McCarthyites"
support a modern practitioner of the blacklist,
that much of the "peace movement" supports a pro-terror militarist,
and that the voices of "dissent" cheer heartily for an advocate of censorship and repression."
"Chavez's Marxist economics have led Venezuela down the well-trod path to poverty.
The nation is rated "repressed" and ranked 152"
[out of 156 countries]
"in this year's
"Index of Economic Freedom",
saddling the Venezuelan people with a miserable
- 9.4 percent GDP contraction."
As at 2006, only Zimbabwe, Burma, Iran and North Korea have less free economies.
Even Cuba is freer.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
(2003).
Pro-Chavez film by Irish lefties
Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain.
The Venezuelan regime loves this film.
X-Ray of a Lie (2004).
Venezuelan dissident response to the above.
Evo Morales,
anti-American
idiot
President of Bolivia.
Morales describes Castro and Chávez as
"the commanders of the forces for the liberation of the Americas and the world".
Hugo Chavez talks about Bush like a drunk 14 year old.
Search for more:
Try here.
Are all dictators this stupid?
Compare this ignorant thug
with the soaring idealism, intelligence and eloquence
of President Bush.
Venezuelan dissident response to the above.
Since 1995.
